Articulating Masculinity and Space in Urban India
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Syracuse University SURFACE Dissertations - ALL SURFACE July 2016 Making Men in the City: Articulating Masculinity and Space in Urban India Madhura Lohokare Syracuse University Follow this and additional works at: https://surface.syr.edu/etd Part of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons Recommended Citation Lohokare, Madhura, "Making Men in the City: Articulating Masculinity and Space in Urban India" (2016). Dissertations - ALL. 520. https://surface.syr.edu/etd/520 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the SURFACE at SURFACE. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations - ALL by an authorized administrator of SURFACE. For more information, please contact [email protected]. Abstract In my dissertation, I illustrate the way in which processes in contemporary urban India structure the making/ unmaking of gendered identities for young men in a working class, scheduled caste neighborhood in the western Indian city of Pune. Present day Pune, an aspiring metropolis, presents a complex socio-spatial intersection of neoliberal processes and peculiar historical trajectories of caste exclusion; this dissertation seeks to highlight how socio-spatial dynamics of the city produce and sustain gendered identities and inequalities in Pune, a city hitherto neglected in academic research. Also, my focus on young men’s gendered identities speaks to a growing recognition that men need to be studied in gendered terms, as ‘men,’ in order to understand fully the dimensions of gendered inequalities and violence prevalent in South Asian cities today. I follow the lives of young men between 16 and 30 in a neighborhood in the eastern part of Pune, who belong to a scheduled caste called Matang. The historical incorporation of this caste group as municipal sweepers in the city’s labour regime has had adverse implications for the young men, in terms of low levels of education and precarious chances of employment in an increasingly skill-based and informalized labor market. I explore ethnographically the deep sense of gendered inadequacy that this lack generates in the young men, articulated in explicitly spatialised terms: through the continuous dismissal by the young men of their neighborhood as ‘backward’ as opposed to the middle class ‘standard’ areas in the city; and through their aspirational struggles to master the new spaces of consumption in the city. Relevant to my dissertation are the practices of local, exclusively male voluntary associations and of local electoral politics, which I argue constitute distinct subcultures shaped by and embedded in the historical, socio-political and spatial organisation of the city. I demonstrate in ethnographic terms how the membership of the neighborhood voluntary association and its activities enables the enactment of a ‘moral masculinity’ for the young men in the neighborhood, while simultaneously equipping them with the tools to acquire specialised knowledge about the informal, criminal city, itself a highly gendered terrain. The young men’s participation in local political brokering is an expression of the peculiar culture of urban local politics that incorporated poor neighborhoods as vital nodes of populist political bargaining in post-colonial urban India. I show how the spatialized nature of these processes allow the young men temporary feelings of power and self-worth during these negotiations, thus constituting a sense of self which tightly binds location/ place with caste, class and a gendered identity. I also illustrate the role that women’s evaluations and expectations play in shaping the gendered identities of men in the galli. I conclude that the construction and enactment of gendered identities of young men in the neighborhood is intimately moulded by their multiple marginalisations from the city’s economic, social and democratic political processes, a historical trajectory intensified in the city’s current neoliberal ethos. At the same time, the possibilities of recuperating this gendered sense of inadequacy in the spaces of the neighborhood also ensures their being trapped in these very spaces, further entrenching them firmly in the geography of the city’s caste and class based exclusion. Making Men in the City Articulating Masculinity and Space in Urban India By Madhura Lohokare B.A., Fergusson College, India 1998 M.A., Pune University, India 2000 Dissertation Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Anthropology Syracuse University July 2016 Copyright © Madhura Lohokare 2016 All Rights Reserved Acknowledgements The tiny bar on the left at the bottom of the MS Word document that now is my dissertation tells me that I have notched 128, 889 words in mapping men’s lives in Moti Peth. Ironic then, that I should feel a sudden and irrecoverable lack of faith