The recent incidents in Assam and its consequent sparks in the rest of the country has set me thinking. Why is it that we are riddled with such divisive elements? What drives human behavior at such times? How do people find within themselves the fire to extinguish another life - that too of the same species?
While there are a lot of drivers quoted in popular media such as 'foreign hand', communal forces, illiteracy, poverty, immigration etc., I think these are shallow reasons given by lazy thinking. A deeper analysis will reveal that we are driven by our context for life. And this context is shaped by our identity.
Identity is a funny thing. Most people don't see their identity as being different from them. It is like water to a fish - it doesn't know of a world beyond! This happens because in life, the unexplored, un-investigated and unstated, typically runs us.
Let us go back to the time when we were born. Who were we? A human baby. The only thing that we were born with was the tag of our species - human beings. And the other thing was our gender - that too because it is so physically evident!
Slowly, we came to realize that we were Hindu or Muslim, Rich or Poor, Indian or Pakistani, Brahman or Dalit, North Indian or South Indian, Tamil or Telugu - these are identities that come with the parents we are born too. They don't appear as choices because we never explore them - in fact they come as inheritances. But if we think deeper, they don't have to be. So religion, economic status, nationality, caste, region and language are not embedded within us - they are clothes we wear AFTER taking birth. And the more we insist on our right to choose these vs. accepting what is inherited, the more we will be free of it.
As we grow, we assume other identities - Engineer vs. doctor, executive vs entrepreneur, private vs public, graduate vs post graduate vs doctorate, maid vs master. As our family grows, we become friend, beloved, husband, wife, father, mother, uncle, aunt, grandfather, grandmother and host of other relationships.
And slowly from an infinite possibility at birth, we become a defined identity that is wrapped in its definitions and limits. Each identity that we take on, limits us as it defines us. While it makes us more of something, it also makes us less of something else. And this constant reduction in our span of possibility makes me what I finally call myself - An upper caste North Indian Punjabi post graduate Hindu Indian CEO who is father of 2 children.
And to think that I was born a human male - just that!
If we get in touch with who we truly are - human beings - don't you think the conflict that's dividing us everyday can disappear?
5 comments:
Hi Sumeet...Your hypothesis seems to be that identity causes conflict or violence. And various identities (and you could extend this to the various roles that we play as well) are taken on during the course of our lives as we grow up. However, if this was the prime cause then you could see less conflict within identities should be less than across identities. Essentially, shouldn't we see within-group should see less conflict than across-group conflict? It makes me think that there must be some other factor(s) that causes this conflict. To me, conflict is an act of violence. So we need to understand the cause of violence. In my understanding, we attach a lot of meaning to the roles we perform and the identities we take on. It is the threat to this meaning we feel fearful. When we fear something, we respond with violence and aggression. Anger being the most typical form of violence. Even if it is a harsh word it is a form of aggression and therefore violent. So to me, it is fear of a perceived threat that causes the violence. And unless we understand this fear and accept that fear in ourselves and the conditioning of the mind that causes this fear to arise, we will continue to be violent.
Hi Anand....I agree with you that threat causes fear and this leads to violence. The extension to this line is: threat to whom? Like you mentioned it is the threat to our identity that causes fear. If our identity was 'nothingness' or 'humanity', then there would be little threat. The distinction of 'self' vs 'identity' is an important one. There is no threat to self. But there is threat to identity.
Same same but different :)
I agree, in principle. But I think the difference is that having an identity per se does not give rise to the fear-threat-violence circuit. It is the meaning and attached value to that identity that causes this circuit to get activated. If our conditioning somehow stops the meaning being attached, in my view the violence will stop. Makes sense?
In my experience identity arises because there is meaning attached to it. It is 2 side of the same coin. But if seeing it this way makes sense to you, then it works for me
Well said! You are turning into a philosopher, my friend :)
Sandeep Singhal
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