Obsession with Identities
Going by what's happeneing to me, computer can well be the cause of my death. But that does not seem to stop me from sitting in front of it. My work is predominantly in front of computers. I spend 8 hours (not really) of my weekdays in front of it. And I have seen the effects of it in my eyes. But when I am bored I find no other option. All I have now to read is a translation of Alif laylah wa Laylah in English by Francis Burton which does not seem to interest me at the moment. Its so huge and the stories though interesting, dont seem to interest me at the moment. I seem to have wierd choices. I like reading certain kinds of books at certain times. From the most divine and sublime to the cheapest. Maybe that is the case with everyone. But there is a time for everything and this is not the time for Arabian Nights. So I am here, yet again in front of the computer on a day when my profession does not really force me to sit in front of it.
Well, what shall I write? This is my second attempt at posting today. First I thought I shall write about Christmas. I wrote some 200 words on my views about Christmas. Then I deleted it completely. Reason - The tone was not very good. It sounded anti-some community (Though it was not). I thought I better sound secular. So, here I write about the confusions that a human being undergoes in establishing an identity for himself. How the struggle goes on. In my view.
Do we really have confused people? people that do not know what they are? What their identity is? Not really. Many are very sure about their identity. They are locked up in their own world and refuse to come out. For them, there is no confusion. They are really blessed. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit heaven. But there is yet another kind of people who dont know what they are. Who try to establish themselves in society. They have an idea of where they should belong an try to fit in by modifying themselves. I am talking about these people.
Have I really come across someone who is not confused. The closest to such a state I have seen in one Mr. Cho. He seems to be very clear on what he is. His writing oozes with confidence. The rest for me, the people that I come across everyday are torn between various identities in a struggle to establish themselves someone. Most seem to fail in their endeavor.
Take for example the lady named Wafah Dafour. An arab. A niece of one Osama bin laden. What about her? If her uncle gets some time out of his busy schedule (He seems to be bombing all kinds of places (But is it really him. He nowadays seems more of a phantom. An idea of radical islam if not anything else), he is sure to stone her to death. She has posed semi-nude for some New York magazine, in an attempt to establish herself as part of the American dream. I am sure the americans would be soon selling real or fake nude pics of her in the markets of Baghdad in the near future. The big question is, why does she have to do all this? Why does she have to show her skin? Is it that she really likes showing it? Maybe. Maybe not. I dont think she would have dared to do this had she been in the land of the saviour of the grand mosque. Shwe wouldnt have had the need to do it. But why in the world's liberated country?
Wafah is only an example. Why does a tamil brahmin have to attend A TAMBRAS meeting? Why does he want to develop an identity for himself? Why can a person not live without an identity, apart from his own self-identity? What ails us all when we search for a communal identity? These questions pose another natural question. Is such a communal identity a natural one? I read sometime back in an orkut post that caste groupings are artificial groupings that are a disease to Indian society. What exactly is artifical about that? What makes a particular communal identity natural while others natural? Specifically, why is a grouping based on language natural while a grouping based on caste or religion or nation artificial?
Any grouping of humans is natural, even if it is induced by humans and is based on fiction. An Aryan-Dravidian separation might be fictional. Indians of the past would have never seen it that way. But the anti-brahminism of tamil nadu and many other parts of India is now a part of the Indian fabric. It is as natural as any caste grouping. Same is the linguistic grouping. It might be true that tamil literature is richer than kannada literature. It could be also true that tamil is older than kannada (Not really a clear statement but seems to be generally accepted as truth though I dont really accept it, partly because tamil and kannada are not clearly defined concepts and their definition is extra linguistic and beyond the scope of languages themselves). But the identity formed based on them is not based on truth. It is based on passion. And has its own significance. When some kanndigas do not want to let mother kaveri flow into tamil nadu, they have their reasons and when tamils fight for it, they have their own reasons. None wants to however listen to the voice of sanity. Why all this? Why do we not act sane in some cases? It is because these define our identities. And our identities are irrational. There is no reason why I am a hindu or why I am an Iyer. But I still am and I have no idea of leaving that fold. It gives a sense of belonging. A belonging to a society to which we want to belong. I am an Iyer because i want to be recognized as one. Not because I am one.
