Community that provides us the language and cultural values through which we comprehend the world. It is based on birth and belongings and never on some form of acquired qualification or accomplishment. Birth based identity is called ascriptive because this does not involve any choice on the part of the individual’s concerned. It is actually worthless and discriminating. These ascriptive identities are very hard to shake off because irrespective of our efforts to disown them, others may continue to identify us by those very markers of belonging.
Such ascriptive identity is the most deterrant to self-realisation. Expanding and overlapping circles of community ties i.e. family, kinship, caste, ethnicity, language, region or religion give meaning to our world and give us sense of identity, of who we are.
