URBAN UTOPIAS EXCESS and EXPULSION in NEOLIBERAL SOUTH ASIA Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology

EDITED BY TEREZA KULDOVA AND MATHEW A. VARGHESE URBAN UTOPIAS EXCESS AND EXPULSION IN NEOLIBERAL SOUTH ASIA Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology Series Editors Italo Pardo School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom Giuliana B. Prato School of Anthropology and Conservation University of Kent Canterbury, United Kingdom Aim of the series Half of humanity lives in towns and cities and that proportion is expected to increase in the coming decades. Society, both Western and non- Western, is fast becoming urban and mega-urban as existing cities and a growing number of smaller towns are set on a path of demographic and spatial expansion. Given the disciplinary commitment to an empirically- based analysis, anthropology has a unique contribution to make to our understanding of our evolving urban world. It is in such a belief that we have established the Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology series. In the awareness of the unique contribution that ethnography offers for a better theoretical and practical grasp of our rapidly changing and increasingly complex cities, the series will seek high-quality contributions from anthropologists and other social scientists, such as geographers, political scientists, sociologists and others, engaged in empirical research in diverse ethnographic settings. Proposed topics should set the agenda concerning new debates and chart new theoretical directions, encouraging reflection on the significance of the anthropological paradigm in urban research and its centrality to mainstream academic debates and to society more broadly. The series aims to promote critical scholarship in international anthropology. Volumes published in the series should address theoretical and methodological issues, showing the relevance of ethnographic research in understanding the socio-cultural, demographic, economic and geo-political changes of contemporary society. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/14573 Tereza Kuldova • Mathew A. Varghese Editors Urban Utopias Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal South Asia Editors Tereza Kuldova Mathew A. Varghese Department of Archaeology, Department of Political Science Conservation and History Maharajas College University of Oslo Kerala, India Oslo, Norway Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology ISBN 978-3-319-47622-3 ISBN 978-3-319-47623-0 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-47623-0 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017933828 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s) 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Cover design by Henry Petrides Printed on acid-free paper This Palgrave Macmillan imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Dedicated to All Expelled ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This volume is a result of a series of enquiries into the materializations of urban utopias, which would not have been possible without the intense collaboration of all the authors included in this volume. As editors, we would like to thank all of the contributors for their wonderful work and their intellectual generosity. Mathew A. Varghese extends his gratitude to all informants and friends from Kerala and beyond. He thanks in particular the academic staff at the Department of Anthropology at the University of Bergen for their support in his academic ventures; he would also like to thank in particular Anne- Kathrin Thomassen and Gro Aase for their assistance in his research. While many more people deserve thanks, he would like to mention in particular Antony Dawson DeSilva of the Department of Political Science, Maharajas College and thank the colleagues at the Maharajas College Ernakulam for their encouragements as well as The Centre for Public Policy Research (CPPR) for offering working space. Critical encouragements that came from Professor Bruce Kapferer from 2004 to 2013, opened up ethnographic enquiries into urban processes. Finally, there was his Akkanad home (parents, Srija, Rachel and Toto) that always stands united. Tereza Kuldova would like to thank her colleagues at the Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History at the University of Oslo, in particular Veronique Pouillard and Erling Sverdrup Sandmo, for their persis- tent encouragements in all her projects. She would also like to acknowledge the larger project funding, of which this publication is a small part, namely the HERA project The Enterprise of Culture: International Structures and vii viii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Connections in the Fashion Industry (grant agreement no. 291827), and within this collaborative international project, in particular one of the principle investigators, Regina Lee Blaszczyk, University of Leeds, for her always kind support and encouragements. This work would also not be possible without the generous support, continuous care, and charming companionship of Robert Pfaller. CONTENTS 1 Introduction: Urban Utopias—Excess and Expulsion in Neoliberal India and Sri Lanka 1 Tereza Kuldova and Mathew A. Varghese Part I Futuristic Visions of Urbanity and Socio-Economic Expulsions 17 2 The Impossibility of World-Class Slum-Free Indian Cities and the Fantasy of ‘Two Indias’ 19 Tara van Dijk 3 Guarded Luxotopias and Expulsions in New Delhi: Aesthetics and Ideology of Outer and Inner Spaces of an Urban Utopia 37 Tereza Kuldova 4 Golden or Green? Growth Infrastructures and Resistance in Goa 53 Kenneth Bo Nielsen and Solano Jose Savio Da Silva ix x Contents 5 Vikasanam: The Expansionist Choreography of Space-Making in Kerala 75 Mathew A. Varghese 6 Cities of Neoliberal Future: Urban Utopia in Indian Science Fiction Cinema 97 Shiju Sam Varughese Part II Urban Megalomaniac Visions and Heritage Utopias 117 7 Manifesting Sri Lankan Megalomania: The Rajapakses’ Vision of Empire and of a Clean Colombo 119 Øivind Fuglerud 8 A Modern Chakravartin: Mayawati’s New Buddhist Visual Culture 139 Melia Belli Bose 9 Past as a Metaphor in the New Utopian Imaginations of Heritage in Kerala 169 Rachel A. Varghese 10 Excavating the City: Metro Rail Construction and Imagination of Past in Contemporary Jaipur 189 Garima Dhabhai Part III Urban Queer Utopias and Bodily Expulsions 207 11 Utopia or Elsewhere: Queer Modernities in Small Town West Bengal 209 Paul Boyce and Rohit K. Dasgupta Contents xi 12 Utopia Interrupted: Indian Sex/Gender Dissident Activism and the Everyday Search for a Life Worth Living 227 Caroline Osella 13 Queerness’s Domain?: Queer Negotiations, Utopian Visions and the Failures of Heterotopias in Bangalore 247 Jacquelyn P. Strey 14 Epilogue: The Promise of Urbanity—How the City Makes Life Worth Living 269 Robert Pfaller Index 281 NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS Melia Belli Bose received her PhD in Art History from the University of California, Los Angeles, and is now Assistant Professor of Asian Art at the University of Victoria, Canada. Her work examines intersections of gender, memorization, and visual culture in early modern and contemporary South Asia. She is the author of Royal Umbrellas of Stone: Memory, Politics and Public Identity in Rajput Funerary Art (2015). Paul Boyce is Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and International Development at the University of Sussex. He is the co-editor of Understanding global sexualities: New frontiers (2012). Rohit K. Dasgupta is Lecturer in Media at the Institute for Media and Creative Industries at Loughborough University. He is the author of the forthcoming monograph Digital Queer Cultures in India (Routledge, 2017) Garima Dhabhai is a PhD Fellow at the Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her research aims at understanding the interface between old city form and new templates of urbanization in contemporary India. Focusing intensively on the city of Jaipur, her work seeks to unravel the political and cultural dynamics of heritage and tourism industry, while investigating the ways in which it shapes urban space. Garima has also taught courses on contemporary Indian politics and society, international politics and globalization in several colleges of the Delhi University. She was a Fox Fellow at Yale University in 2015–16. Tara van Dijk is Lecturer in Globalisation and Development in the Department of Technology and Society Studies at Maastricht University.

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