The Globally Familiar Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan

Digital Hip Hop, Masculinity, Digital Hip Hop, Masculinity, and Urban Space in Delhi The Globally Familiar

The Globally Familiar Ethiraj Gabriel Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan 2020

Durham and London

Digital Hip Hop, Masculinity, and Urban Space in Delhi Duke University Press Duke University © 2020 duke university press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of Amer­i­ca on acid-­free paper ∞ Designed by Courtney Leigh Richardson Typeset in Whitman by Westchester Publishing Services Library of Congress Cataloging-­in-­Publication Data Names: Dattatreyan, Ethiraj Gabriel, [date]. Title: The globally familiar : digital hip hop, masculinity, and urban space in Delhi / Ethiraj Gabriel Dattatreyan. Description: Durham : Duke University Press, 2020. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: lccn 2020006435 (print) | lccn 2020006436 (ebook) | isbn 9781478010159 (hardcover) | isbn 9781478011200 (paperback) | isbn 9781478012726 (ebook) Subjects: lcsh: ­Music and youth—­India—­Delhi. | Hip-­hop—­Social aspects—­India—­Delhi. | ­Music—­Social aspects—­India—­Delhi. Classification: lcc ml3917.i4 d388 2020 (print) | lcc ml3917.i4 (ebook) | ddc 305.242/1095456—­dc23 lc rec­ord available at https://­lccn​.­loc​.­gov​/­2020006435 lc ebook rec­ord available at https://­lccn​.­loc​.­gov​/­2020006436 Cover art: B-boy Ashu in sda Market, South Delhi, 2019. © Vivek Vision. Courtesy of the artist and Khatarnaak Hip Hop Collective. Contents

Preface vii Acknowl­edgments xiii Introduction 1

1 Friendship and Romance 21 2 The Materially Familiar 49 3 ­Labor and Work 79 4 Hip Hop Ideologies 107 5 Urban Development 135 6 Race and Place 163

Epilogue 191 Notes 205 Bibliography 229 Index 241 Preface

I returned to Delhi in the first week of January 2013 to begin fieldwork in earnest, just in time to bear witness to a fomenting moral panic. A few weeks prior to my arrival, a brutal rape and murder took place, now infamously referred to as the Delhi rape case. A young ­woman and her male friend had attended a film in a South Delhi movie theater located in a garish new mall that opened in 2007, just across the road from where several of the stories that follow in the pages ahead unfold. ­After watching the film, they went to the main road to find transportation to take them home. Instead of taking an auto-­rickshaw, they opted to take an inexpensive minibus, the kind that op- erates in the peripheries of the city and provides transportation for domestic workers and ser­vice laborers whose jobs run into the night. That evening­ they ­were picked up by a group of six young men driving a small private bus. The young men operating the bus wer­ e all mi­grants to the city, hailing from vari­ous rural villages across the region. They ranged in age from sixteen to thirty and lived in South Delhi’s informal housing settlements. To supple- ment their income, they used the bus to ferry passengers in the late eve­ning. On this night, their entrepreneurial endeavor transformed into a violent encounter. ­These men, after­ picking up the young woman—­ ­referred to as Nirbhaya (fearless) in the media in the weeks and months that followed—­ proceeded to brutalize her: raping, torturing, and, fi­nally, leaving her for dead on the side of the road. Following the incident, candlelight vigils and protests erupted across India. When I arrived in the cold, smog-filled­ city in early anuary,J India Gate was lit up like it was Diwali. The city’s well-to-­ do as well as those­ aspiring viii Preface was ondisplay I sibility fortheuptickinvio to voiceanotherpoliticthathadbeenlurkingjust solution andasymboloffailedliberal, secularIndia, offered aplatform and the assertion ofso- and theassertion prime ministeronthetwin platformofdevelopmentthrough privatization be roughly anothertwo years before Narendra Modi wouldassumeofficeas Hindu Bharatiya Janata Party (bjp) had not yet ascended to power. It would ing afailur space ofthemallmovietheaterwas par who ber Party (aap,Common Man’s Party), whichhadcomeintobeinginNovem rage againstthestateanditsinability toprotect toxic masculinity thatproduced thepossibility forsuchvio out toprotest. of Nirbhaya asshelay inahospitalbedfightingforherlife. They alsocame ­toward economicandsocialmobility hadturnedoutinnumberssupport mittee headedbyformersupreme chiefjusticeJ. court and recommend newsexualassaultlaws. In thisreport,produced byacom wake ofthecase, thegovernmentofIndia commissionedareporttoreview mi could besquarely placedonyoung menlike them,thepoor, undereducated that castthemalemi rape case— for actionthatthecasegenerated. urban India’s morass andcapitalizeonthecollectiverage, anxiety, anddesire male perpetr a way toshifttheresponsibility ofthevio The imageofanunmarried Hindu Rashtr lated atthescaleofnational— since liberalization took holdinthe1990sbuthadnotasyet beenarticu discourse— ­future ndia. But thediscoursethatcatapultedbothModi and thebjpintopower ­grant maleswhopr The cit Delhi elections Over thenextseveral months, thesixyoung menindictedintheDelhi

