Identity Crisis

We, Indians are called so by others. But those living inside the borders of the country called India have no single identity. We have many identities especially those of us who are grouped under a religion which goes by the name of Hindu. Followers of Islam and Christianity when asked their nationality if they are living in India are likely to say they are Christians or Muslims but ask a Hindu, he will confuse you by saying he is a Jat or Yadav or Curmi or a Reddy or a Gouda or a Vanniar etc, depending on where he lives and practices his caste. For this group of so called Hindus, their caste identity is more important than his Hindu let alone his Indian identity. 

We also suffer from afflictions of language. A person is likely to identify with the language he speaks and say he is Tamil, Telgu, Punjabi, Bengali etc. Again here, the Hindu is more likely to identify himself thus than others. This love of language can take extreme forms to be downright ridiculous. Considering we have twenty or so major and some thousand minor languages this attachment further divides us. I have seen people who speak a dialect, group together and from social clubs and exclude others and take great pride in doing so. This allegiance to language and caste is not only prevalent inside the country but is exported abroad too. Where ever there are a sizeable number of Indians living, you and be sure to find Guajarati, Bengali or Punjabi Association of [Indians]

When a human being decides to associate with another human being because he or she belongs to same caste and speaks the same language and not because of qualities of head and or heart, how do you expect progress?

To a great extent the ills we in present day India are facing is because of these strong multiple loyalties which blind us to the recognition of talent in those who don’t belong.