Identities are the questions about once existence. The answer to the questions of identities are never fixed rather are always in the state of flux. This question appeals to both reason and emotion, intuition and intellect
It was on the 21st of September, 2025 Anno Domini (as per the Gregorian Calendar) that I, along with my soul and spirit, visited the home of one of my friends (ideologically more than personally) at Mutti, Jammu.
The said friend had invited us for lunch on the occasion of Deepawali, and we reached his home sharp at 1:15 PM (IST based on GMT). The friend hails from Bhalesa in the Chenab Valley and is now settled in Jammu city — the confluence of various cultures — our melting pot.
The location of his home was akin to Rousseau’s State of Nature — absolutely blissful — giving a feel of our own Chenab villages. The lands adjacent to his home were wide, agrarian, and cultivated with seasonal crops, vegetables, and paddy fields. It was such a blissful place that it could be the best destination for raising consciousness-based thoughts — not just in ceremonial but in substantive ways.
The so-called East, West, North, and South were filled with greenery, and toward the southwest side, I even noticed some proletariats (hired non-local labourers) working in the fields, engaged in digging work called “Buwaayi” (balancing of soil through digging) — a common sight in our homegrown geography.
While leaving, I found that they live in a joint family — as most of us in the Chenab Valley do. Yet, in Jammu, they seemed to have become more Bhalesis. And here arises the central question: Where and why do our identities matter more?
The Identity Question
From my study and experience so far, the answer lies in a simple yet deeply practical thesis:
Whenever we, as humans, find ourselves in alien places — alien in terms of geography, culture, history, or even latitude and longitude — a kind of diasporic mentality emerges. We become more cultural, more rooted, and more protective of our traditions.
We begin to consciously display even those parts of our identity — in dress, language, body movement, or greeting — that we often ignore in our native surroundings. This is true for Asians in Europe, North Indians in South India, Jummunities in other states of our Union, or Chenab Valley dwellers in Jammu.
Why the Masks, Then?
The second question, more relevant than the first, is this: Why are we not as cultural and authentic in our own cultural worlds? What stops us from being local at localised locations?
Where do we wear these masks — of fakeness, artificiality, and pretended modernity — what I metaphorically call the Masks of Non-Enlightening Burgers, Pizzas, and McDonalds?
This reflection reminded me of why Frantz Fanon wrote his seminal works asking similar questions — why the wretched of the earth live in duplicity, ambivalence, and masks over their black skins. The coloured skin is the identity; the mask is its distortion.
Crisis of Identity
This ambivalence leads to a crisis in our identities. From Chenab to California, all of us — in one way or another — ask ourselves two fundamental questions:
“Who are we?” (collectively) and “Who am I?” (individually).
We forget our old, localized traits in our original cultural spheres and are treated as aliens there. Yet, when we cling to our culture in alien lands, we are seen as exotics. Thus, our existence stands at a crossroads — unable to find the blurred line that connects both worlds, even though it is part of the natural order of things.
The Way Out
We must be progressive, not regressive; post-modern, not primitive; updated, not invalidated. Yet, we must celebrate the good in our culture — our intellectual, collective, and social inheritance passed down through generations — in every sphere of life.
We should cultivate originality and not act as carbon copies of time and space. Civilizations that have pursued this balance — from Britain (with its Constitutional Monarchy and Parliamentary Sovereignty) to China (with its language, family values, and Confucian-Maoist heritage) — have not easily faded or vanished into thin air.
A Word of Caution
Our celebration of culture, however, must always remain open — open to diversity, tolerance, accommodation, and above all, the celebration of all human values.
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