2012 asanofficialpo ­rose upjust , anarrative inpostcolonialIndia. thathasalonghistory y, depictedthrough theDelhirape caseasaplaceofmoral dis e toupholdtraditional (Hindu)norms. The figure ofthe young ­their images, theirtestimonies ­which hademerged in k ator f a that would cleanse the country anditscitiesoftheirvices.a thatwouldcleansethecountry People f ­ ­after theviolentincident. ­ after theDelhirape case rom aminority community was alsomobilized topoint ­wer ­ grant asathr eyed onvictimsinthepublicspacesof the city. In the e just around the corner and the rise of the Aam Aadmi rom allbackgroundsthe andofallagesrallied todecry ­called Hinduvalues ascentr liti ­ lence incities, sothemediatizednar ­ couple ­ ­cal entity eat tothecity’s andthenation’s pre ­going toseeafilminthegarishconsumer ­ was onethatchampionedanascendant ey momentsatlocalandregional levels , was portended intheswell of , was portended . 1 t ofthebjp’s critique, conservative At thenationallevel,right- , theirhistories— ­ lence ontothevictimsbypurport ­women. al toasuccessful under thesurface. T ­

S. Verma, “young and ­circulated inw lence aswell as ­ 2 The respon rative went, rative went, ­ sent and sent and people ­ future ­ ­wi ays ays his ng ng ------

ix Preface

- - - - ­ - - 5 an, ­after ­st from from ­ nom ­these ­i e born 4 ­ghan wer ­ ­cades , in a period when eformed. do peers in the gated The report effectively The 3 males in Delhi. Typified Typified Delhi. in males ­ whether originally whether ­century to- ­ - 6 ­ cesses of globalization and ealities. Moreover, they have have they Moreover, ealities. ­ lence. ­first grant ­grant ey components of social belong in similar as well as in quite strik quite in as well as similar in social instability that at once pro once at that instability social They are part of generation are of a They 7 8 . e opportunities for mobility even as it e opportunities for mobility ­caste and well cal, and ­cal, granted lived r ­granted uctive outsiders who live on the peripheries uctive outsiders who live on the peripheries ­liti ­futures ears of the twenty- ­for- all contended ­all ­ there ar there production as k production ­ own up in Delhi in an era when malls, the metro, the metro, when malls, own up in Delhi in an era y became a ghost to be banished or r y became a ghost to e their upper- fighting for space in an economy that offers mainly casual mainly that offers in an economy for space fighting ​ oung men of Delhi was being broadcast far and wide, I far and wide, being broadcast was oung men of Delhi e undeniably all part of the diverse, urban cross section urban cross e undeniably all part of the diverse,

.

.

