Supported by THE FORD FOUNDATION
Project concept
The Mythologies of Mumbai Project seeks to explore the relationship between globalization and entrenched social and economic hierarchies through three lenses – livelihood, habitat and educational institutions. The two areas of the city chosen for this exploration are Girangaon – the erstwhile industrial centre of Mumbai and Dharavi – supposedly the largest slum neighborhood of the city, both undergoing gentrification.
The researchers, residents of Dharavi and Girangaon, are also archiving the rich, structural and live heritages of both localities through longitudinal follow up over a period of three years.
Research Concept
Conceptual difference between Dharavi and Girangaon
Dharavi, over the years, has attracted increasing attention from across disciplines. It has turned into one of the most popular, albeit once infamous, subject of study – be it social, political, economic, architecture, urban planning, developmental models, journalistic investigations and even environmentalism. The Mythologies of Mumbai project in Dharavi is different in that it does not aim to play voyeur to the community’s poverty or idiosyncrasies, as often portrayed; it aims to track the area’s redevelopment whilst conducting a thorough, in depth longitudinal study of where Dharavi’s communities are headed, their aspirations and the determining factors that influence that process. The primary focus is on exploring minimum twenty five communities and two educational institutions – SIES and Chetana College – that accommodate the college going population of this expanse. The aim is to evaluate the quality of education, bearing in mind the opportunities available to students, whether there is upward mobility led by education, or a change in livelihoods and traditional occupations, what kind of infrastructure and facilities are available to these colleges; that is, laboratories, libraries, etc. Also, an important component of this investigation and research is the study of the profiles of students and teachers of these colleges. This process, already embarked on, has emerged as crucial to be able to map backgrounds and specific factors informing individuals’ choices and chances. The exploration of the communities will reveal the profiles of the community members and their daily lives, dreams, aspirations and challenges.
Girangaon, on the other hand, is witnessing rapid changes in its geography, culture, environment and composition, a change taken for granted by the city but not necessarily approved by the local residents. Through our anthropological research in Girangaon, we aim to highlight concerns regarding the redevelopment process and also document and archive Girangaon’s industrial, structural and live heritage for the posterity. This includes the rich past of the textile industry which contributed to making Mumbai a financial nerve center of the country. We believe that this rich documentation will help produce new knowledge about the entrenched forms of social stratification that are undergoing metamorphosis which need to be studied.
Our Inspiration
Our researchers, who are involved in the project, come from traditionally marginalized groups and backgrounds that in many ways reflect the politics of the city’s transformation. They belong to educational institutions that are part of the traditional knowledge building spaces and spaces of mobility and aspiration in the city. Moreover, they belong to the very communities in which their research is anchored. This not only makes them investigators but also important stakeholders in the process. PUKAR believes that the research and knowledge building processes and dissemination of the ideas and experiences in the city are important to make the case for an inclusive development, as also to document the city’s past, and the various processes impacting on its communities.
In words of Professor Arjun Appadurai, “With the tools to understand how to shape a research idea, these young Mumbai citizens will go out in the world with a capacity for gathering evidence and using that evidence to make arguments about their future and becoming a problem solver for the future of their city.
