Identity politics

Identity is elusive yet ubiquitous across space and place. Identity politics is therefore marked with heterogeneity, ambiguity, and complexity. This chapter operates on the assumption that identity politics is essentially a politics of exclusionary categories, both social and spatial. It starts with a brief review of how identity politics, as a topic of inquiry, made its way into an academic setting. It then focuses on three major attributes of identity politics, examining it through two categories: religion and sexuality. The third section offers the cases of Bangladesh and India to show how religious identity and politics play out in the daily lives of ordinary people and, concurrently, how they shape regional geopolitics. Section four sheds light on sexuality and focuses on the politics of hetero- and homonormativity. Finally, the chapter concludes with a note on the untapped potential and underrecognized risk of reading and doing identity politics.