. ys with being cast in the media and in their everydayys lives as

wer ­ w themselves at the nexus of a changing Indian urbanity that urbanity w themselves at the nexus of a changing Indian ­ent wa e blamed for the uptick in sexual vio for the uptick in sexual e blamed children in the early y ­children er Others, potentially destr ­Others, oung men, for the most part, had arrived in the city with their families city in the part,oung men, for the most had arrived f­f people who have gr ­people who have ­wer That is, despite economic and biographical differences, they differences, despite economic and biographical is, That The young men who populate the pages ahead— pages the populate who men young The As this shrill discourse demonizing the young, undereducated, and eco undereducated, demonizing the young, As this shrill discourse of a millennial iteration of the Zippie generation. of a millennial iteration colonies that surround the informal housing settlements and urban villages the informal housing settlements colonies that surround they live, where dian economy, and devoid of the right moral values, the specter of the fecklessthe of specter the values, moral right the of devoid and economy, dian cit male outsider in the as backward, lacking the skills to participate lacking In to a globalized in or contribute as backward, young young urban into capital global interjection of the where in an era age of come po economic, brought has India and mobile phones are taken- and mobile phones are young men sa young self- sumption, and creative is predicated on digitally enabled transnational connection, distinctive con on digitally enabled transnational is predicated generates deep anxiety and, in some instances, calamitous friction. Rather calamitous friction. and, in some instances, deep anxiety generates pro than being out of step or disconnected from the subsequent intensification of urban development it has wrought, of vital change in the city. Yet as I got to know them, it became evident that as I got to know Yet of vital change in the city. men, lik ­these young ing and the basis for potential Delhi’s Delhi’s These y ­These as young prospectless men prospectless work” and topographically. both demographically in size, had begun to swell the city in the late 1990s and came of age in urban India almost two de two almost India in the late 1990s and came of age in urban to capital. the nation opened its borders ically marginalized y ically marginalized settle informal and villages urban the from men young know to get to began ments of South and West Delhi involved in Delhi’s burgeoning hip hop scene. hip hop scene. burgeoning in Delhi’s involved Delhi West ments of South and Nepal— or Somalia, Nigeria, legitimized the media narrative about young mi young about narrative media the legitimized duces the appearance that duces the appearance the rural hinterlands of the Gangetic plains, from the northeastern edges from hinterlands of the Gangetic plains, the rural Af from or Garhwal, of villages mountain the from country, the of ingly di x Preface first unexpectedly inhabitedandinterr city discoursethathasr offline andonlineworldstheyf tion. Throughout the book, I discuss how their creative endeavors in the ing foranother men whocommit tion, away ofnarrating amasculinesubjectivity thatcouldneverbelike the cuss howmy interlocutorsevoked itasaway ofmarkingtheirowndistinc livingintheirspatialcommunities of theircohort I gottoknowaslumpenandsurplus of thecommonmediatizednarrative that positionsyoung menlike offers adi case was explic met intheDelhihiphopscene. In thepagesthatfollow, Ishowhowtherape Delhi rape caseunavoidably framed my interactions withtheyoung menI As Tara Atluri suggests, the case reframed how young young media w possibilities forthemthatmake vis opportunity and,atworst,prey on distinction ofbeingcalledtherape capitaloftheworld.Nor be clear from theoutset,thisbook the city. to asecular(urban)modernity whenitcomestoprescribed genderroles in on theproblematic debates thatpit(Hindu)tr shaping them. the profound r liti gendered, racialized, andclassedsubjectswithinasocial,economic,po section of young male mi sexual vio their spatialcommunities’ marked Otherness asproductive sitesofdistinc hip ays thatcomplicatethe cloisteringrhe ­cal contextmarked byuncer This bookfocuseson While sexualvio The young menwhopopulatethis book, ofcourse, As importantly, ofhow thisbooktellsthestory hop’s creative as a means to refashion arts their embodied difference and ­centur depictions of Delhi. In so ­people inDelhiwhograppled withther 10 Rather, thepagesaheadofferanaccountofhowadiversecross f­ ­lence inDelhi,acity thathasinr f er y. 11 ent entry pointtothinkthr ­ent entry ole thatdigitalcommunicationsandmediatechnologyhasin ­itly deployed bythey ­wise seeminglyforeclosed urban ted suchanatr lence isnotatthecenterofnarr ­ these young dancers ­ eshaped Delhi’s spacesinthelastde grants gr ­ r ­doing, tainty, anxiety, threat, andpossibility— equented created new socialandeconomic ocity. upted inthesecondde owing up in a globalizingDelhibecome i ­ ­ those more vulner ­ble analternatemappingofthecity in will not ­ oung I show how the top- ­ labor that,atbest,“timepass ­toric offearandthreat thatanimate ough masculinity inDelhithanthat ­ people Igottoknowasacritique ecent years gained the dubious dubious the ecent years gained , rappers, andgraffitiartists focus on their perspectives on ape caseanditsimplications. aditionalism inopposition ­future tor ­ these young menmobilize . In othermoments, Idis ative thatfollows, the able thanthem. ­cade ofthetw wer ­ ­people in the ­down world- upture andyield e nottheonly ­ cade isbeing ­ will itfocus ,” wait ­ those enty- ­class 9 ­ and city To To - - - - ­ ­ xi Preface ­ - - e ­in- ife, ife, day day 13 - people ­ versations, y Delhi as a ­class city future of Delhi and ­future sent. In the account ­sent. In temporar ­ ­ These con These old demographic com ­old demographic - ed. ­year ­ sent and y- ­thirt amed Delhi as a world- 14 . The case also opened up public discourse about discourse about also opened up public case The those that fr ­ 12 tions is inextricably linked to urbanities elsewher ­tions is inextricably linked ­ta ­ these phenomena are link are these phenomena cesses of dispossession, aspirations for the good l for aspirations ­cesses of dispossession, ­because the under- o neously staged in the media and during the every in the media ­neously staged ­ sen owing number of the city’s and nation’s population. and nation’s city’s owing number of the e ­ta y India. imagined and inhabited Delhi that I was privileged to wit imagined and inhabited Delhi that I was ­ epr ­mul hey also brought to the foreground the fact that young that young the fact to the foreground hey also brought ­centur , the e si - wise through digital hip hop ­wise through migration, pr ­migration, ­ wer ­first ucial actors in the drama to define the pre to ucial actors in the drama emerging in the young men’s articulated dreams, embodied practices, practices, embodied articulated dreams, men’s young the in emerging making. T ­making. It is my hope that this book, as it offers a take on con a take hope that this book, as it offers is my It ndia, not in small part and other and the nation talked and thought about gender, age, and classed power in in classed power and age, gender, about and thought talked nation and the twenty- site of masculine becoming and digital transformation, captures something something captures and digital transformation, site of masculine becoming into the pre of this historical moment and its unfoldings and audiovisual r that follows ness the- as they cr are I prise a sizable and gr urban in- and the ways in which in which and the ways the disjuncture made evident up the life of the city, that make interactions and dissolution that posited Delhi as a site of moral discourses between social and disintegration, Acknowl ­ edgments

