National Identity: Overview
National identity affects the culture of India
National identity refers to the individual’s sense of belonging to it. National identity may refer two people with different in personalities, geographical locations, belief systems, time and even spoken language, yet regard themselves and be seen by others as members f the same nation. The national identity is created and constructed it may not necessarily be false, as there is a constant agreement on the existence, if not on the definition of the nation as an entity.
National identity is desired to see us in the nation, but nationhood also arises out of a wish to make sense of our world, to have our place in it legitimized. National identity is a fundamental means of self-definition. In other words national identity is often taken to mean a shared structure of feeling, largely imagined consciousness that is reinforced both through life’s daily routines as well as through ritualized, symbol-laden, celebrations of nationhood.
Nevertheless, the negotiation of a national identity is a continuous and entirely voluntary process, which demands inclusively and the fair representation of peoples and cultures. National identity is about on a foundation of fact and fiction that together form an account or story of origins, myth, tradition, and invented tradition are systematically employed towards the making of a common ancestry. The basis for shared belongings and a distinctive identity vis-avis the identity of other nation–states. Therefore national identity is the sense of belonging nurtured by a commonly shared history, cultural continuity and belief in a national destiny (Cameron, 1999).
National identity and Indian culture
National identity in India was seen as individualizing each individual in terms of the globalization, religious nationalism and insecurity. India, with its multitudinous cultures, is fast shedding the mantle of its old identities and poised to wear new ones when Mahatma Gandhi said, “ India lives in its village “ he meant national identity. India has the largest population villages and towns in the world. Whereby, 70% of its citizens live in villages. This shows that Indians dominates in village and agriculture contribution to its annual GPD, since that no much as been changed since Gandhi’s time.
In social, Indians regions have remained either romantic or colonial, both of which are nonexistent. A national identity may be a transient thing. But, what remains when nothing else will is an Indian sensibility. This is woven in each and every nuance of life that an Indian sees around himself. From sharing the connotations of the color red to the understanding of the mechanics of living within a society, the fact is that this knowledge exists within the framework of Indians values.
This understanding that is uniquely called an Indian “sensitivity”, is what defines India. The sensitivity of Indian people is what means neighbors extend help and support to each other when they can live peaceful and unobtrusive lives. The social impact that the nation identity has brought into the regions is that Indians have been reared to live within a community in an interactive co-existing manner (Ganti, 2004).
The culture change of Indians has been brought up by foreign adverts that used through medias, cinemas, but Indian audience does not cultivate the international taste, this is because majority prefer cinemas that they can relate to the change of culture of Indian which was due to the westernized nationalism where some of the Indians admired the character of Hitler, where it was known that Hitler attempt to reconcile change and continuing by taking of roots and traditions in a situation of industrialization and urbanization. This was for the Hindutva practice, whereby issues regarding national anthems, dress and foreign foods are given prominence, while profound social changes continue to affect every day life as before.
The national identity formation in Indian culture was seen as expiring the Indian culture where it was affected by the globalization. The cultural heads in India like shanty Kumar’s Gandhi examined how cultural imagination of nation identity have been transformed by the rapid growth of satellite and cable television in postcolonial India. This group evaluated the growing influence of foreign and domestic satellite and cable channels are the major contributors that are going to affect the culture of Indian people.
Kumar argues that India hybrid national identity is manifested in the discourses found in this variety of empirical sources (Menon, 2007). He formed a group of representative in the nation and regional level that can promote the Indian languages in term of vernacular where media groups allocate some programs that encourage the use of national identity. In India minority has been used to describe people like the Dalits who are numerically significant but who, for politico-ideological reasons have been denied their right to full citizenship.
Indians authority arrived at a point of allowing the mosaic of peoples and nations within a nation-state to enjoy pull rights to culture and communication. There are two aspects, which are centralized to the making and maintenance of national identity. Firstly the right to culture-the inalienable right to every nation irrespective of its status, to practice, express, promote its identity as a community provided that this does not infringe the rights of other nation to do the same.
In other words an individual person rights needs to be located within a cultural of right is what sustains national identity. India is a tough case for any scholar trying to develop a general theory of nationalism, and with few exceptions, it does not figure in general introductory texts on the field. India is hardly a station cultural similarity or even equality in the western state: it is a country with deep embedded hierarchies and a very considerable degree of internal cultural variations (Juluri, 2004).
References
- Cameron, K. (1999). National Identity. Intellect Books.
- Juluri, V. (2004). Becoming a Global Audience Longing and Belonging in Indian. Onent Longman.
- Menon, M. M. (2007). Cultural History of Modern India. Bergnahn Books.
- Ganti, T. (2004). Bolly Wood: A Guidebook to popular Hinds cinema. Routledge.
