The idealist in me says that the race and religion one is born in is not in his control. Moreover, faith is personal and one must not judge a person based on his faith and ideology. But the bitter truth of life is that a child, in most cases, is born with many identities and no matter what he thinks or does, it becomes very difficult for him to come out of that closet. You are born as Bihari/Mallu/Bong, and as Hindu/Muslim/Jew, and as Chinki/ Parsee/Pashtun/Baluch/Kashmiri (apologies for some unparliamentary terms). You may stop speaking a language, settle in an alien country, but your identities remain with you.
The situation in most cases is not very simple as more often than seldom one has several loyalties. Thus a Kashmiri can be Muslim or Pandit. Muslims in Pakistan (and many other countries) can be Shia or Sunni. They can again be Punjabi, the dominating class in that country, or Baluch minority. Thus not one but many characteristics define us. Which one loyalty is dominant, taking over others again depend on a variety of factors- situations on the ground, causes and aims. ‘Religion was effectively manipulated as a cultural marker and mobilized as a standard for ethnic exclusion of other groups with little regard to the fragile multi-ethnic tapestry’. (Alexander Mirescu of New York University).
Even in India’s struggle for freedom, scholars played on religious sentiments urging them towards extreme nationalism. Thus while Bankim Chandra Chatterjee hailed his countrymen to stand up against ‘demons’ to save Mother India, many Muslim scholars went to the extent of declaring Jihad for the cause. The ethnic cleansing by Nazis that led to Holocaust was also an extreme for of ethnic nationalism.
Ethnicity, religion, ideologies bind one into a ‘social group’ and inculcates ‘we’ feeling. It’s what Durkheim would call “collective conscience” or Marx’s “class consciousness”.
So rooted, the notion addresses the “we ness” of a group, stressing the similarities or shared attributes around which group members coalesce. People on street may deny all such studies and believe in what Mary Waters (American sociologist) calls individual’s willingness to remain closed in an identity or move out of it.
Our politicians understand the meaning of “we” factor and they exploit it to the best of their greed. Thus for years politics in north India has been dominated by Mandal and Kamandal.
I won’t pass value judgment and declare one as ‘backward thinking’ (that I am sure many in hush hush do) whose political and social identity is moulded by his ethnic, religious or cultural identity. This is something that I might not like to be, but sadly that’s how it is. And that’s how I am.