It has taken me six years to write this book and many folks have helped me along the way. First and foremost, many thanks to the b-boys­ , graffiti writ- ers, and mcs I met in Delhi for their openness, enthusiasm, and willingness to share their lives and creative work with me. I hope, if they choose to read this book, they find something of value. This book has been­shaped by a number of diligent readers and sharp interlocutors who pushed me to rethink my first assumptions. I owe a­ great debt to Jaspal Naveel Singh for his thoughtful and critical engagements during fieldwork and for reading my manuscript countless times and, each time, patiently offering his incisive feedback. This book would not exist without him. Many thanks to all the artists, activists, and educators I met while in Delhi. They inspired and insti- gated thought and brought much joy into my life during my time in the city. Amardeep Kainth, Pooja Sood, Tenzin Lekhmon, Juan Orrantia, Priya Sen, Sitara Chowfla, Radha Mahendru, Aastha Chauhan, He Ra, and the many ­others I met and learned from during my years in South Delhi: thank you for all your warmth, generosity, and critical feedback. Radha Hegde, during a South Asia Media Conference held in London in 2014, offered me sage advice and encouragement on my then nascent ideas on digital mediations from below. Faye Ginsburg helped me think through how to articulate the collaborative aspect of this project­ just before I headed off to Delhi. I eceivedr wonderful feedback when I attended the Yale Modern South Asia Workshop in 2015. Special thanks to Kasturi Gupta, Rohit De, Kathryn Hardy, Tariq Thachil, and Tejaswini Ganti for facilitating the event. While I was a gradu­ate student at the University of Pennsylvania, xiv Acknowl­edgments thinking andhelpedmear all theirbrilliantinsightsthatcontinuetoshapem ann Liu,SofiaChaparro, Tali Ziv, ShashankSaini,and Andrew Hudson, for Mariam Durrani, Sandra Ristovska, Krystal Smalls, Savannah Shange, Rose digitality, audiovisuality, andethnography. Many thankstoArjun several friends helpedmedevelopmy thinkingaround gender, race, space, thoughtful feedbackandguidancehelpedmeim anonymous readers whoreviewed thismanuscript.All theirhard workand a tion forfundingmy research, onwhichthisbookisbased.This proj between co- since est drafts ofchapters from thisbookand has been a championofmy work Philadelphia. AbigshoutouttoH.Sam cious intellecthassharpenedmy ownovertheyears sincewe firstmetin strengthen it.Ahugethankyou toSahanaUdupa, whosewarm andviva Dasgupta, whoread versionsoftheintroduction tothisbookandhelpedme alongtheway.and support Many thankstoSareeta Amrute andDebanuj Elena Gonzalez- Special thankstoIsaac Marrero Guillamón,Martyn Wemyss, Alice Elliot, in tantly, duringcasualchatsinthepub, my theyhave pushedmetoarticulate of Londonhave generously read andcommentedonmy chapters. Asimpor lectual home at Haverford College just Iowe Jesseyour support. Weaver Shipleya Hall, StantonWortham, LisaMitchell,andSharon Ravitch: thankyou forall engagement. Thank you bothforyour friendship. Kathy Schultz,Kathleen offered mesteady, unwavering, advice, andenthusiastic support, and critical opment ofthisproj love proj ­great debttoK vestments andcritiquesofanthr While attheU To my Karin, heart, forholdingme downwhileIdidthis ect and start ­ect andstart . . Brent Luvaas, thank you for helping me think through the relationship ­optation andcooperation. T ­Polledo en Wissoker, University theDuke Press team,andthetwo ­others. Sever niversity ofPennsylvania, afewkey mentors ­ect, John LesterJ , LesBack,andEmmaTarlo foralltheirfeedback ticulate my commitments. Throughout thedevel al ofmy colleaguesat Goldsmiths, University opology inwonderfullyproductive ways. ackson ­after gr y A hanks totheWenner Gren Founda ­ great debtforpr lim, whoread some of theearli

