{"id":2096,"date":"2026-08-12T13:40:35","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T13:40:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cgm.gwasanaethdysgudigidol.cymru\/uncategorized\/erthygl-2\/"},"modified":"2026-09-18T12:36:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-18T12:36:19","slug":"erthygl-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cgm.gwasanaethdysgudigidol.cymru\/en\/issue-27\/erthygl-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Article 2:
Racial, Religious, Cultural and National Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Article 2<\/h1>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Racial, Religious, Cultural and National Identity<\/h2>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Author: Neera Vyas<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Article 1<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Article 3<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Labels<\/h3>\n

I remember my daughter (aged 8 at the time) asking me, \u201cWhat am I?\u201d To which my answer was, \u201cA fabulous human.\u201d However, she had more questions: \u201cAm I Christian? Am I Hindu?\u201d<\/p>\n

I replied, \u201cYou can be either, or both, or neither, my lovely \u2013 you can be any religion you choose or none \u2013 when you feel ready, it\u2019s up to you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cBut they were asking in school and I don\u2019t know,\u201d came her reply.<\/p>\n

Perhaps this highlights how much society may want us to have one label that we stick to. I\u2019m from a Hindu family and her father is an Anglican Christian. We brought our daughter up experiencing both faiths \u2013 attending the church connected to her Church in Wales <\/em>school, celebrating Hindu festivals and having images of deities<\/em> around our home. We also tried to make it clear that in our view, having a faith or not is a personal choice, so whilst she was more exposed to Christianity and Hinduism, there were no expectations on her to follow either faith.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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My daughter at a Church Nativity Service and celebrating Divali (a Hindu festival)<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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What does it mean to \u2018belong\u2019 to a faith or religion?<\/h3>\n

Not everyone feels this way though. For many people, faith (or religion) is something you are born into and which defines you, even to the point of people being ostracised <\/em>and in some extreme cases, physically harmed for rejecting a religion, or marrying someone outside the faith. They might argue that my views devalue religious belief by making it a \u2018pick & mix\u2019 when it\u2019s actually about heritage.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, some people are willing to change their religion or to commit to a faith in order to marry someone they love.<\/p>\n

So, what does belonging to a religion actually mean?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Aspects of Religion<\/h3>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Being baptised<\/em> into or formally joining it<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Following the rules<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Performing or participating in the rituals<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Reading the sacred texts<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Celebrating the festivals and important dates<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Believing in what the sacred texts say<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Believing in the key teachings of that faith<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Believing in the idea of God (or \u2018supreme being\u2019) of that religion<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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I\u2019ve been privileged to meet and speak to a Holocaust survivor<\/em>, whose answer to \u2018Do you believe in God?\u2019 was a definite \u2018no\u2019, but to \u2018Are you still Jewish?\u2019 was an equally definite \u2018yes\u2019. She kept a fully Kosher<\/em> home and celebrated all the Jewish festivals. Why? Because, as she movingly explained, being Jewish was her identity \u2013 the thing which the Nazis <\/em>had tried to wipe out, so she was holding onto it even tighter, no matter that she no longer believed in the God behind the faith.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Cultural pride<\/h3>\n

This sense of identity, through culture and customs rather than spiritual belief, is not uncommon, and it can become stronger when people feel their background is threatened. An example of this is a rise in young Muslim women choosing to wear a hijab <\/em>in the years following the 9\/11<\/em> tragedy and consequent wars. The reaction to these events from some non-Muslims was verbal and \/or physical hatred towards all Muslims, resulting in some Muslims hiding their faith, but others feeling a need to show it more. Hence, some girls from families where a hijab was not the \u2018norm\u2019 began to wear it as a way of saying, \u2018I\u2019m proud to be Muslim \u2013 it\u2019s not Islam that\u2019s the issue, it\u2019s the extremists\u2019.<\/p>\n

In my own experience, when faced with blatant racism in the workplace, part of my response was to dress \u2018more Indian\u2019 to show that I was proud of my heritage. I\u2019ve also experienced someone insisting that I \u2018cannot be Indian\u2019 because my colouring didn\u2019t match their stereotype of how I should look.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Kenya Flag<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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United Kingdom Flag<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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India Flag<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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Wales Flag<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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We all judge by appearance and stereotypes though, don\u2019t we? Even if we try not to. And what about nationality? In my case, I was born in Kenya when it was a British colony,<\/em> as were my parents. Three of their parents were born in India, and one in Mozambique, which was a Portuguese colony. Our ancestry is all Indian (I\u2019ve done the DNA check) and I\u2019ve lived in the UK since I was 18 months old, and Wales since 1992. On paper I\u2019m British, genetically I\u2019m Indian, culturally I\u2019m a mix of everything, and there is a hefty dose of cynefin<\/em>. When I first moved here it just felt like \u2018coming home\u2019 \u2013 inexplicable but bone deep.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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National identity<\/h3>\n

It\u2019s therefore been really saddening in recent times to see flags (both Welsh and British) I love and relate to, being used by some as a message of \u2018othering\u2019, showing their disdain for those who they feel do not belong. I happen to be a first-generation immigrant, but I know others who are third or fourth generation \u2018born and bred\u2019 in the UK, who also feel that horrible unease. How far back or forwards do we go until someone is \u2018one of us\u2019?<\/p>\n

Or is it about skin colour? Culture? Religion? Some immigrants only speak English, don\u2019t follow any religion, are passionate England football or cricket \/ Wales football or rugby supporters, so what makes them \u2018other\u2019? I\u2019m really not sure.<\/p>\n

The same daughter who asked, \u201cWhat am I?\u201d is now 20 and has recently discovered a \u2018way back\u2019 great grandparent who owned sugar plantations and slaves, causing her to comment: \u201cIt\u2019s really odd having ancestors on both sides of colonialism\u201d. She\u2019s not alone \u2013 as the world shrinks, more people are born to parents of very different backgrounds. This is great in terms of the global gene <\/em>pool, yet some people fear a loss of identity if things become \u2018too mixed\u2019 without a clear reason why. Maybe it\u2019s about needing one root rather than many strands? Or a deep belief that their particular religion \/ race \/ culture \/ nation is better than any other? Is it just that being human includes needing to \u2018belong\u2019? What do you think?<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n

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