Inayat Bunglawala was born in northwest England, speaks English as his native language and only once visited his ancestral homeland, India.
That makes him bridle at a proposal being floated in the government to start calling him Indian-British to strengthen his bond to Britain.
The idea "simply makes no sense," the 36-year-old said. "I am 100 percent British."
The British government is discussing a variety of ways to improve community cohesion after last month's bombing attacks, and it wasn't clear in what ways such a label might be used. But minority groups slammed the very idea that they need a new identity label to tie them closer to the only country many of them know as home.
American style
Hazel Blears, a senior minister in the Home Office, said that one idea on the table was adopting American-style hyphenated identities such as Pakistani-British or Indian-British, rather than simply Muslim or Asian as many -- even second-generation Britons -- are known as now.
"In America, they do seem to have the idea that you're an Italian-American, or you're Irish-American, and that's quite interes-ting," Blears was quoted as telling the Times of London. "I think it's really important, if you want a society that is really welded together, there are certain things that unite us because you are British, but you can be a bit different too."
Many in the government believe a feeling of isolation among some immigrant communities in Britain has made them a fertile breeding ground for radicalism.
Three of the four suicide bombers in the July 7 attack were British of Pakistani descent, and the fourth moved to Britain from Jamaica. Three of the four suspected attackers in the failed July 21 attacks were originally from East Africa but were living legally in Britain.
Britain has long struggled with the idea of what it means to be British, a problem that grew more acute after waves of immigrants began arriving a generation ago from former British colonies in the Caribbean and Southeast Asia.
`cricket test'
Former Conservative Party lawmaker Norman Tebbitt sparked wide criticism when he declared in 1990 that the "cricket test" -- observing what teams Britons support in a game widely popular at home and in former British colonies -- was a good way to determine where true loyalties lie.
More than a decade later, Britain is still skirting around an issue that many consider taboo.
But on Monday, minority groups criticized the idea.
"What is being proposed is divisive ... it would create a lower strata of British," said Manzoor Moghal, chairman of the Muslim Forum. "It gives people labels and dilutes their citizenship compared to original, white British people. It is not helpful in creating the togetherness that they have been talking about."
He said he was afraid it could become "official and permanent," and could even find its way onto proposed identity cards that Prime Minister Tony Blair has pushed for as a way to combat terrorism and crime.
Doug Jewell, spokesman for the civil rights group, Liberty, said the group was reserving judgment while it examined Blears' comments.
"It could be a way of recognizing the shared values that we have as a society or it could be a way of branding people," he said.
Bunglawala, a member of the Muslim Council of Britain, said he wouldn't object to a faith-based identifier as opposed to an ethnic one, noting that much of Britain's 1.8 million strong Muslim community was born in the UK.
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