4 min readMar 27, 2026 04:29 PM IST First published on: Mar 27, 2026 at 04:21 PM ISTStories and anecdotes often illustrate the complexities of social issues more effectively than academic jargon. To me, the Savarna privilege of “castelessness” became clear through one such story: Once, a teenager asked his mother, “What is our caste, Ma?” She then asked him, “How old are you?” The boy said, “14”. To which his mother said, “If you are 14 and don’t know your caste yet, you must be upper caste.” The mother’s response stands on two socio-political realities that shape identity politics. First, it clarifies that any “-lessness”, whether caste, race or other markers of marginalisation, comes with a socio-political, if not socio-economic, privilege. Second, it shows that the burden of identity always lies with the marginalised; the privileged can get away without “coming out”.Last week, when British street artist Banksy’s identity was revealed in a Reuters investigation as a White man from Bristol named Robin Gunningham, I was at peace: Banksy had to be a White man. Anonymity has its own burden. And not everyone has the social wherewithal to bear it.AdvertisementThere are three aspects through which this burden of anonymity could be read. First, historically, many authors from marginalised communities used pseudonyms to hide their identities. In the 19th century, to break away from the Victorian perception that they could only write romances, women authors used male pseudonyms; Mary Ann Evans, for example, wrote under the name George Eliot. Similarly, the Brontë sisters — Charlotte, Emily and Anne — used the pseudonyms Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell to evade gender bias. Gloria Jean Watkins used her maternal grandmother’s name, “bell hooks”, challenging kinship as defined by patriarchy to erase her younger self — “the girl who was always wrong, always punished.” These instances show how pseudonyms can become a form of resistance, a way of overcoming biases and exploring areas that are socially off-limits. However, White men, who shape the global order in their own Judeo-Christian image, have never needed to hide their identity. So Banksy’s concealment of his identity, which has created a myth around his persona, is part of his multi-layered privilege, not a part of any historical resistance.Second, while subversive art doesn’t need to come from “lived experience(s) alone”, one cannot ignore the value of lived realities in shaping subversive notions of authors/artistes. Gopal Guru and Sundar Sarukkai, in their book The Cracked Mirror: An Indian Debate on Experience and Theory, discuss how lived experience is different from an outsider’s spatial and temporal brushes with certain realities. While Banksy’s work undoubtedly carries immense subversive values, his privileged positionality should have been made public earlier. Understanding the author’s subjectivity and cultural choices is as important as the work itself. That is why ethnographic work today demands a section on self-reflection where both the identity and the cultural privileges of the author can be made plain, going beyond the “dead author” trope.Third, mid-20th century onwards, the assertion of marginalised identities became a tool to question the socio-political hegemonies of privileged communities. Words like “Dalit”, “Adivasi”, “Black” became markers of resistance. Hiding one’s identity was no longer the norm. It was a journey from the colonisers’ celebration of the “universal” to the assertion by the colonised of the “particular”— the lived realities, not reality; lived histories, not history. These multiplicities of experiences exited the white cube galleries and embraced the street as the canvas. So, for an artiste belonging to a marginalised community, lived experience works as her foundation for subversive art. She wants to assert her identity, not hide it.AdvertisementThis is not to say that the value of Banksy’s works is lost after his unmasking. But perhaps it would have been easier for many of us to know who he is — a part of a historic resistance or a one-off instance of a progressive White man who can afford to hide his identity.The writer is senior assistant editor, The Indian Express. abhik.bhattacharya@expressindia.com