Why is it difficult to escape community identity?
Answer & explanation
Correct answer: option 3
The correct answer is Option (3) → Emotional attachment
Option (1) It is voluntary in nature — Incorrect. Community identity is ascriptive: it comes by birth, without any choice on our part. If it were voluntary, we could leave it as easily as we joined.
Option (2) It is conditional — Incorrect. Membership of a team or a profession has conditions, but our membership of a family or a religious or regional community is without preconditions, and yet it is total.
Option (3) Emotional attachment — Correct. Most ascriptive identities are very hard to shake off; even if we disown them, others may continue to identify us by them. Because of this accidental, unconditional and almost inescapable belonging, we are often emotionally attached to our community identity, and people react emotionally, even violently, when it seems threatened.
NCERT (2025-26): “Communities, Nations and Nation-States … But our membership in our families or religious or regional communities is without preconditions, and yet it is total. In fact, most ascriptive identities are very hard to shake off; even if we choose to disown them, others may continue to identify us by those very markers of belonging. 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. That is why people often react emotionally or even violently whenever there is a perceived threat to their community identity.…” |