‘I’ in “Identity”!

This world of ours is a firm believer of identifications

The moment a baby is born he/she is given plenty of labels in the name of identity like- gender, skin colour, country of belonging, parents name etc. Then sadly rest of his/her life is spend confirming or in some cases denying these identities. This led me into thinking that exactly how much of “I” is really present in our identity.

The question of belonging to a geographical space is of primal importance for any individual, more so in this contemporary world of ours. We are identified with respect to our country of origin which in turn suggests our physical attributes and the issue of skin colour arises from here which more or less even today divides the world into two groups. Owing to the deep-rooted post-colonial beliefs, ‘us vs them’ will always be present in this world of ours, where the white skin people the “us” category will always be considered as intellectually and physically superior to the “them”, i.e. the brown and dark skinned group, which is why the skin colour of the former president of the USA was seen as a revolutionary thing all over and after the recent presidential election of USA, we saw lines such as- ” ..for the first time a white president will occupy the White House after being vacated by the former black president…”. I could not stop wondering reading these lines as to why skin colour is given so much importance in one’s identity?. The exploitation of the dark skinned citizens in the developed nations of the world is not unknown to the world. In countries like Canada, Australia, USA the aboriginals who are of a different skin tone and do not belong to the mainstream white society still lead very difficult lives owing to the tremendous restrictions that they face as the marginal ‘other’ in their own land. Fair skin is an obsession and seen as the most important factor to consider someone as beautiful in south east asian countries like India, Bangladesh etc. Fairness creams are very popular here and are endorsed widely by famous Bollywood stars. Hence we see how identity is deeply related to the skin tone of any individual, if you are fair then most probably this world will show you more acceptance than someone with a darker skin tone. It will be very confusing for a dark skinned child to understand why he/ she is not seen with the same admiration that fair child usually gets. We associate beautiful with fair skin more often than not.

Then, belonging to a particular geographical space that we term as country is of tremendous importance. Although owing to globalisation and immigration, mobility of the common people have increased to a great extent and very often people make transnational movements for their overall betterment. Many times people who immigrate to other nations take up citizenships and settle in that host country. But can we really deny our country of origin? I guess not. Many people of my country, i.e, India, when they move to a more developed country and take their citizenship, they usually tend to ignore their motherland and try to integrate fully with the new space. Integration is good no doubt, but can they truly belong to that space? I have a friend who is doing very well in USA and is happily an US citizen, but I have heard him saying quite often that even though legally he is an American but most of the days he is reminded that he is an Indian- American, and not only an American. So, here hyphenated identity has become his true identity although he tries his best to assimilate fully to the mainstream American society. In some other cases we see how one clings to one’s identity more when he/she goes to a new country, they create their own comfortable sphere and refuses to assimilate which leads to more complications and sometimes does harm to the host country. Hence we see how the identity of a person becomes synonymous with his country of origin. We usually, more in today’s world want to cling to our identity as a citizen of a particular country rather than being labelled as a global citizen.

Likewise, Religion is another important part of our identity. No doubt belonging to a particular religion has its own positives and also negatives but it has become the only marker of identity in many cases. We tend to judge people based on their religion and give less importance to humanity. Many people are being killed in the name of religion. Often we see people belonging to a certain religious faith with suspicion and sometimes with hatred. We spend less time to identify the real person and rather only judge him/ her solely based on religion.

Then comes other parameters of identification like economic and social status, in some countries caste, education etc.

Hence the moment we are born, we are labelled with layers with identity and in the midst of all such identities, I believe, we tend to lose our own self, or rather we are not given any chance to recognise ourselves. As a social entity, we try to ‘fit in’, belong and we spend less time to listen to our own mind, and simply follow and try to lead our lives as per the labels of social identity. How much of ‘I’ is then really is in our ‘identity’? A very important question. Do we really have any ‘I’ in identity or leading lives as per social standards has made all of us only social puppets? Perhaps that’s why Shakespeare said, “All the world’s a stage, And all the men and women merely players”. We all act our parts in society as per our given social identity, rather than listening to our mind, as to where we want to belong. What ‘I’ like, love to do, how I want to spend my life should be based on my preferences and not merely following the society blindly.

Be Who YOU Are…

Identity is as important as our existence, hence we should all try to add more of “I” in our identity to have a better and happy life.

I would like to end my write up with one quote that I love- ” Your identity is your most valuable possession. Protect it”- Elastigiri, The Incredibles.