It’s kinda funny how we always need some plank to define ourselves to the world. It’s a much compelling trail that never leaves us, irrespective of what identity one really has. So much that we get inevitably entangled in a crisis less innocuous than we really think. I’d been on a visit to the U.K and Italy last month and this impulsive need to distinguish myself on various grounds such as place of birth, cultural association, belief system, social background and even behavioral pattern has been very predominant. This distinction has not been in any self-demeaning fashion, but is a reflection of identifying what one is not when in a dissimilar society.
The more recent attacks on students in Australia has focused on the country of birth they hail, as opposed to whether these attacks were consciously intended on Indians. There are fewer people, who would give a fair chance to the notion that these attacks may not have been based on cultural lines. Rather may have resulted due to some mischief makers, more commonly called criminals, and the victims happened to be Indians amongst the many others living in not-so-high class areas of the country. I am not being defensive of Australia, but just trying to reflect on how seriously we take to our identities. If there were to have been a similar crude attack in India by uncivilized Indians then we’d treat it like an act of crime.
As one would hear more often that we live in a globalized society, it brings me to ask what does it really imply? Sometimes I wonder if globalization has truly made boundaries less significant. Ironically, I think it has made people cling on to their civilizational base more vividly in the fear of its disappearing in this laissez-faire. At every level we ascend, our identity doesn’t diminish but only takes on a form encompassing a greater homogenous society. For example if I went to Delhi, I would invariably identify myself as South Indian there. But if I with a Delhiite friend went to Japan, we’d like to identify ourselves as Indians. Further on, I with the Delhiite and Japanese friends were to go to France then we’d impulsively identify ourselves as Asians. But does this culminate under one single canopy? Is there a non-dividing homogenous society? That invokes the theory of the ‘clash of civilizations’, a concept put forward by Samuel Huntington. I’ve been reading the Huntington book and he spells out the nine civilizations in the world that stand non-overlapped and by and large conflicting. Every single day we’ve had scores of reasons to believe it. Conflicts based on ethnic lines in various parts of the world, representative of their civilizations have occurred time and again.
Having said this I would like to reiterate what I mentioned before, the identity chase is truly a greater imposing affair than we really think.
While Gordon Brown is being battered back home, the cartoonists are having a ball of a time(pun intended). Well, you must've heard of Susan Boyle, the singing sensation who got popular through the popular British Talent show 'Got Talent'. She crashed out of the show in the semifinals and suffered from what many would call, mental stress. Brown shares one other similarity with her, they hail from Scotland. This cartoon published by the Times bears a satirical joke wherein Gordon Borwn dressed as Susan Boyle(note: not the other way round) is trying to get some of her talent passed onto him, to fill in for the Labour votes as he'd have wished. Here, not Boyle but Brown uses her clout to attract votes. It's so comical how they've gotten to draw this parallel so much so that it was Brown who was the laughing stock, contrary to what would've conventionally suited Boyle as she had a nervous breakdown, after her defeat. It truly singals how his popularity has suffered the worst ever stance and how he's at immense stress. Aparently the Business Secretary standing beside him says, "People aren't voting for Susan Boyle just because she's Scottish, Gordon—she's talented and popular!" 