Is it propaganda or politics? What it is, I’ve never understood, but this I know: whenever I mention I was raised in a western UP Jat family, people are shocked. “You are not like a Jat!”, “How can you be from western UP?” they say. I tell them, you really don’t know how liberal the Muzaffarnagar we grew up in was.

And what can I say of people whom I met after I married a Saiyyad Muslim? On the one hand were those for whom my birth identity did not fit their stereotype. It wasn’t the caste they had issues with. It is what they associated with the region—of Jats being ‘rough’ and ‘quick-tempered’. I should add that they also considered Jats ‘honest’.

My manner, my education, my interests were a shock for most Muslims. They could not believe there could be a Jat who was dignified, who could read, write and think. There were even some Muslims I met along the way who believed I had been “rescued” from Hindus. What can I say about them? Truth is, the environment of my...