What would happen when identities come into conflict? A Hindu is a hindu and he wants to be one. A muslim is a muslim and he also wants to be one. But what if the two identities are at loggerheads? What happens to individual hindus and muslims? This is where confusion starts. Identities that were normal, now start aligning themselves, like the armies in a battlefield. A classic example of this is the growth of two languages of the sub-continent, hindi and urdu. Differnt communities living in the same region would have similar tongues and would also have differences peculiar to their community. A hindu speaking language X and a muslim speaking the same language X would naturally have differences. A hindu might prefer using sanskrit words in some cases while a muslim would prefer arabic and persian words in the language. This would really not be an issue in normal cases. In a thriving society, gradually the vocabularies and peculiarities may disappear with both being accepted or one replacing the other and so on. But what if in such a situation, the identities of these communities start to see themselves in conflict? What happens then?
The very difference, that was unnoticed before takes demoniac propotions. Now the languages get clear definitions. The hindu's language is one that has sanskrit words. A muslims language would have arabic and persian words. An identity conflict has resulted in a language split. The future development of the languages now take diffent directions. Hindu writers would look to sanskrit for ne words. And muslims would look towards arabic and persian. This is how hindi and urdu were born (Or this is my imagination of what could have happened). This is how the scripts also get defined. Hindi is written in devanagari while urdu gets written almost always in perso-arabic. The devanagari script has characters to write persian and arabic sounds and perso-arabic as used to write urdu has modifications to accomodate sanskrit sounds. Then why the difference? There is nothing really. Its the conflict that is extra-linguistic. Just as using "aaththukku" is now typically brahmin. No one in tamil nadu seems to know that a shaivaite saint called thirumular, born in a family of cowherds, has used that word in his work thirumanthiram.
This then is the story of identities. A mental construct, that is nevertheless very very real. A thing that defines our lives. A society in transition (read all socities at all times) will have people that are confused as to how to define themselves. There will be people who are so fluent in kannada and know no tamil, but would still call themselves tamil. There will be american educated ayatollahs in Iran. There will be British, white muslims that are ready to bomb the trains in london. This then is the funny story of our lives. This then is the identity. What am I? What are you?
Well, what shall I write? This is my second attempt at posting today. First I thought I shall write about Christmas. I wrote some 200 words on my views about Christmas. Then I deleted it completely. Reason - The tone was not very good. It sounded anti-some community (Though it was not). I thought I better sound secular. So, here I write about the confusions that a human being undergoes in establishing an identity for himself. How the struggle goes on. In my view.
Do we really have confused people? people that do not know what they are? What their identity is? Not really. Many are very sure about their identity. They are locked up in their own world and refuse to come out. For them, there is no confusion. They are really blessed. Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit heaven. But there is yet another kind of people who dont know what they are. Who try to establish themselves in society. They have an idea of where they should belong an try to fit in by modifying themselves. I am talking about these people.
Have I really come across someone who is not confused. The closest to such a state I have seen in one Mr. Cho. He seems to be very clear on what he is. His writing oozes with confidence. The rest for me, the people that I come across everyday are torn between various identities in a struggle to establish themselves someone. Most seem to fail in their endeavor.
Take for example the lady named Wafah Dafour. An arab. A niece of one Osama bin laden. What about her? If her uncle gets some time out of his busy schedule (He seems to be bombing all kinds of places (But is it really him. He nowadays seems more of a phantom. An idea of radical islam if not anything else), he is sure to stone her to death. She has posed semi-nude for some New York magazine, in an attempt to establish herself as part of the American dream. I am sure the americans would be soon selling real or fake nude pics of her in the markets of Baghdad in the near future. The big question is, why does she have to do all this? Why does she have to show her skin? Is it that she really likes showing it? Maybe. Maybe not. I dont think she would have dared to do this had she been in the land of the saviour of the grand mosque. Shwe wouldnt have had the need to do it. But why in the world's liberated country?
Wafah is only an example. Why does a tamil brahmin have to attend A TAMBRAS meeting? Why does he want to develop an identity for himself? Why can a person not live without an identity, apart from his own self-identity? What ails us all when we search for a communal identity? These questions pose another natural question. Is such a communal identity a natural one? I read sometime back in an orkut post that caste groupings are artificial groupings that are a disease to Indian society. What exactly is artifical about that? What makes a particular communal identity natural while others natural? Specifically, why is a grouping based on language natural while a grouping based on caste or religion or nation artificial?
