Sense Of Belonging Essay

In English language the word “belonging” has mainly two explanations: one indicating the sense of identification with a place or a grou p of people while the other points towards the idea of possession. Thus, the former suggests that a person belongs to and identifies itself wit h a particular group of people or the ethos of a place or community. On the other hand, an entirely different usage of this word suggests the idea of possession and can indicate that the place, community or culture owns the person.

The place where a person is born determines many things. Not only is the person a “member” of the fraternity that is born at that place, but also it is the genesis of the “sense of belonging” that sticks with the person forever. In other words when a person claims to belong to a place, there must be some invisible regulations that bind the person to the place and it can be said that the place do own a certain proportion of the person (read it “ideology”. Ideology shapes up the person they say!). However indisposed a person may be to accept these “regulations”, many a time they do influence one’s actions, behavior and judgment.

Everyone “belongs” and true, a sense of belonging is crucial for a person’s development but at the same time we dispute belonging, vociferously. This can be seen in as petty an example as “My cricket team is better than yours” or in a violent, raucous example of certain terrorist groups. Wars, riots, sports rivalries, some form of electoral politics are ultimately about competing visions of