in words as I brace to map the trail of debts and inspirations and solidarities and failures which I have accumulated along the way in writing this and indeed, which have shaped fundamentally what I have written. Notwithstanding this mini-crisis with the stuff of my business, I go ahead with the hope that the words I write here are faithful in rendering my efforts at expressing gratitude as earnest and not as banal. I dedicate this dissertation to my friends and acquaintances in Moti Peth and to the at times passionate, at times nonchalant ways in which they continue to script themselves in the narrative of the city. It has been a privilege to get access to their life worlds. Rekha, Jaya vahini, Didi, Puja, Kala bai, Susha kaku, Vahini, Abeda bai, Kanchan, Malan kaku, Pia, Bharati, Kalyani, our afternoon rendezvous are a permanent gift. Rakesh, Munna, Pawan, Askhay, Rahul, Krishna, Nagesh, Dinesh, Sanjay kaka thank you for letting me into your “secret” worlds. I am indebted to Nitin Tanksale, Abdul Sheikh, Raj Faiyyaz and Mama Ovhal for revealing to me a city and its spirit that I did not know existed. I hope that there is enough trust that they have in me and enough courage that I can muster, to go back to Moti Peth with my thoughts and analyses about their lives and their experiences. The mixture of surprise, anger, admiration, affection or disagreements that this “going back” might open up, will only make our relationship more real. It might or might not create safe space for me to reveal more explicitly my life and my emotional world in way that I have not till now. The resultant relationships might not be as coated with affection and happy memories as they are now, but they will be responsible, ethical relationships. The people in Moti Peth deserve that and so do I. Baray tar mag. I am grateful to my advisor and mentor Prof. Cecilia Van Hollen for her guidance and all her intellectual support in shaping my project. As I shifted continents in between writing, losing focus, momentum and motivation alternately, her unwavering presence has been a huge support. The fact that my project took an entirely new direction post-fieldwork would have been far more anxiety inducing had it not been for Cecilia’s equanimity in encouraging me to do what it takes to finish, even if it meant another round of fieldwork. I have felt our connection strengthen over the past three years of virtual contact and hurried catching up sessions in Delhi. Thank you for everything, Cecilia! I also thank my committee member Prof. Susan Wadley for her welcoming presence, right from when I was a new international student, a bit stunned emotionally when faced with the combined assault of desolate wintry landscape of Syracuse and the mad pace and pressure of graduate school. As I made a huge turnaround in my dissertation topic from public spaces to masculinity, I remembered Sue’s anticipatory remark in my defense, “but what about masculinity?” Thanks Sue for your relevant questions and for your continuing support for my project. Prof. Don Mitchell, also a committee member, holds a special place for my project. He made it possible for me to enjoy some of the most intellectually stimulating courses in graduate iv school, helping me connect with my interest in space and place. I have deeply appreciated his uncompromising demand of academic rigor from his students, and an idea of theory which always insists on being firmly rooted in practice, on the ground. So thank you Don, for introducing the joys of Geography to me and keeping me focused on place. I reserve special regards for Prof. Ann Gold, who came on board on my dissertation committee later, however has been absolutely invaluable in her appreciation and encouragement of my work. It meant a lot to me that Ann willingly waded through my initial chapters (written in the reverse order!), at a short notice and shared some of her own work with me related to my project. Some of my inspired writing has come from the ready appreciation that Ann has shown for my work and I am really indebted to her for instilling this confidence in me about my writing. A heartfelt thank you, Ann. Contrary to conventional graduate student wisdom, I have six members on my dissertation committee, and I do not regret it. The presence of Prof. Smriti Srinivas on my committee is a big reason for my apparent self-congratulatory tone about my decision. Her feedback has been always thought-provoking and critical, reminding me gently of the loopholes in my argument, providing helpful references and comments. Undoubtedly my dissertation is richer and more rigorous on account of her feedback. Thank you so much Prof. Srinivas, for your feedback and for graciously agreeing to work virtually on this process, which sometimes can be inconvenient! At the risk of repeating myself I will say how glad I am that you agreed to be on my committee. I also want to thank Prof.