Understanding My Socio-Political Identity: A Reflective Journey

Chapter 1

Part one: Locate yourself in the socio-political context and share your journey of learnings, insight, growth, challenges, Script through TA lens

Beginning of My Socio-Political Awareness

As I begin reflecting on my journey in the training group over the last four point five years, I recognise that I was not familiar or fluent with the idea of socio-political context. While I had some awareness of caste-based dynamics, I had not engaged with other socio-political influences in my life. Reflecting on this now, I understand that this may have been an unconscious defence mechanism, protecting me from the pain associated with my socio-political identities. At times, I may have engaged in a form of toxic positivity, as it felt more comfortable to remain unaware than to experience the intensity and rawness of these realities and their impact on me.

I am intense and can be deeply affected by social injustice, and I recognise that engaging with it can make it difficult for me to remain regulated in my day-to-day life. I often feel helpless when I encounter injustice, either towards myself or others, particularly when I have little control over the systemic forces involved. Having distanced myself from these experiences internally, I remained largely socio-politically unaware until midway through my training. I was not emotionally prepared to witness systemic oppression or hold the discomfort of being aware of it. This reflects my internal world at the beginning of the course, some of which I only recognised later in my training.

Locating Myself in a Socio-Political Context

Locating myself within a socio-political context became a learning process in itself. I identify as a cisgender woman and as queer. I grew up in a small town that is now expanding into a city. I hold two postgraduate qualifications, I am a businesswoman with over a decade and a half of experience, and a farmer for the last eight years. I come from an upper-middle-class family and belong to a backward class, a dominant caste in my geographical location.