Should i call this identity?
This is something that i've been thinking about for a long time and when i say that i dont mean a few hours or a few days but it is something which has always 'bothered' me, let's say, for the lack of a better word. Through this post, i will try and sort it out as much as i can or as less as i must.
Our names are a mark of our identity. At times, they are the only thing that identify us. In any case, they are the first things that act as identification. What do you learn from a name? And i will stick to Indian names only. Many people can tell you your religion and also your caste from your name. I've never been good at doing that and that i think has somewhere worked to my disadvantage, where family expectations are concerned.
Religion, regions, communities, castes - i like to believe that these are nothing but systems of classification, of organizing. And that is how they began at least.
Religion - i like the flower and believe in it. X draws power from the water and believes in it. B believes it is in the air. C thinks it is in the stone. All of us therefore belong to different categories, as mundane as the way files are 'filed' away following a type of classification. For me, the flower becomes my religion and there are some others who become flower-followers and so belong to that religion. Anything that makes me believe in a supreme force of creation or destruction becomes my religion. It is that simple. Classification.
Regions - I and some others like me live in region 123 and practice farming. We develop our own way of living around the farm and plants and trees. And it becomes a way of life for me. Similarly, there are X, Y, and Z who live in region 789 and practice fishing. They begin to devote their lives to water and water organisms. Their rituals are centered around that main occupation and region. Again, a type of organization
Castes - This one many of us know of and it has always been explained in the light of one of the most ancient ways of classifying society as per the work that one does. The four castes are divisions on the basis of the type of work one group does. All this division is to make society work like a well-oiled machine. All kinds of work are complementary to each other. While it is important to farm, it is equally important to know what can have a bad effect on these plants and take the steps to eradicate any plant diseases. Again, it is important to know how to cook these farm produce...To get to the point, all kinds of work are important to get the society going. And that was the base of the caste division.
Cut to apartheid, fascism, untouchablity, communalism, casteism, regionalism...how and what brought these across? How did one human being start thinking that just because the color of their skin was a shade paler, they were superior? What were these people thinking? And if it was just one person's idea, what made such thoughts so powerful so as to destroy so many? How could people do this? I cannot even think that these were people like you and me...and believe me, they were. Very much people like you and me with the same number of eyes and ears and bones. So why?
The Fascists chose the concept of a 'pure' superior race. And inflicted some of the world's most and ever horrifying type of injuries on a whole group. A nation destroyed, a humankind devastated. Why did we forget that these were just small systems of classification so that life, society, would be just more organized?
You are a Punjabi, I'm an Oriya. FGH is a Madrasi. RST is a Marathi. All these people are from the same country. All these divisions are merely identification marks, simple folder or file names and nothing more. So why do they act as differentiators in the most negative sense of the word. Why do we 'play' this difference against each other? Why is it such a big deal to be friendly with a Punjabi (a region), a Muslim (a religion), a Kshatriya (a caste)? Why can't different categories live together and in peace...I'm not talking about an ideal world where there are absolutely no arguments. No. Arguments, if anything, are healthy till the time they turn ugly and become weapons to kill and destroy.
PQR grows up and reads and learns about the horrors wrought throughout centuries in the name of 'differences' - white, black, brown, farmer, hunter, flower-believer, earth-worshiper, educated teacher, humble sweeper. Yet when it is time to make a crucial decision, this educated PQR falls back into the trap of mistaking classification as boundaries that cannot be crossed. Yet again, rise the voice of the perpetrators of difference...us against them always. Forever. No matter how heinous he/she think apartheid and fascism was, he/she is bound again into hindu, muslim, brahmin, vaishya, and so on and so forth.
This what i'm about to write next might sound melodramatic but it is the only truth - all of us are equal. We are all human beings first and human beings last. You want proof of that? Remember the blood that flows out of a small cut or from a gunshot is always red...the sole identifier that all are equal. Yet we forget this one small (?) and simple truth - we are all human beings with the same life blood in each one of us. So why do we continue with increasing the gap, creating boundaries, killing humankind?
