Urbanisation Citizenship And Conflict In India

Urbanisation is rapidly changing the geographic and social landscape of India, and indeed Asia as a whole. Issues of collective violence, urban poverty and discrimination become crucial factors in the redefinition of citizenship not only in legal terms, but also in a cultural and socio-economic dimension. While Indian cities are becoming the centres of a culture of exclusion against vulnerable social groups, a long-term perspective is essential to understand the patterns that shaped the space, politics, economy and culture of contemporary metropolises. This book takes a critical, longer-term view of India’s economic transition. The idea that urban growth goes hand in hand with the modernisation of the country does not account for the fact that increasingly higher portions of the urban population are comprised of lower-income groups, casual labourers and slum dwellers. Using the case study of Ahmedabad, this book investigates the history of city and of its people over the twentieth century. It analyses the contrasting relationship between urban authorities and the inhabitants of Ahmedabad and examines instances of antagonism and negotiation – amongst people, groups and between the people and the public authority – that have continuously shaped, transformed and redefined life in the city. This book offers an important tool for understanding the bigger context of the conflicts, the social and cultural issues that accompanied the broader process of urbanisation in contemporary India. It will be of interest to scholars of Urban History, studies of collective violence and South Asian Studies.

Urbanizing Citizenship examines processes of urbanization in contemporary Indian cities through the lens of urban citizenship. It provides a fresh understanding of the multiple arenas and practices through which citizenship and urbanism are co-constituted in India. Bringing together an interdisciplinary group of scholars working on India, this book looks closely at six Indian cities—Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai, and Varanasi—and examines a range of processes and contested urban spaces, thus exploring and analyzing their myriad implications for urban inhabitants and their right to the city. Through ethnographies and histories of the urban, this book unsettles theories generated in the Euro-American context to show how urban citizenship might be differently practiced, understood, and reconfigured within the Indian context.

This book makes a pioneering attempt to analyse the linkages between the rule of East India Company and urban environment in colonial India over more than a half-century - from 1746 to 1803 - through a study of the city of Madras (present Chennai). The book traces urban development in colonial South India from a broad economic history point of view and with a focus on its environmental dimension, covering the period from the First Carnatic War until the 18th century by which time the English East India Company had consolidated its power. It discusses themes such as urban development; infrastructural development; housing and buildings, city and suburbs; and development of land and roads in the colonial period. Using extensive archival resources, it offers new insights on the various aspects of the shifting urban physical environment and captures the development of Madras city limits; road infrastructure, building of paved streets, whitewashed walls and compounded houses; establishment of garden houses; use of land resources; development of masonry bridges by merchants; housing problems; and the building of Fort House, Garden House, Admiralty House, Pantheon House, Custom House, etc. in Madras, to describe the impact of colonialism on urban environment. An important contribution to the history of urban economics and environment, this book with its lucid style and rich illustrations will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of colonial history, modern Indian history, environmental history, urban environment, urban history, political economy, urban economic history, Indian history, and South Asian studies.

Presents a historical ethnography of two workers' neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad, a city in Western India.

India has been catapulted to the centre of world attention. Its rapidly growing economy, new geo-political confidence, and global cultural influence have ensured that people across the world recognise India as one of the main sites of social dynamism in the early twenty-first century. In this book, research leaders John Harriss, Craig Jeffrey and Trent Brown explore in depth the economic, social, and political changes occurring in India today, and their implications for the people of India and the world. Each of the book’s fourteen chapters seeks to answer a key question: Is India’s democracy under threat? Can India’s Growth be sustained? How are youth changing India? Drawing on a wealth of scholarly and popular material as well as their own experience researching the country during this period of major transformation, the authors draw the reader into key debates about economic growth, poverty, environmental justice, the character of Indian democracy, rights and social movements, gender, caste, education, and foreign policy. India, they conclude, has undergone some extraordinary and positive changes since the early 1990s but deeply worrying threats remain: increasing authoritarianism, growing inequality, entrenched poverty, and environmental vulnerability. How India responds to these crucial challenges will shape the world’s largest democracy for years to come.

Investigation into how a shared narrative of law and cinema produces ways of collectively remembering mass violence in postcolonial India.

The relationship between Islamic law and society is an important issue in Iran under the Islamic Republic. Although Islamic law was a pivotal element in the traditional Iranian society, no comprehensive research has been made until today. This is because modern reformers emphasized the lack of rule of law in nineteenth-century Iran. However, a legal system did exist, and Islamic law was a substantial part of it. This is the first book on the relationship between Islamic law and the Iranian society during the nineteenth century. The author explores the legal aspects of urban society in Iran and provides the social context in which political process occurred and examines how authorities applied law in society, how people utilized the law, and how the law regulated society. Based on rich archival sources including court records and private deeds from Qajar Tehran, this book explores how Islamic law functioned in Iranian society. The judicial system, sharia court, and religious endowments (vaqf) are fully discussed, and the role of ‘ulama as legal experts is highlighted throughout the book. It challenges nationalist and modernist views on nineteenth-century Iran and provides a unique model in terms of the relationship between Islamic law and society, which is rather different from the Ottoman case. Providing an understanding of this legal system in Iran and its role in society, this book offers a basis for assessing the motives and results of modern reforms as well as the modernist discourse. This book will be of interest to students of Middle Eastern and Iranian Studies.

Investigates how a rural town became a site of community-making, mobility, and identity formation In 2002 widespread communal violence tore apart hundreds of towns and villages in rural parts of Gujarat, India. In the aftermath, many Muslims living in Hindu-majority villages sought safety in the small town of Anand, some relocating with the financial assistance of their relatives overseas. Following such dramatic displacement and disorientation, Anand emerged as a site of opportunity and hope. For its residents and transnational visitors, Anand’s Muslim area is not just a site of marginalization; it has become an important focal point and regional center from which they can participate in the wider community of Gujarat and reimagine society in more inclusive terms. This compelling ethnography shows how in Anand the experience of residential segregation led not to estrangement or closure but to distinctive practices of mobility and exchange that embed Muslim residents in a variety of social networks. In doing so, New Lives in Anand moves beyond established notions of ghettoization to foreground the places, practices, and narratives that are significant to the people of Anand. It asks how people get on with their lives after an episode of violence to create new spaces and societies and to reconfigure their sense of belonging. New Lives in Anand is available in an open access edition through the Sustainable History Monograph Pilot, thanks to the generous support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.