This has nothing to do with January 26th…it was one of my afterthoughts laden with sociological insights and newsy events…the ones I get especially after a shower!
I have lived in America for 6 years…and felt fully American. I was American above any other identity (I really wonder which other identity I could think of there)..yes there was one identity conflict that America is yet to resolve …race…
At school, everyone thought I was a black…and I knew I was not…my mom told me that I used to cry coz kids used to call me black (funny Indian consciousness we have of putting ourselves above blacks- and below whites…we are no less racist)…then my mom used to tell me that im brown…(another Indian thing of negotiating identity)
This is not the point…
The point is how America has built and ‘sold’ an identity…its no more a social identity but a brand…it beautifully merges both facets of social identity- the national/political/legal…along with the cultural…
I know that America has a culture…its culture is not like the indian culture ...which is generally namable (eg. chutney, bharatnatyam, shaadi)
Its culture is practiced…it’s a spirit you only experience when you live there (for at least 2 years maybe)…that’s the best thing about being American…its experiential..
(for the more than 15 years I have lived in India, I have never felt as Indian as I have felt American in America)
The fallout of my theory is that I was very young and my ideas were malleable, its true that my sense of identity was forming...but Im 100% sure that there is an American identity…it’s a style of life…
Its pizza deliveries, movie rentals, big comfy sofas, high school woes, dating, ‘cute’ guys, slumber parties, Hollywood, dumb girls, braces, teddy bears, ice cream vendors, beaches, amusement parks, swimming pools, homes with staircases, ‘radical’, ‘cool’, ‘awesome’, ‘amazing’, ‘wow’…
Its something you do (and feel), not something you name…
Now for the average sociologist, this is possible…because America is relatively homogenous (linguistically and religiously…whatever) and because capitalism has been able to bring about this homogeneity too….
But I extend the argument…yes, the leaders have been successful in 1) building an American brand 2) selling it to the masses and 3) making it practicable and ‘experienciable’ (remember the experience part of it is the greatest and the most important)
…but capitalism has helped by turning this identity into a style of life (which is buyable, consumable and worth investing in) …and it has helped the concept of a ‘brand’ to materialize into the minds of the people…
capitalism is good at making people dumb and believable in what is pleasurable, achievable and material…it carves out a set ontology of life…
also, the whole identity is based on capitalist ventures (eg. eating out, movies, home improvement, clothes, looking good)…
I hope you get it…one is that the identity itself is capitalist and second, how capitalism has made this identity to materialize …
Ok…yes, India is heterogeneous, its diverse and people are so stuck up with the non-capitalist aspects of life… (marriage to top the list, then language, religion…)
But the first thing people asked me when I came here was… “whats you last name”…now that’s Indian…the name is all we need…I used to tell them coz I never knew their intentions…but now I think…why aren’t you happy with the first name..
Ok…so name is fine...then the most important question… “are you…?”..i mean they wanna know what you are…
well I don’t know..
I don’t know what I am…my parents never told me…and here is the best- “society never told me”…amazing how you can fight society (paradoxically)…
how society can control every little thing we do and what we are…but damn Indian society could never tell me what I was…
Im not a Bengali, Punjabi, Hindu, Muslim…Brahmin, SC…whatever…
The funniest thing is when people ask me what I am and they don’t get an answer…man you should see that face…so apprehensive, so tense, so restless…matlab they want to know…they feel so weak when I tell them I don’t know…(trust me, this is a real feeling, I feel it a lot and I will always feel it)
America told me I was an American…but India really never told me that I was an Indian…that’s the problem here...neither the leaders, nor the masses have been able to 1) build an Indian ‘brand’…(here im not talking about identity…but brand…please understand the difference- brand is rooted only in capitalist epistemology, while identity is much bigger)…2) so I cant talk about the next step of transcending that brand to people and making it workable in the minds of people..
See, nowadays, its cool to be ‘Indian’…but it’s very consciously said…(while the American is very unconsciously instilled) …that’s another difference…
India does have an identity, but it still needs to develop into a brand…that’s why I do feel Indian…coz I do love Shah Rukh Khan, gol gappe on the street…love shaadis…know that only here do we kill women, use gaalis for our friends…
ok, I know many may not even think of this as Indian (at least SRK is)…
Ok im wondering now…why don’t you tell me the Indian stuff…that we could build an Indian brand…I mean only if you have thoughts…
Whatever..i have lost my writing flair…will go now..
