The Fragmented Minor : Tamil Identity and the Politics of Authenticity

The production of identity almost always requires an oppositional narrative. Framed against the creation of a major or minor other, it often draws on the legitimacy of an alternative history, using origin myths and cosmogonies which run parallel to, and are often more “original” than and clearly separated from the Other. The veracity of “authenticity,” thus, becomes crucial to the very basis of an identity. This chapter primarily deals with the theoretical and ideological construction and production of “minor-ness” both as a category and an identity marker.