PS: I don't know if this offends any sensibilities; its not meant to and if it does, i do hope it makes you think. I have not been able to put in all my thoughts into words here but i've tried...
Our names are a mark of our identity. At times, they are the only thing that identify us. In any case, they are the first things that act as identification. What do you learn from a name? And i will stick to Indian names only. Many people can tell you your religion and also your caste from your name. I've never been good at doing that and that i think has somewhere worked to my disadvantage, where family expectations are concerned.
Religion, regions, communities, castes - i like to believe that these are nothing but systems of classification, of organizing. And that is how they began at least.
Religion - i like the flower and believe in it. X draws power from the water and believes in it. B believes it is in the air. C thinks it is in the stone. All of us therefore belong to different categories, as mundane as the way files are 'filed' away following a type of classification. For me, the flower becomes my religion and there are some others who become flower-followers and so belong to that religion. Anything that makes me believe in a supreme force of creation or destruction becomes my religion. It is that simple. Classification.
Regions - I and some others like me live in region 123 and practice farming. We develop our own way of living around the farm and plants and trees. And it becomes a way of life for me. Similarly, there are X, Y, and Z who live in region 789 and practice fishing. They begin to devote their lives to water and water organisms. Their rituals are centered around that main occupation and region. Again, a type of organization
Castes - This one many of us know of and it has always been explained in the light of one of the most ancient ways of classifying society as per the work that one does. The four castes are divisions on the basis of the type of work one group does. All this division is to make society work like a well-oiled machine. All kinds of work are complementary to each other. While it is important to farm, it is equally important to know what can have a bad effect on these plants and take the steps to eradicate any plant diseases. Again, it is important to know how to cook these farm produce...To get to the point, all kinds of work are important to get the society going. And that was the base of the caste division.
Cut to apartheid, fascism, untouchablity, communalism, casteism, regionalism...how and what brought these across? How did one human being start thinking that just because the color of their skin was a shade paler, they were superior? What were these people thinking? And if it was just one person's idea, what made such thoughts so powerful so as to destroy so many? How could people do this? I cannot even think that these were people like you and me...and believe me, they were. Very much people like you and me with the same number of eyes and ears and bones. So why?
The Fascists chose the concept of a 'pure' superior race. And inflicted some of the world's most and ever horrifying type of injuries on a whole group. A nation destroyed, a humankind devastated. Why did we forget that these were just small systems of classification so that life, society, would be just more organized?
You are a Punjabi, I'm an Oriya. FGH is a Madrasi. RST is a Marathi. All these people are from the same country. All these divisions are merely identification marks, simple folder or file names and nothing more. So why do they act as differentiators in the most negative sense of the word. Why do we 'play' this difference against each other? Why is it such a big deal to be friendly with a Punjabi (a region), a Muslim (a religion), a Kshatriya (a caste)? Why can't different categories live together and in peace...I'm not talking about an ideal world where there are absolutely no arguments. No. Arguments, if anything, are healthy till the time they turn ugly and become weapons to kill and destroy.
PQR grows up and reads and learns about the horrors wrought throughout centuries in the name of 'differences' - white, black, brown, farmer, hunter, flower-believer, earth-worshiper, educated teacher, humble sweeper. Yet when it is time to make a crucial decision, this educated PQR falls back into the trap of mistaking classification as boundaries that cannot be crossed. Yet again, rise the voice of the perpetrators of difference...us against them always. Forever. No matter how heinous he/she think apartheid and fascism was, he/she is bound again into hindu, muslim, brahmin, vaishya, and so on and so forth.
This what i'm about to write next might sound melodramatic but it is the only truth - all of us are equal. We are all human beings first and human beings last. You want proof of that? Remember the blood that flows out of a small cut or from a gunshot is always red...the sole identifier that all are equal. Yet we forget this one small (?) and simple truth - we are all human beings with the same life blood in each one of us. So why do we continue with increasing the gap, creating boundaries, killing humankind?
PS: I don't know if this offends any sensibilities; its not meant to and if it does, i do hope it makes you think. I have not been able to put in all my thoughts into words here but i've tried...
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Cheers,
Mahima