Co constructing National Identity in the Era of Identity Chaos

Abstract

At cognitive level, preliminary idea of nation and existence of a national group is essential to have a sense of national identity. For adolescents, evolving concept of social groups and possible affiliations with them starts during this period. Factors such as process of socialisation, schooling and exposure to media determines how an adolescent conceptualises the nation and reflects attachmentwith it. As adolescents are considered as the future citizens, this study aimed at tapping their perceptual understanding of nation. This study was conducted with volunteer adolescent students from senior secondary sections of four Delhi based school. They wrote essays on Indian national identity organised according to cue questions, given beforehand. Based on legibility and content appropriateness, 130 essays were selected for further grounded theory analysis. National identity was defined using references from native cultural constituents, such as norms, heritage, traditions, customs, and social values. Identity derived from nation was positive and filled with pride when contents were about patriotism and multiculturalism. However, sharp comments on perceived inadequacy of government were supported with appalling cases of disharmony. The expressions elucidating national identity were described more on the basis of external events than self-references. A possible inference may be drawn that adolescents’ experienceswere in formative stage and hence were restricted to terminologies acquired from popular media.

Understanding the social identity of adolescents in the Indigenous Kodava Community of India

“…According to Eunson (2012), an “essay” is a topic‐specific document having a logically sequenced form and content, with the use of appropriate strategies for expression. In the Indian context, essay writing as a tool was used successfully in a study conducted by Ray and Singh (2021) with a sample of adolescents, which validates its effectiveness as a measure of data collection. Based on this significance of the tool, in this study, all the adolescent participants were given the topic of the essay “Kodagu and its People.” The topic of the essay was decided to be kept generic considering the sensitivity with regard to the varied background of the students.…”