Neighbourhoods and Neighbourliness in Urban South Asia : Subjectivities and Spatiality

This volume examines urban South Asia through the ideas of neighbourhood and neighbourliness. With a focus on the affective socio-spatial and sensorial experiences of non-metropolitan, small and intermediate cities, the chapters in the volume look at neighbourhoods as a key to exploring the textures of urban life. Bringing together scholars from a variety of disciplines including sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning, and social history, the book highlights urban heterogeneity and contemporary transformations in South Asia. It discusses the linkages between urban lived spaces and social life; memory, migration, and exile; and the city and its society through practices of everyday life in neighbourhoods. With studies from Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and India, the volume addresses a wide range of issues pertaining to urban experiences in their regional specificities and in a broader context of the Global South. This book will be useful to scholars and researchers of urban sociology, anthropology, urban studies, planning and development, social history, political studies, cultural studies, geography, and South Asian studies. It will also interest practitioners and policymakers, architects, planners, civil society organisations, and thinktanks. This volume examines urban South Asia through the ideas of neighbourhood and neighbourliness. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 List of Illustrations 8 Contributors 10 Chapter 1 Neighbourhoods and neighbourliness in urban South Asia: An introductory outlook 14 Part I Spatial subalternity 38 Chapter 2 Becoming urban: Subjectivities and collective lives in Gurgaon’s urban villages 40 Chapter 3 Neighbourly Nilphamari: Mediated relationships in Bangladesh 55 Chapter 4 Reclaiming neighbourhoods through informal temporalities: Pettah, Sri Lanka 72 Chapter 5 From growing up in Durbarthok to living in Kathmandu and back: Places and multiple belonging in Nepal 93 Part II Memory, personal experiences, and life history 112 Chapter 6 The life and times of Vijaya baji in Panjrapol: A biography of a lived neighbourhood 114 Chapter 7 In the neighbourhood of memory: Sensuous space of Banglagarh, Darbhanga 135 Chapter 8 Reframing the para?: The “Muslim” neighbourhoods of Kolkata 158 Part III Politics of othering and stigma 176 Chapter 9 The Biharis of Orangi Town, Karachi: Experiences of belonging and neighbourliness 178 Chapter 10 Invisible refugee neighbourhoods of Lucknow: Redefining the neighbourhood as gu’āṇḍha and gali môhollā 197 Chapter 11 Neighbourhood of resilience and hope: The making and re-making of Wanathamulla 219 Index 244 Neighbourhoods;,neighbourliness;,urban,South,Asia;,urban,villages;,Subjectivities;,relationships;,informal,temporalities;,Bangladesh;,Sri,Lanka;,Nepal;,Biharis;,Karachi;,resilience;,Wanathamulla Neighbourhoods,neighbourliness,urban South Asia,urban villages,Subjectivities,relationships,informal temporalities,Bangladesh,Sri Lanka,Nepal,Biharis,Karachi,resilience,Wanathamulla