While reading Sudhir Kakar’s The Colors of Violence, one of the stories that stuck out to me was that of the Pardis. As Kakar explains, the Pardi are not “Hindu” until they come in contact with Muslims. In other words, they do not self identify as Hindu or consider themselves a part of the larger Hindu community until they think of themselves in relation to Muslims. This immediately made me think of our discussions of the power that the sense of community provides for religious groups. Additionally, it illustrates the strength of the feeling of “us” vs “them” and the need one feels to be a part of something and hate what is not a part of it.
After reading this chapter, it made me think of when I traveled to Brazil with my soccer team a few summers ago. All of my life, when I was asked where I was from, I always responded “Philadelphia.” However, once I was in Brazil, this response turned into “the United States.” What struck me most of all though, was the fact that I responded this with an air of loyalty and defensiveness because I knew most Brazilians that asked had a negative view of the United States. Rather than identifying myself with the city I grew up in like I always have, I placed myself into the larger picture. I felt defensive about my position as a US citizen knowing that many of them did not like us and felt a feeling of “us” v “them.”
I find that as I study these phenomena, I am finding more and more that is impossible to do something to a person without really doing the same to yourself. To clarify, I don't mean that physically, but on very basic levels; by dehumanizing another person in order to exploit or humiliate them, you dehumanize yourself; by categorizing others into groups, you isolate yourself in another. This applies to a lot of things in life, if you really think about it. Fascinating stuff.
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