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Identity And The Search For The Self Among The Sub Continental Diaspora

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Chapter- One

Theorising Identity and The Search for The Self among the sub-continental Diaspora in Britain

Identity has always been a problematic area of interrogation epistemologically, existentially and politically and it continues to propel our thought. Etymologically, the term is derived from Latin word ‘Idem’ meaning ‘same’ (Oxford Online Dictionary) which means ‘specific quality or condition of being a specific person or an object”. A person’s identity is determined in terms of his/her inherited traditions, particularly the inherited religion of the community in which they happen to be born, the place and society, gender, features and last but not the least the colour of the
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The concept of Identity has been defined and studied in different fields of studies ranging from Psychology, Anthropology, Sociology and Cultural Studies.
Recent trends in Psychology on Identity Theory: In the recent past identity is seen as a self-narrative which is held as the base for the construct of a person’s identity. The behaviour in salience to the social setting is the base of identity formation. The Identity Theory (Stryker 1968, 1980, 1989; Stryker and Serpe 1982, Mc Calls and Simmons 1978, R.H. Turner 1978) explains social behaviour in terms of the reciprocal relationship between the “self” and the “society”. The term is used to define the links between a multifaceted notion of the self and wider social structure. (Burke 1980; Mc Call and Simmons 1978; R.H. Turner 1978). It is an extension of the symbolic interactionist theory postulated by Mead (1934) and Blumer (1969) “that society influences social behaviour through its affects on the self” (Micheal A Hogg, et al.). However, the Identity theory rejects the symbolic interactionist theory as “relatively undifferentiated, co-operative whole” (Stryker 1980, 1987; Stryker and Serpe 1982) and argues that society is “complexly differentiated, but nevertheless organized” (Stryker and Serpe 1982:206) and thus predicated the idea of the
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