Negotiation of Personal Identity

"In this book Meena Dhanda presents an account of §personal identity as a complex of which moral §identity and practical identity are the two most §important elements moral identity as one s §sense of identity as a person as such §and practical identity as one or more of the §structured ways in which one expresses one s moral §identity . Taking as her main example the situation §of India s Dalits, Dhanda argues that overall §personal identity is to be understood as the outcome §of an on-going process of negotiation above all §between these two elements. Given the centrality of §the roles played by different and often over-lapping §conceptions of what constitutes identity not only in §the world of theoretical debate, but also in that of §political and personal practice, Dhanda s arguments §in favour of seeing these matters in terms of §negotiation rather than in those of simple and §mutually uncomprehending conflict will be of very §great interest to all concerned with the many §problems of personal and inter-communal experience §to-day." Alan Montefiore, Emeritus Fellow of Balliol §College, Oxford. "In this book Meena Dhanda presents an account of §personal identity as a complex of which moral §identity and practical identity are the two most §important elements moral identity as one s §sense of identity as a person as such §and practical identity as one or more of the §structured ways in which one expresses one s moral §identity . Taking as her main example the situation §of India s Dalits, Dhanda argues that overall §personal identity is to be understood as the outcome §of an on-going process of negotiation above all §between these two elements. Given the centrality of §the roles played by different and often over-lapping §conceptions of what constitutes identity not only in §the world of theoretical debate, but also in that of §political and personal practice, Dhanda s arguments §in favour of seeing these matters in terms of §negotiation rather than in those of simple and §mutually uncomprehending conflict will be of very §great interest to all concerned with the many §problems of personal and inter-communal experience §to-day." Alan Montefiore, Emeritus Fellow of Balliol §College, Oxford.