On Race
There was an article in the newspaper a few days ago... well, more like the headlines which went "Don't play the racial card", spoken by some cabinet minister in the circus that passes for a government in this country. Spoken, I should point out, in the context of tactics that might be employed to fish for votes in the coming election. He or she was refering to those who might try to bring up racial inequality issues such as welath distribution, affirmative action, etc as means of gathering support.
Now, do not get me wrong, this is not intended as a anti-government rant or anything. Nothing of the sort. This is about something else; this is about the concept of race itself, which is proving to be such an important 'reality' in our lives, especially in this country, Malaysia. A train of thought led me to start pondering about what race means; about what being regarded as a member of a particular race in a so-called multi-racial society as this means. Ont he surface, it might seem like the most obvious thing in the world to most people, but having spent some time deliberating on it, as always, the lines of black and white start to blur, metaphorically speaking.
To those who take it as important, I am labelled as an Indian. Again, this might seem as a ridiculously obvious statement. Not so. Whenever I fill up a form about myself, in the race column, I find myself ticking or writing down 'Indian', without really stopping to think about it. Almost as if it was second nature, like ticking homo sapien in the species column, if there ever was one. It is not very obvious as to why I am an Indian, or why anyone else belongs to any particular race that they might be put into.
There are many different ways of looking at this. Many differnet definitions of race exist out there, and i cannot really deal with all of them; only with those that are relevant to my current situation and context. I suppose that the main reasonings behind the racial division in this country, in this society are things like family background, language, religion and customs. The irony is that even these things come with enough extra baggage and ambiguous meanings that can drive a person mad. I will try anyway, at the risk of my marbles.
Why am I Indian? Why am I not Indian? Never mind...
I guess if one were to look at family background as a reason for racial categorization, then I guess I am an Indian. Then again, what brings about this reasoning anyway? Because my great-great-grandparents were from India? Lets face it, that is what lies at the bottomline. That maybe so, but I was never born in India; I have never been to India. Heck, I don't even KNOW my great grandparents. I grew up in an Indian family, or at least that is what they say, but then again, I also grew up in a 'Malay' school, I grew up with 'Chinese' best friends, etc. Why does the family factor come first? is it written in our blood? It is a bit of an amateurish argument, I know, but any discussion about race feels childish to me anyway.
The language argument is not a very strong one, so no point arguing about it all that much. Just because I speak Tamil does not make me Indian, because I can also speak Malay and English and I know plenty of people of other 'races' who speak multiple languages. I mention this because there have been many an occasion when I have been told that I should speak and be well versed in Tamil because I am 'Indian'. That puts the language into the definition of a race, which would technically make me 'Indian, Malay and ermm...either English or American' at the same time.
Religion is a touchy issue, mostly because in itself it is a very confusing and personal matter. I would not normally include it as an argument, but because of the context of this society, where Islam, for instance, is synonymous to being Malay, as they claim, religion does play an important role. This does not apply as much to 'Indians', who are considerably more liberal with the entire religion-race thing, and the 'Chinese' even more so. However, this does not mean that it does not exist at all. It is quite common to see a family of 'indians' imposing Hinduism or Christianity on their children. This applies to other 'races' as well. Hinduism is almost completely an 'indian' thing. So does that make me Indian? Well, not in this case, because I gave up Hinduism long ago.
Maybe it is customs then. Practices and lifestyles? Perhaps. As I said before, I have never been restricted to any particular group... as is the ase with most Malaysians. We have all at some points in our lives come in contact with the other 'races', so to speak. More so, a lot of us learn, eat, sleep, socialize and grow up with people of other 'races'. We are not limited to any one type of influence or custom, no matter how much we delude ourselves. I cannot say that I grew up Indian because I did not, simply because I spent a lot of time with member so of the other 'races' as well, learning their ways, their beliefs, and practices. That applies to all of us, does it not? In this matter, who can safely claim to be of any particular 'race'?
