The term ‘identity politics’ is used as a term of abuse by those who see themselves as occupying some unmarked identity such as ‘Indian citizen,’ rather than an ‘identity’ such as ‘woman’ or ‘muslim’ or ‘dalit’ or ‘homosexual’—but believe me, you have to be pretty damn privileged if you can afford the luxury of that unmarked designer label of ‘citizen.’ Only if you are privileged by your class position can you forget that you are any of those identities, and even then, most women and non-heterosexuals and Dalits and Muslims know to their cost that they can shout for all they are worth that they are simply ‘citizens’—they are stigmatised, branded (now in a different sense—not branded as in designer label, but branded as in cattle), by their ‘identity,’ whether they like it or not.
— Nivedita Menon, “How Natural is Normal?: Feminism and Compulsory Heterosexuality”, Because I Have A Voice: Queer Politics in India
