Written. by: Rohit Mujumdar
-Khushboo Tejwani, Sharvin Jangle
‘Bodies, Cities, Ecologies’ revolved around questions of how every day indigeneity, class, religion, and gender as categories that inscribe bodies with difference intersect to shape everyday life in city spaces.
The course began by exploring diverse perspectives through readings from Dalit, indigenous, decolonial, and feminist writings. These readings provided foundations for discussions, allowing us to gain insights into different marginalized and underrepresented voices. Some of the texts that served as the basis for these discussions were “Beyond Nature and Culture” by Philpee Descola, “Caste and Nature: Dalit and Indian Environmental Politics” by Mukul Sharma and “Stories of Cooperative Housing Societies in Suburban Mumbai” by Apoorva Sharma.
The next step was to contextualize the concepts from the readings, within the suburban landscape of Mumbai through field visits. The focus was on observing how human settlements develop and function. Two specific sites were explored: Ganpat Patil Nagar, an informal settlement located near the reclaimed edge close to the mangroves, and Daulat Nagar, a suburban town planning scheme developed in the 1950s in Borivali East.
These field visits provided opportunities to delve deeper into various aspects, particularly the influence of differences such as caste, class, religion, and gender on shaping everyday life in urban spaces.
Postcard as a medium of transaction of ideas, knowledge, stories was taken to open out the everyday differences in these urban ecologies.
Of Faith and Influence
“Jab bhi Aai khelne aati thi na woh mujhe sab batata tha, ki aage kya hone wala hai! (Whenever the Goddess possessed him, he would often recite the future to me.)” “Fir dheere dheere woh baki log ka bhavishya batane laga aur totke laga ke takleef bhagane laga.” (He eventually started predicting other people’s future and started practising ritualistic healing).
”Usne Mama ka bhi madat kiya; naya mandir ka zameen lene ko! Isiliye Mama ne humse ek rupiya liye begair humko ye ghar aur zameen diya.” (He even helped Mama in acquiring land for the new temple, which is why Mama gave us this land to build our home for free). He began to settle disputes over land by summoning the spirits and practising other esoteric rituals and soon the head of the local land mafia, locally known as Mama, used Aman’s connections and practices to capture land in the CRZ. He subsequently built a temple on these grounds. The land disputes he settled within Ganpat Patil Nagar have led to the formation of a dense network of believers within the settlement.
As the seer’s connection to the deity grew stranger, he set up his practice within the quiet and secluded gullies of Ganpat Patil Nagar. Helping people for sums of money that they could afford and making it their primary source of income.
Hybrid apartment buildings
Vanitha Jain resides in Daulat Nagar since the 1990s and has witnessed transforming bungalows into four-storey apartments. From compact 1 – 2 BHK flats to large-scale glass skins buildings. One can see the urban life constantly nurturing itself via vivid communal practices and ideas of food, hygiene, routine, privacy, religious rituals, gender, and sect.
Vanita had 2 flats in the scheme. On the first and second floors. She believes in Jainism and worship monks as a Sthanakvasi ritual. She rented her first floor flat to a trust, which owns and manages the Derasar i.e. the Jain temple in their neighborhood. Thus, the apartment started functioning as an Upashray, where monks took a stay, traversing from place to place. After six months, Vanitha and her husband sold the flat to the trust, who retrofitted and transformed it into a full-fledged Upashray. Now Vanitha takes care of the monks who live in the flat on the floor below. She helps the monks with their Pravachans (preachings) and with their ‘Gochri’ (offerings for food).
Eventually, the shared spaces within the building premises started blurring into Upashray’s rituals and ways of living. And that's where personal life started shaping.
In the meantime, the 4th-floor apartment is rented as an office space by a law firm. The apartment building now accommodates different lives, routines, ideas of worship, living, and work, generating a co-living and sharing space.
Comments