All these arguments have made it clear to me as to why I can never ever think of myself as an Indian again, or any other 'race'. This is not meant to include anyone else, because this is a very personal matter that each of us needs to deal with. It is important because it is a matter of personal identity. When we put ourselves into a category, when we label ourselves as such, we should be aware of what it all means and why we make these decisions. Never blindly. At least, that is what I feel...
Now, do not get me wrong, this is not intended as a anti-government rant or anything. Nothing of the sort. This is about something else; this is about the concept of race itself, which is proving to be such an important 'reality' in our lives, especially in this country, Malaysia. A train of thought led me to start pondering about what race means; about what being regarded as a member of a particular race in a so-called multi-racial society as this means. Ont he surface, it might seem like the most obvious thing in the world to most people, but having spent some time deliberating on it, as always, the lines of black and white start to blur, metaphorically speaking.
To those who take it as important, I am labelled as an Indian. Again, this might seem as a ridiculously obvious statement. Not so. Whenever I fill up a form about myself, in the race column, I find myself ticking or writing down 'Indian', without really stopping to think about it. Almost as if it was second nature, like ticking homo sapien in the species column, if there ever was one. It is not very obvious as to why I am an Indian, or why anyone else belongs to any particular race that they might be put into.
There are many different ways of looking at this. Many differnet definitions of race exist out there, and i cannot really deal with all of them; only with those that are relevant to my current situation and context. I suppose that the main reasonings behind the racial division in this country, in this society are things like family background, language, religion and customs. The irony is that even these things come with enough extra baggage and ambiguous meanings that can drive a person mad. I will try anyway, at the risk of my marbles.
Why am I Indian? Why am I not Indian? Never mind...
I guess if one were to look at family background as a reason for racial categorization, then I guess I am an Indian. Then again, what brings about this reasoning anyway? Because my great-great-grandparents were from India? Lets face it, that is what lies at the bottomline. That maybe so, but I was never born in India; I have never been to India. Heck, I don't even KNOW my great grandparents. I grew up in an Indian family, or at least that is what they say, but then again, I also grew up in a 'Malay' school, I grew up with 'Chinese' best friends, etc. Why does the family factor come first? is it written in our blood? It is a bit of an amateurish argument, I know, but any discussion about race feels childish to me anyway.
The language argument is not a very strong one, so no point arguing about it all that much. Just because I speak Tamil does not make me Indian, because I can also speak Malay and English and I know plenty of people of other 'races' who speak multiple languages. I mention this because there have been many an occasion when I have been told that I should speak and be well versed in Tamil because I am 'Indian'. That puts the language into the definition of a race, which would technically make me 'Indian, Malay and ermm...either English or American' at the same time.
Religion is a touchy issue, mostly because in itself it is a very confusing and personal matter. I would not normally include it as an argument, but because of the context of this society, where Islam, for instance, is synonymous to being Malay, as they claim, religion does play an important role. This does not apply as much to 'Indians', who are considerably more liberal with the entire religion-race thing, and the 'Chinese' even more so. However, this does not mean that it does not exist at all. It is quite common to see a family of 'indians' imposing Hinduism or Christianity on their children. This applies to other 'races' as well. Hinduism is almost completely an 'indian' thing. So does that make me Indian? Well, not in this case, because I gave up Hinduism long ago.
Maybe it is customs then. Practices and lifestyles? Perhaps. As I said before, I have never been restricted to any particular group... as is the ase with most Malaysians. We have all at some points in our lives come in contact with the other 'races', so to speak. More so, a lot of us learn, eat, sleep, socialize and grow up with people of other 'races'. We are not limited to any one type of influence or custom, no matter how much we delude ourselves. I cannot say that I grew up Indian because I did not, simply because I spent a lot of time with member so of the other 'races' as well, learning their ways, their beliefs, and practices. That applies to all of us, does it not? In this matter, who can safely claim to be of any particular 'race'?
All these arguments have made it clear to me as to why I can never ever think of myself as an Indian again, or any other 'race'. This is not meant to include anyone else, because this is a very personal matter that each of us needs to deal with. It is important because it is a matter of personal identity. When we put ourselves into a category, when we label ourselves as such, we should be aware of what it all means and why we make these decisions. Never blindly. At least, that is what I feel...
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