Identity
How the people in Suriname identify varies from person to person and how each of these many identities is defined again varies greatly. Some of the more common ways to identify in Suriname are in terms of ethnicity, religion, and politics. However, even the ethnicity of the people varies greatly. For example, many of the ethnic Indians are from dozens, if not hundreds of ethnic Indian groups who practice various religions and these people may be from different castes as well, but in Suriname they are often grouped together first as Indian Surinamese then secondly by their individual religion, caste, region of origin, etc.
Despite the huge diversity in terms of identity in Suriname, there are also many similarities from one group to the next and almost all of the people of Suriname recognize that their similarities with each other are just as strong, if not stronger, than their links and similarities to distant relatives in Europe, Africa, India, or Indonesia. Today all of the people have influenced the others, making them all culturally closer; likewise English has become the language of communication across groups and this shared language again ties the people together no matter their differences in ethnicity, religion, etc.
Today these similarities unite the people in terms of identity as well as most people identify, to some degree, with being Surinamese. Few people see this as their first identity, but nearly everyone claims to be Surinamese as they recognize they are not wholly African, Indian, European, or Indonesian, but a distinct form of these cultures. The term "Surinamese" is generally defined in political terms as everyone who is a citizen of Suriname is included in this definition.