The Times of India
December 25, 2003
Outsider as 'Other' | Politics of Identity and Exclusion
ANURADHA M CHENOY
[ WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 24, 2003 12:00:00 AM ]
Two hundred years ago, Immanuel Kant wrote that "we are unavoidably side by side". This, however, has not prevented communities from continuously constructing new "outsiders". Sometimes the outsiders belong to another religion, on other occasions to another ethnicity, region or caste. Once an outsider versus the insider mindset is created, it keeps excluding other groups while forcibly homogenising itself.
The outsiders and insiders are then seen as possessing only specific and singular identity characteristics even though no one has just one identity. For instance, one may be a mother, a doctor, a tribal, a Christian, a Bihari, an Indian all simultaneously. But it is only her ethnic or religious identity that becomes primary in such group identification. All other identities are devalued with the purpose of valorising a specific identity over the others for the purpose of group formation.
These kinds of identity demarcations create categories of citizens that are subject to various exclusions that range from social and economic boycott, ghettoisation of communities to humiliation, ethnic cleansing and genocide. This is because of the belief that those outside the group become the ‘other’, who is perceived as threats and are thus subject to violation or savagery.
Such identity construction is quite different from how identities are actually formed. Identity formation is never a unilinear affair that develops in splendid isolation. But, on the contrary, it is influenced by multiple currents that are full of exchanges, interchanges and cross-fertilisation but rarely stationary, isolated or unchanging.
There are, however, forces that are keenly interested in retaining the myth of purity of identity formation because identity politics is the easiest method of political mobilisation and can be used to construct a particular kind of nationalism. For such mobilisation, the myth of identity threats are transformed into violence through a variety of complex mechanisms. This is used as a diversion from other issues like a troubled economy or structural unemployment. Identity politics and the assertions of cultural nationalism are used to ride the wave of popular mobilisation for electoral purpose and the capture of power. Instances of caste, communal and now ethnic violence shows how communities discriminate and are violent against the other.
The political formations behind the recent "sons of the soil" clashes in Assam and Maharashtra are proponents of identity-based politics. The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) that is fanning the anti- Bihari sentiment leaving many dead and thousands homeless rose to fame on the basis of mobilising Assamese nationalism for a 'swadhin Asom' movement three decades ago, against the entry of Bangladeshi mig-rants as also other non-Assamese settlers.
When the ULFA attacked the symbols of the Indian state, they were considered insurgents and banned. Many of its leaders sought refuge in Bangladesh, whereupon they began praising Bangladesh, migrants and all. The ULFA lost out on public sympathy because of its double standards and because it indulged in extortion and violence. Mobilising against the Biharis on the pretext of railway jobs is a method to reinstate themselves in the public view as "Asom's boys” and re-establish a cultural nationalism of the local variety.
Similarly, the Shiv Sena known primarily for its anti-outsider movements in Mumbai claims to be part of the Hindutva brigade which for them is the binding factor of Hindu nationalism. Hindutva itself is an exclusionary construction, bent on keeping out all non-Hindus from the image of a Hindu nation. The Shiv Sena is now pitted against Hindus from other states, that they were so keen on homogenising against the Muslims. The Sena leadership has led ruthless attacks on poor Indians (Hindus for them) and openly declared that they would not allow outside job-seekers into the state. This establishes that the concept of a Hindu majority is an imaginary construct and that pluralities within that religion and between ethnic groups need to be accepted and respected to ensure the survival of this plural heri-tage. A nationalism based on self assertion denies human rights and even democracy.
The BJP-led NDA has had little comment on these projects that seek to revive regional chauvinism except to restore law and order and postpone railway jobs. This is a method of keeping the problem under wraps until it emerges again, rather than confronting, contesting and rejecting it as an unacceptable ideology, one that will do massive harm to the fabric of the Indian multi-ethnic state.
The statistics that have emerged in the case of railway jobs establish the extent of unemployment in comparison to the availability of jobs. It reveals that the euphoria around the high growth and GDP figures is based on quicksand and that the image of India as an emerging power is one with feet of clay. Further, when policies that vastly increase the differences between the rich and poor are in place, the theoretical and political practice of the politics of identity and exclusion will become commonplace.
A liberal, secular and national project in the current era can be installed primarily where there is a humane state and civil society. One that ensures that India is a space for all its citizens equally. That access is not denied on the grounds of religion, caste or region. It is only when these exclusions are removed that a national, humane and democratic project is ensured.
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