{"id":10982,"date":"2017-12-04T01:17:11","date_gmt":"2017-12-03T19:47:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/?p=10982"},"modified":"2017-12-04T01:17:11","modified_gmt":"2017-12-03T19:47:11","slug":"culture-faith-and-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/2017\/12\/04\/culture-faith-and-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture, faith, and Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor,<\/strong>
\nIf you happen to be in Itanagar these days, you will probably come across one of these posters adorning the street-walls of capital city. Earlier the slogan used to be, \u2018loss of culture is loss of identity.\u2019 It seems the shibboleth has undergone a makeover, and now, the keystone of our so-called \u2018identity\u2019 is not just \u2018culture\u2019, but a not-without-indigenous-faith-culture. The high priests of culture have issued their latest diktat \u2013 the basis of our indigenous identity, from now on, has to be our indigenous faith; leaving just two options before us: either we fall in line, or suffer the consequent fallout, that is, to give-up the right to call oneself indigenous. Everyone knows on whose behest the threat is being carried out, and who their intended targets are; through jugglery of words, no prizes for guessing, who they trying to corner are. But what surprised many was the recent move of the government that seemed to have fallen for the trick. Faith is a domain of religion, and questions of culture are the fieldworks of scholars. A secular, democratic and inclusive government, at best, could act as a facilitator; to foster inter-faith dialogues, and promote cultural debates among different stakeholders. Instead, it decided to take upon itself the role of an arbitrator, and went hurriedly ahead to create a \u2018department of Indigenous Faith and cultural affairs,\u2019 only to later take its step, fumblingly back. The department was created purportedly \u2018to preserve and protect\u2019 \u2018the indigenous communities of the state\u2019 who are \u2018fast getting disconnected with their rich culture and languages\u2019 \u2018due to globalization, exposure and external influences\u2019(whatever may those terms mean). As if, the departments of culture and research do not already exist for the very purpose. What is so different about the culture of \u2018Indigenous faith\u2019 vis-\u00e0-vis the culture of the rest of the indigenous communities, a reasonable mind would wonder that it warrants creation of a separate department of faith. Leave aside the question as to whether such a department can be created at all by a secular state. Are they waging a psychological war, where the battle lines are drawn over the question about legitimacy of faith? If so, who are they trying to exclude? The Indigenous Christian community of the state, who have always been made to feel like aliens from the beginning \u2013 Christian faith is not included in the definition of indigenous faith under the state\u2019s religious freedom act \u2013 having felt further alienated, registered their protest in strong terms, questioning the constitutionality of the government\u2019s move. This put the government on back foot even as they were forced to rechristen the department under a new name of \u2018cultural affairs,\u2019 sans \u2018indigenous faith.\u2019 Perhaps it realized that in its effort to please a particular master, it cannot afford to offend a community that forms the largest electorate of the state.
\nComing to the question of culture, faith and identity, I think, they are complex subjects which calls for nuanced arguments in their discussion. It would only be a pity if our debates are reduced to petty sloganeering that serves to only further the rancor. Granted, we all have our own way of looking at things, and in many areas we may not see eye to eye; but I believe, if we look with keen eyes and large hearts, we will find enough common ground of identity that will connect us to our roots, which we all are equally proud of. But for goodness\u2019 sake, let us not confuse our religious identity with our racial or tribal one, for that matter, our national identity. Let us not say, we must continue to worship what our forefathers did or else we cease to be their children. Not only it goes against the basic human right to freedom of conscience, but also, it will, I am sure, make our forebears turn in their graves. Our myths and folklores, our dances and rhapsodies, our dresses and histories\u2026which form part of our cultural heritage, make us unique as we are; and they must be preserved. Yet, let us not forget, their primary purpose, to our forefathers, was not to make the latter look unique. They were means through which they tried to understand the mysteries, cope with struggles, and find meaning and hope in life. And though, the world may have moved from pre-modern to postmodern, yet, are not our struggles still the same, and our longings similar? And in our quest for all that we want and long for in the name of humanity, are we not still in the process of creating cultures? To pinpoint one aspect of the whole and say, that this constitutes the essence of our culture and identity would be missing the wood for the trees.
\nIn our \u2018cultured\u2019 world, when we define our self-identities, where the tendency is to fold our arms closed, and exclude our neighbors, the need is to stretch out our embracing arms of culture. And to embrace means to let in, as well as, to let go. The arms that do not let in cannot embrace a brother, and the embrace that is forever closed in soon becomes a tyrannical grip. Globalization has indeed forced us to soul-search our cultural identity, yet, in our eagerness to reclaim a cultural space, let us not strut with our monolithic steps, lest we promote ethnocentrism. It was Tagore who had once said, while commenting on India\u2019s national culture, \u201cthat our forefathers, three thousand years ago, had finished extracting all that was of value from the universe, is not a worthy thought. We are not so unfortunate, nor universe so poor.\u201d
\nHis voice was prophetic for our times, more so, for our State.
\nYours,<\/strong>
\nDipten Ratan<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Editor, If you happen to be in Itanagar these days, you will probably come across one of these posters adorning the street-walls of capital city. Earlier the slogan used to be, \u2018loss of culture is loss of identity.\u2019 It seems the shibboleth has undergone a makeover, and now, the keystone of our so-called \u2018identity\u2019 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-10982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-readers-forum"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10982\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}