555 What is my identity?
Why I need
An Identity
How can I
Get it?
Unless others
Give it to me
How can I
Seek on my own?
Am I Tamilian
Because Tamil is my mother tongue
Did I become an Aryan?
Because of my birth as a Brahmin
Am an Indian
Because I have Indian citizenship
Added to these am I a Hindu
Because of Hindu religion
As I have
So many identities
How to live
Keeping which one first?
Tamilian, Aryan
Indian and Hindu
Which one
I have to choose
I born as a human
And will die as a human
By selecting which one
How they will cremate me
Once the body is perished
And becomes mere ash
Then which identity
They will give to me
Whichever identity
Others might give to me
There is no identity
For the breath which has gone
Once the breath mingles
And gone with wind
There is no
Identity for me
Mathigiri, 6-10-2020, 11.30. p.m.
We repeat: in Hindusthan, the land of the Hindus, lives and should live the Hindu Nation—satisfying all the five@ essential requirements of the scientific nation concept of the modern world. Consequently only those movements are truly ‘National’ as aim at re-building, revitalizing, and emancipating from its present stupor, the Hindu Nation. Those only are nationalist patriots, who with the aspiration to glorify the Hindu race and Nation next to their heart, are prompted into activity and strive to achieve that goal. All others, posing to be patriots and wilfully indulging in a course of action detrimental to the Hindu Nation are traitors and enemies to the National Cause or to take a more charitable view if unintentionally and unwillingly led into such a course, mere simpletons, misguided ignorant fools. — M. S. Golwalkar, We or Our Nationhood Defined (1939; rpnt Nagupr: Bharat Prakashan, M.N. Kale, 1947), 4th end. In Christopher Jaffrelot, ed. Hindu Nationalism: A Reader, Ranikhet, Permanent Black, 2007, 117
@ …: Let us see what we obtain as the gist of the idea. That ‘a definite home country’, a territory of a ‘geographical unity’ is essential for a nation is evident, though everyone may not have explicitly expressed its absolute necessity, to [sic] so many words. The next point which comes up as [being] of the essence of the concept is ‘Race’—‘hereditary Society’, ‘Religious idea’, ‘common civilization’, expressed also as Common heritage of memories,’ ‘Linguistic unity’—these are the three other factors most prominently present in the Nation-concept as understood by the learned political thinkers of the world. In fine, the idea contained in the word Nation is the compound of five distinct factors fused into one indissoluble whole. The famous five “Unites”—Geographical (country), Racial (race), Religious (religion), cultural (culture) and Linguistic (language)…..—M. S. Golwalkar, in Jaffrelot, op. cit. p. 100
When I read the last line, of Golwalkar: ‘All others, posing to be patriots and wilfully indulging in a course of action detrimental to the Hindu Nation are traitors and enemies to the National Cause or to take a more charitable view if unintentionally and unwillingly led into such a course, mere simpletons, misguided ignorant fools’, I contemplated about my identity. And the result is this poem.
555 எது என் அடையாளம்
எதற்காக வேண்டும்
எனக்கொரு அடையாளம்
எப்படிப் பெறுவது
அதையே நானும்
பிறர்பார்த்து எனக்கு
தருவதே அல்லாமல்
எப்படி நானாக
அதைத்தேடக் கூடும்
தமிழ்என் தாய்மொழி
அதனால் தமிழனா
பார்ப்பனப் பிறப்பால்
ஆரியன் ஆனேனா
இந்தியக் குடிமகன்
எனவே இந்தியனா
அத்துடன் மதத்தால்
நானொரு இந்துவா
இத்தனை அடையாளம்
எனக்குமே இருக்கையில்
எதனை முன்வைத்து
நானும் வாழ்வது
தமிழன் ஆரியன்
இந்தியன் இந்து
இவற்றில் எதைத்தான்
தேர்வு செய்வது
மனிதனாய்ப் பிறந்தேன்
மனிதனாய் மடிவேன்
இறுதியில் எதைச்சொல்லி
என்னையும் எரிப்பார்
உடலும் அழிந்து
சாம்பலாய் மாற
அதன்பின் எதற்கு
அடையாளம் தருவார்
எந்த அடையாளம்
எனக்குமேத் தந்தாலும்
போன உயிருக்கு
அடையாளம் இல்லை
காறோடு கலந்து
மூச்சும் போனபின்
எவ்வித அடையாளம்
எனக்குமே இல்லை
மத்திகிரி, 6-10-2020, இரவு, 11.30