On Saturday 17 Apr 2010 11:55:25 am Deepa Mohan wrote: > Well, it's interesting to me that the need to not belong to a specific > group is often as imperative as the need to belong. How often do we hear > people say, rather proudly, "...but I'm not like them!"
I hear that 165 million times, one for each Pakistani citizen speaking of Indians who may be bigoted Hindus, oppressed minorities, slaving untouchables or munafiq Muslims If you do not belong to group X and wish to belong to group Y, surely joining group Y should suffice. The need to keep saying "I do not belong to group X" or to have an "Unregistration certificate" seems to indicate some fear that group X will somehow come and swallow you up, or at least that you will stand accused of showing residual allegiance to group X unless you constantly repeat the refrain that you do not belong to group X and that you have "officailly" unregistered. Like Nixon's immortal words "I am not liar" - the need to "unbelong" to a category stems from a fear of being categorized and branded as belonging to an undesirable category. Do you go about stating explicitly "I am not a liar. I am not a Christian. I am not gay. I am not violent". Have you ever found the need to "unregister" from groups of liars, Christians, gays or violent people? shiv
