Whither national identity: Mono-culture subsumes all other identities

By Jaspal Singh,

Liberalism forces one into adopting a uni-dimensional mode of being and identity. So your national identity, which was very crucial for bourgeoisie in Europe to establish in opposition to monarchy, was to subsume all other identities. Bourgeoisie wanted undivided loyalty to the nation and not to the king or church as was the case earlier, so it had to privilege nation and national identity and demanded that all other identities be subsumed under it. It allowed the ruling bourgeois elite to monopolize and control all the natural and human resources of a particular area.


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In South Asia, this is not the case. For example, in Punjab, there is multi-dimensional mode of being. No single identity subsumes any other identities such as those of pind, jaat, panth, mazhab, tribe, gender, class, language etc. As the Punjabi consciousness and composite culture evolve, other identities remain as well. There is no indigenous force that arose, which claimed to subsume all other identities. Under the influence of liberalism, attempts were and are being made to claim that nationalism or religion subsumes all other identities, but it has not worked. It cannot work.


Sushma Swaraj
All political parties want to impose a uni-dimensional mode of being and identity on the people of India and force a mono-culture. So there is a lot of talk about national language, national book, national religion, national security etc. (Photo by Mudassir Rizwan)

To subsume other identities by either one of them is artificial and liberal imposition on Punjabi social reality and compresses this multi-dimensional mode of being. Wali Khan put it quite well recently saying, “I have been a citizen of Pakistan for 66 years, Muslim for 1400 years and Pathan for 5000 years.”

Punjabis are Punjabis, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jats, Pathans, Khatris. Chuhras, Chamars, Mirasis, Syeds, landlords, peasants, landless, workers and capitalists. All these identities exist simultaneously. They are not created by British or colonialism as claimed by some. They are part of the social evolution of the land, which came to be known as Punjab amongst many other names at different times.

All of these identities are products of conditions – Desh-Kaal – and thus are constructed. They are all products of a communal patriarchal village system where agriculture is the mainstay and subsistence farming is the basis of this village and interdependence of producers, artisans, teachers and fighters and is reproduced by the village seemingly in a timeless manner. New conditions, new Desh–Kaal gives rise to new identities as they did in the past. All formations are historic and transitory.

Nanak and others pointed out that none of these identities are decisive for enlightenment or authentic existence, or they are equally irrelevant for enlightenment and authentic human existence, and they can be in the way of such enlightenment. Nanak proclaimed all are humans – neither Hindu, Muslim nor Turk, Hindi, Brahmin or Sudra. Waris Shah points out – Jehrda Zaat Watan Wal Dhyan Devey, Duniadar Hai Oh Darvesh Keha – anyone who goes by caste or place of birth is deluded.

Nanak also points out that one can change these identities, they are not fixed or ontological as some Brahmins and Mullahs were claiming. Nanak himself changed his identity many times. Sometimes he appeared as a Jogi, sometime as a Peer and sometimes as a Guru. In this regard, bhaktas and Sufis are continuing an earlier debate in Punjabi thought on Janam Pradhan and Karam Pradhan.

Proponents of Janam Pradhan argue that one is born into an identity fixed for ever, thus a Brahmin is one by birth, Sudra is so for all times to come. The followers of Karam Pradhan argue that one becomes Brahmin by one’s deeds, Karams and actions and not by birth. Thus one can and does become Brahmin, Kshatriy, Vaish or Sudra by one’s actions.

Now-a-days, all political parties, communalists and secularists, all want to impose a uni-dimensional mode of being and identity on the people of India and force a mono-culture. So there is a lot of talk about national language, national book, national religion, national security etc.

All of it is a ploy by the ruling elite to steal all the resources of peoples of India, under the guise of ‘national development’. It is a rouse to fill the coffers of Tatas, Birlas, Adanis, Ambanis and others at the expense of all the people. Any challenge to this loot is presented as challenge to the national development. Just a couple of days ago, Priyanka Pillai, a campaigner for green peace was off loaded from a plane to stop her from going to London to participate in a conference, as she has been opposing this loot by the ruling elite. She and her organization and many others are being branded as against ‘national development’. But those who have eyes to see and ears to hear, see and hear and are increasingly seeing through these deceptions.

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(Jaspal Singh is a philosopher based in Cambridge, Massachusetts)

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