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Identity And Politics

By Swati Roy

04 November, 2009
Countercurrents.org

While Bal Thackeray might be disappointed with his ‘Marathi Manoos’ as identity politics took a backseat in the Maharashtra Assembly elections 2009, that it has been evaded would be far from truth. Identity comes into foreplay comfortably un-debated in our day-to-day lives, more often than not where unnecessary. However, when it’s a question of much needed affirmative action/positive discrimination, it’s debated over and over again since ages and continues to be ‘controversial -questioning merit and elitist trend!’.

Let me state some instances of this I came across through news reports and personal experiences.

A young man finds it difficult in the Nation’s Capital to find a house. That he is a Kashmiri Muslim, may not be a reason good enough for him to not be rented a house. So there are people who frankly tell him that they do not rent a house to Kashmiri terrorists.

Two of my friends were pulled out of a queue outside a venue where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi was to address the public. The reason- they were Muslims. Why, they were even sent to the police station and had it not been for the professors, they would have to spend a night there. Certainly in India, there’s plenty in a name!!

Some of my hostel-mates from the northeast states of India, (while I was in college) soon shifted to hostel where they said they had their “own people”. By own people, they meant people from their own states, those they could identify with. This shouldn’t be surprising when there are plenty of us ‘normal looking Indians’ wondering at their Mongoloid features, treating them as belonging to some other country altogether and categorizing them as ‘Chinkies’. All this, while we patriotic Indians make it a point to stand up for the National Anthem believing that all of us are a part of the largest democracy of the world.

While submitting the admission form at a prestigious college, I was taken aback when the lady collecting it checked the details, and in spite of there being no instruction/ space/question related to my marital status whatsoever, asked me to mention MARRIED and specified further to do so in block letters, on the very front page of the form. I had mentioned my husband’s name where they required me to mention my immediate contact in the city and his relation to me. But how is my status as a married/single/divorcee going to affect the admission procedures, when there is a test to help for the same?

In fact, the format of a form anywhere, is reflective of how superficial identities are placed much above the individuals. While they ask us for our caste, religion and everything else, they categorize the entire human species as male and female. There is absolutely no place for the third gender, forget the others. A gender test, innovated perhaps by people with a medical block, fails to recognize anyone not male or female. And there by fails anyone with deviating even slightly from what the test can take. So anyone beyond a male or a female structure is simply non-existent!

The 800m World Athletic Champion- South African Caster Semenya (18), awaits the result of the Gender Test she had to take, when her physical features raised doubts about her sex. S Santhi, our very own athlete had to return the Silver Olympic medal on failing the Gender Test in 2006. There have been several such cases before. So if someone does not qualify as a female or male in black and white as per a gender test, examples of which are many, shouldn’t there be space for them?

We in India have a lot of British legacies. One of them is Criminal Tribes Act 1871, which notified several tribes, such as the Pardhis of Maharashtra, as criminals. In 1952, these tribes were denotified. However, they still are an easy prey for policemen and bear the stigma of being criminals.

Identity helps us connect us with ourselves, with others. But there is a problem when we thrust identities upon people and tie them up with it, instead of respecting and giving space to it. There is a problem when identity supersedes the individual and we judge people at a superficial level. That’s when most of the clashes/riots and in fact, partitions have happened. That’s the question that makes minorities/weaker section of the society feel discriminated.

Swati Roy is a freelance journalist based in Mumbai. She blogs at www.swatiroy.wordpress.com She can be reached at [email protected]



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