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Question -

What is community identity and how is it formed?



Answer -

  • Community identity is based on birth and ‘belonging’ rather than on some form of acquired qualifications or ‘accomplishment’. It is what we ‘are’ rather than what we have ‘become’.
  • It is ‘ascriptive’ – that is, they are determined by the accidents of birth and do not involve any choice on the part of the individuals concerned.
  • People feel a deep sense of security and satisfaction in belonging to communities in which their membership is entirely accidental.
  • Perhaps it is because of this accidental, unconditional and yet almost inescapable belonging that we can often be so emotionally attached to our community identity. Expanding and overlapping circles of community ties (family, kinship, caste, ethnicity, language, region or religion) give meaning to our world and give us a sense of identity, of who we are.
  • People often react emotionally or even violently whenever there is a perceived threat to their community identity.
  • A second feature of ascriptive identities and community feeling is that they are universal.

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