I havr to disagree on the "poorly written telenovellas" bit.
Indian telenovellas (also dubbed Turkish telenovellas for some reason) are big business in South Africa in part because we have a pretty large "indian" population and the stories are culturally relatable to Africans unsurprisingly: evil Mother-in-law and sister-in-law battle with resilient wife, clever wife managing a falling household, struggles with pregnancy, etc...theres a market there that locally priduced content cannot fill due to the local industry being thoroughly underfunded.
The quotes are because can they really be called Indian if they have been there for 4+ generations or are they just South Africans. The whites there are not Dutch. The Central Africans that came a few generations ago are not Congolese etc.
It can go either way, really. No one's opinions matter here unless its the majority. When that is determined, that is what they are. Not even the people in question can declare it for themselves.
I would argue you are more your lineage than your nationality. See how we track various groups migration across the world, thousands of miles, thousands of years, with no problem.
But at the same time, I don't consider myself very aligned with my own lineage, and I describe myself as 100% "American". But, given enough time, if my bones were to be put on display a few hundred years from now, with all written record of me being lost, I would probably be referred to as something a bit different than what I declare as myself.
Sounds like a lot of Marc Cherry's tv shows (Desperate Housewives, Devious Maids, Why Women Kill). That kind of stuff is excellent tv! Too bad it's not big business in the west.
Indian telenovellas (also dubbed Turkish telenovellas for some reason) are big business in South Africa in part because we have a pretty large "indian" population and the stories are culturally relatable to Africans unsurprisingly: evil Mother-in-law and sister-in-law battle with resilient wife, clever wife managing a falling household, struggles with pregnancy, etc...theres a market there that locally priduced content cannot fill due to the local industry being thoroughly underfunded.