Brazen Dignity

Your dignity is how you view your worth, how you view your own story. Dignity is the foot-the-in the door in the face of oppression. It is to say my flag of resistance and determination still stands. The Indian perception of dignity has always spoken about how dignity is tainted. Dignity is tainted upon being oppressed beaten. People lose face when they make mistakes when they cannot protect themselves. Having dignity only means having the will to resist and keep living, to keep making meaning of whatever there is. Dignity is seated in your eyes. Every time you look ahead you live it and uphold it.

Can dignity be tainted?

The idea that dignity can be tainted comes from this assumption that pride and dignity are inextricably linked. Pride, when attached to anything too important for one’s survival, becomes problematic. Pride should be kept as far away from survival essentials as possible. Pride doesn’t allow for peace. Pride needs to roar in order to be heard within one’s own system.

Dignity in times of oppression

I remember how Sula from the book Sula by Toni Morrison. was a woman who defined her world in spite of how toxic her corner was. Sula stands, Sula walks her world without a care of how oppressed she was. Her trust is violated by her best friend. Her heart is broken by her village who saw her like the plague that haunts the village and people. She herself is infected by a deadly condition, which eventually kills her.

Dignity is just standing with your meaning and purpose. The meaning and purpose can change but the will to grow meaning and purpose is what keeps your dignity from being tainted.

I’ve looked at how Celie from The Colour Purple by Alice Walker who did not have a sense of self for a long time develops dignity. She develops meaning and purpose in her womanhood in her newfound business and develops a world view of how she is to be treated. She gives back to her oppressor. She even forgives her oppressor. It doesn’t take away from her dignity because she found herself. She found her personhood. The right and wrong of forgiving her oppressor is not what I’m getting into. But her ability to find meaning and her will to love life even if life did not love her was very dignified of her. She made space for herself in her world. She owned the most land in her mind.

Dignity is more…

Dignity is the ability to love living one’s own life even when life doesn’t love you back. There is a sense of childish quality that is at the centre of maintaining one’s dignity. The quality being that of irreverence to power, the power of institutions, the power of exploitative people. It is to say, I am not subservient to anything even if I’m hurt, humiliated or maimed. It is to revere one’s own space and personhood above all. The most important aspect of this reverence is the ability to forgive oneself of irrational, helpless, hopeless and vulnerable behaviour. It is the ability to see oneself as a growing hero in one’s story.

Why is it essential?

Dignity is subjective. One’s idea of honest living and independence informs it. Dignity is essential because it helps us weigh our importance and the importance of all our elements. The Indian perspective on dignity has made dignity inaccessible to those who are abused, to those who are poor, the people of the ghettos. It makes a class of those who will never attain dignity. Unless, lo and behold unless they don’t give up their identity or worse their life. Dignity is quintessentially made as something the society gives you. The power of exclusion makes society a tangible entity. It is only the ability to bring consensus on an exclusion that makes society a more visible entity.

The dignity that is derived from following social norms, dress codes and legal ethics are important too. But if these are the only source of dignity then it is very problematic. It means your dignity can be taken away.

Let’s ask Kant

Immanuel Kant believed that human beings are ends in themselves. Being an end in yourself means your dignity is beyond all values of the world. Value is a relative term. Values come from outside. It comes from an observers’ perspective. Hence dignity that whichever is beyond all value must be free from the shackles of the world’s parameters.

Defining dignity in very personal terms is the goal of this article. Political dignity and the right to dignity is not something I’d like to get into. That being said, no matter what kind of status is ascribed to an individual. The dignity of the individual depends only and only on his own self-worth which can be very radically different from the ascribed respect. Even amidst systemic disadvantages one can find and value oneself. It’s happened through history and can continue to happen. If and only if we believe in it.

All in all, society does not hand out dignity nor does it have the power to take it away from you. Dignity is a very personal earning and it must always remain that way.