Hehehehehe…
But I admit two things:
lots of bollywood things are defniately ‘indian’
language plays the most important role in social solidarity
I have lived in America for 6 years…and felt fully American. I was American above any other identity (I really wonder which other identity I could think of there)..yes there was one identity conflict that America is yet to resolve …race…
At school, everyone thought I was a black…and I knew I was not…my mom told me that I used to cry coz kids used to call me black (funny Indian consciousness we have of putting ourselves above blacks- and below whites…we are no less racist)…then my mom used to tell me that im brown…(another Indian thing of negotiating identity)
This is not the point…
The point is how America has built and ‘sold’ an identity…its no more a social identity but a brand…it beautifully merges both facets of social identity- the national/political/legal…along with the cultural…
I know that America has a culture…its culture is not like the indian culture ...which is generally namable (eg. chutney, bharatnatyam, shaadi)
Its culture is practiced…it’s a spirit you only experience when you live there (for at least 2 years maybe)…that’s the best thing about being American…its experiential..
(for the more than 15 years I have lived in India, I have never felt as Indian as I have felt American in America)
The fallout of my theory is that I was very young and my ideas were malleable, its true that my sense of identity was forming...but Im 100% sure that there is an American identity…it’s a style of life…
Its pizza deliveries, movie rentals, big comfy sofas, high school woes, dating, ‘cute’ guys, slumber parties, Hollywood, dumb girls, braces, teddy bears, ice cream vendors, beaches, amusement parks, swimming pools, homes with staircases, ‘radical’, ‘cool’, ‘awesome’, ‘amazing’, ‘wow’…
Its something you do (and feel), not something you name…
Now for the average sociologist, this is possible…because America is relatively homogenous (linguistically and religiously…whatever) and because capitalism has been able to bring about this homogeneity too….
But I extend the argument…yes, the leaders have been successful in 1) building an American brand 2) selling it to the masses and 3) making it practicable and ‘experienciable’ (remember the experience part of it is the greatest and the most important)
…but capitalism has helped by turning this identity into a style of life (which is buyable, consumable and worth investing in) …and it has helped the concept of a ‘brand’ to materialize into the minds of the people…
capitalism is good at making people dumb and believable in what is pleasurable, achievable and material…it carves out a set ontology of life…
also, the whole identity is based on capitalist ventures (eg. eating out, movies, home improvement, clothes, looking good)…
I hope you get it…one is that the identity itself is capitalist and second, how capitalism has made this identity to materialize …
Ok…yes, India is heterogeneous, its diverse and people are so stuck up with the non-capitalist aspects of life… (marriage to top the list, then language, religion…)
But the first thing people asked me when I came here was… “whats you last name”…now that’s Indian…the name is all we need…I used to tell them coz I never knew their intentions…but now I think…why aren’t you happy with the first name..
Ok…so name is fine...then the most important question… “are you…?”..i mean they wanna know what you are…
well I don’t know..
I don’t know what I am…my parents never told me…and here is the best- “society never told me”…amazing how you can fight society (paradoxically)…
how society can control every little thing we do and what we are…but damn Indian society could never tell me what I was…
Im not a Bengali, Punjabi, Hindu, Muslim…Brahmin, SC…whatever…
The funniest thing is when people ask me what I am and they don’t get an answer…man you should see that face…so apprehensive, so tense, so restless…matlab they want to know…they feel so weak when I tell them I don’t know…(trust me, this is a real feeling, I feel it a lot and I will always feel it)
America told me I was an American…but India really never told me that I was an Indian…that’s the problem here...neither the leaders, nor the masses have been able to 1) build an Indian ‘brand’…(here im not talking about identity…but brand…please understand the difference- brand is rooted only in capitalist epistemology, while identity is much bigger)…2) so I cant talk about the next step of transcending that brand to people and making it workable in the minds of people..
See, nowadays, its cool to be ‘Indian’…but it’s very consciously said…(while the American is very unconsciously instilled) …that’s another difference…
India does have an identity, but it still needs to develop into a brand…that’s why I do feel Indian…coz I do love Shah Rukh Khan, gol gappe on the street…love shaadis…know that only here do we kill women, use gaalis for our friends…
ok, I know many may not even think of this as Indian (at least SRK is)…
Ok im wondering now…why don’t you tell me the Indian stuff…that we could build an Indian brand…I mean only if you have thoughts…
Whatever..i have lost my writing flair…will go now..
Hehehehehe…
But I admit two things:
lots of bollywood things are defniately ‘indian’
language plays the most important role in social solidarity
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