Any grouping of humans is natural, even if it is induced by humans and is based on fiction. An Aryan-Dravidian separation might be fictional. Indians of the past would have never seen it that way. But the anti-brahminism of tamil nadu and many other parts of India is now a part of the Indian fabric. It is as natural as any caste grouping. Same is the linguistic grouping. It might be true that tamil literature is richer than kannada literature. It could be also true that tamil is older than kannada (Not really a clear statement but seems to be generally accepted as truth though I dont really accept it, partly because tamil and kannada are not clearly defined concepts and their definition is extra linguistic and beyond the scope of languages themselves). But the identity formed based on them is not based on truth. It is based on passion. And has its own significance. When some kanndigas do not want to let mother kaveri flow into tamil nadu, they have their reasons and when tamils fight for it, they have their own reasons. None wants to however listen to the voice of sanity. Why all this? Why do we not act sane in some cases? It is because these define our identities. And our identities are irrational. There is no reason why I am a hindu or why I am an Iyer. But I still am and I have no idea of leaving that fold. It gives a sense of belonging. A belonging to a society to which we want to belong. I am an Iyer because i want to be recognized as one. Not because I am one.
What would happen when identities come into conflict? A Hindu is a hindu and he wants to be one. A muslim is a muslim and he also wants to be one. But what if the two identities are at loggerheads? What happens to individual hindus and muslims? This is where confusion starts. Identities that were normal, now start aligning themselves, like the armies in a battlefield. A classic example of this is the growth of two languages of the sub-continent, hindi and urdu. Differnt communities living in the same region would have similar tongues and would also have differences peculiar to their community. A hindu speaking language X and a muslim speaking the same language X would naturally have differences. A hindu might prefer using sanskrit words in some cases while a muslim would prefer arabic and persian words in the language. This would really not be an issue in normal cases. In a thriving society, gradually the vocabularies and peculiarities may disappear with both being accepted or one replacing the other and so on. But what if in such a situation, the identities of these communities start to see themselves in conflict? What happens then?
The very difference, that was unnoticed before takes demoniac propotions. Now the languages get clear definitions. The hindu's language is one that has sanskrit words. A muslims language would have arabic and persian words. An identity conflict has resulted in a language split. The future development of the languages now take diffent directions. Hindu writers would look to sanskrit for ne words. And muslims would look towards arabic and persian. This is how hindi and urdu were born (Or this is my imagination of what could have happened). This is how the scripts also get defined. Hindi is written in devanagari while urdu gets written almost always in perso-arabic. The devanagari script has characters to write persian and arabic sounds and perso-arabic as used to write urdu has modifications to accomodate sanskrit sounds. Then why the difference? There is nothing really. Its the conflict that is extra-linguistic. Just as using "aaththukku" is now typically brahmin. No one in tamil nadu seems to know that a shaivaite saint called thirumular, born in a family of cowherds, has used that word in his work thirumanthiram.
This then is the story of identities. A mental construct, that is nevertheless very very real. A thing that defines our lives. A society in transition (read all socities at all times) will have people that are confused as to how to define themselves. There will be people who are so fluent in kannada and know no tamil, but would still call themselves tamil. There will be american educated ayatollahs in Iran. There will be British, white muslims that are ready to bomb the trains in london. This then is the funny story of our lives. This then is the identity. What am I? What are you?
3 Comments:
I think people associate themselves to certain things to be familiar, so that they can relate to things. Identity more often than not results in the formation of groups and since man is a social animal, he requires to be in a group. This group could be one of language, customs, culinary choice etc etc.
I think associating yourself with an identity is not a new concept and isnt unnatural either. Cavemen lived in tribes. Such a grouping (identity) was needed for survival. Concepts such as language, caste, religion, race are similar identities. I watch your back and you watch my back, is how each of these identities works.
However, such groupings are not harmful to its members as long as the members are equal to each other. Otherwise the powerful member will use the identity to drive up the passion of his subordinates for his own personal gain.
Very good post from you.
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