K. Khiuchunlungbou Newmai
If a policeman shouts at you, “Freeze! Hands at the back! Identify yourself!” Then you would surely respond as asked and tell your name, profession, place where you live failing which the consequence might be tragic. We do recall the recent shooting of a Brazilian at London, following the 7th July, 2005 underground tube stations bombing, with remorse. I would call it a sad case of basic misidentification.
Humans should be grateful to their creator for the unique individuality He has endowed to each and everyone. Take for instance, the distinctiveness of the fingerprints. No two people on earth have the same fingerprints. Such a fact calls for celebration of selfhood.
However, we do not overwhelm ourselves by the condition of being a specified person. Individuals have evolved into small or large group(s) or association for mutual benefit as suggested by the social contract theory or due to natural human tendencies for community based on the fact that an individual cannot live in isolation as counter suggested by the evolutionary theory. Aristotle supplemented rightly when he said, ‘one who can live without society is either God or beast’.
Taking these human attributes into consideration, the big picture of one’s identity, beyond one’s particularity, is “Individuality vis-à-vis society”. In a nutshell, the conceiving of one’s identity by defining one’s association with another individual or larger group(s) is a bigger contemplation and civilized way of thinking, than the traditional concept of one’s identity being the particularity of an individual. Meantime, particularity of an individual may be use for basic domestic purposes like write or receive letters, examinations, pay bills, maintain accounts, health records, driving licenses etc. where only an individual is accounted for.
Let’s examine some personalities for whom not many descriptions are necessary. Abraham Lincoln born in a log cabin in Kentucky, USA struggled his way through and brought freedom for all the slaves who were blacks brought from Africa; Mother Teresa born in Skopje, Yugoslavia, formerly Albania worked in Calcutta slums looking after the destitute women, children and lepers; Mahatma Gandhi born in Porbandar, west India spent 20 years in south Africa opposing discriminatory legislations, worked for upliftment of the downtrodden, Hindu-Muslim unity and we may also take other numerous great scientists, discoverers and inventers. They have contributed to the cause of society or mankind at large in many different ways to whom they owe no personal obligation or relation by birth or blood. They simply had the sense of belonging and ownership in the destiny of mankind.
In contrast, infamous personalities like Adolf Hitler, a racist responsible for the death of over 6 million Jews, and Osama Bin Laden, a Jehadi murdered thousands in cold blood. They have only brought destruction and misery to mankind. The cornerstone of their ideology being the ethnic identity and belief. Now, the million dollar question is, ‘To which group do you identify yourself with? Which side are you on?’
Back home here in northeast, India sticking passionately to ethnic identity can do more harm than good. Actually ethnicity has been the leitmotif running through the aspirations of the people; be it the Nagas, Meiteis, Kukis, Bodos, Dimasas, Garos etc; which has accounted for untold miseries and equally failing them all from becoming what they can be. The particularity of oneself, tribe, race with unique customs and traditions will continue to be the basic identity as long as humans exist. In fact, the creator himself had endowed all humans with such traits in one-way or the other. However, one should open up for the conception of a bigger identity and go beyond these. It should go beyond one’s boundaries and go out to the world to attain a universal dimension-the call of mankind.
Should people like Teresa, Gandhi, Lincoln, even for that matter Lord Jesus Christ, a Jew by birth stop short with their ethnicity and confined themselves to the particularity and conditions they were born with, the world would have not been a better place.
The quest for identity begins the moment we decide to do something good outside ourselves for another person, undoubtedly, for the larger good of mankind. It is found when we do it. Many have found their identities and I am glad I have found mine. Have you found yours?
