identity, noun
- Origin:
- EnglishShow more Special sense of general English identity ‘absolute or essential sameness, oneness’ (OED).
historical
A principle of government by which all people are regarded as the same despite any cultural or other differences which might exist.
1924 E.H. Brookes Hist. of Native Policy 62Most modern thinkers on the Native question argue as if there were no via media between the principle which refuses to acknowledge any real difference between Europeans and Natives, the policy of identity as we may call it,..and the principle which insists on the subordinate position of the Native in the body politic, the policy of subordination.
1961 Listener (U.K.) 30 Nov. 808These influences..led in South Africa to the policy sometimes known as ‘identity’, of regarding all men as much the same...The earlier British policy of identity broke down.
A principle of government by which all people are regarded as the same despite any cultural or other differences which might exist.
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