Review Parsing the Indian 'identity' By : Aditya Adhikari
The Indians: Portrait of a people
by Sudhir and Katharina Kakar
Penguin Books, 2007
In current academic and intellectual circles, this is a time of widespread suspicion of what has been called the 'grand narrative' – those accounts of countries and cultures that claim to be comprehensive. Such narratives, warn critics, not only ignore heterogeneity, but also uphold dominant power structures. This is also a time when the dominant intellectual mood celebrates the mixing of cultures, and perceives identity to be multiple – like masks that can be worn and taken off as the situation demands. To claim that a people have a particular identity is to invite charges that one views culture as fixed and inalterable, and does not allow for the possibility of social change.
In such an intellectual climate, Sudhir and Katharina Kakar have written an unapologetically unfashionable book, attempting to reveal the common cultural characteristics that make up Indian culture and society. Their focus is squarely on middle-class, savarna Hindus, who, they claim, occupy the dominant place in Indian culture. Those "at the margins of Hindu society (such as the Dalits and tribals, or the Christians and Muslims)," they write, "will spot only fleeting resemblances to themselves" in the pages of The Indians. The scope of the Kakars' work is highly ambitious, covering everything from the sexual life of Indians to the nature of conflict between Hindus and Muslims. The Goa-based husband-and-wife team contend that there are more similarities than differences among the various people of the Subcontinent, and verge perilously close to the view (appropriately qualified, of course) that there is an underlying core at the heart of Indian civilisation, one which remained intact through the Mughal invasions, British colonialism and other vicissitudes of Indian history.
"Identity is not a role, or a succession of roles, with which it is often confused," write the authors, in a passage that is sure to annoy postmodernists and other likeminded readers. "It is not a garment that can be put on or taken off according to the weather outside; it is not 'fluid', but marked by a sense of continuity and sameness irrespective of where the person finds himself during the course of his life."