I listened to something very interesting on BBC Radio 4 the other day. It was their version of “From our own correspondent,” and on the chapter on the changes of caste and class in rural India an anti-caste activist from an upper caste background admitted a feeling of happiness when meeting someone of his own caste. My own initial attitude was that this was a typical barbarian sentiment which I couldn’t fathom, and yet upon further reflection it isn’t that alien to my own experience. I’ve had Jewish friends, or those from very narrow religious sects, who clearly exhibit this sort of fellow-feeling toward those who are of “Our Kind.”
And yet I’ve never really explored the psychology of people like this, as personally I find the excessive clannishness primitive and base. But that’s probably a projection of my own norms, which are by their nature a reflection of my lack of comprehension of the motives and sentiments of most human beings. So if you can sympathize with the individual above, can you unpack explicitly the rationale? Since this is intuitive and implicit that’s kind of asking a lot, but I’m kind of curious.