J r. andDeborah Thomas have adu ­mensely. Iamgr ­ate school y work. oviding anintel to develop this thing: allmy ­

shaped my ­ I. Shankar ateful. ­ ect owes ------, Introduction

Picture a young man, about seventeen years of age. His family­ originally hails from the agrarian heartlands of eastern Uttar Pradesh but moved to Delhi to find work in the early twenty-­first­century . They live in a diverse and dense urban village in South Delhi, a place where mi­grants reside.1 At his age, he would normally be attending senior­ secondary school or college, or working as a driver, a construction worker, or in a shop in one of the many malls that have cropped up all over the city, like the other males in his immediate and extended ­family. Instead of attending school or working, he practices his b-­boy moves in the park close to his ­house with other young men from dif­ fer­ent ethnic, caste, and national backgrounds. He walks around his neigh- borhood and the city “battle­ ready,” striding with an arrogant confidence—­ almost as if a soundtrack that we cannot hear and he alone can affords him a dif­fer­ent embodied relationship to the streets he frequents.2 He and his friends write graffiti on the cement walls of their neighborhood and in other parts of the city. They spend their time traveling across the city on the Delhi metro, ­doing spontaneous dance per­for­mances in malls, parks, and historic ruins across the city. They rap in Hindi and En­glish to each other and, occasionally, to an audience, microphone in one hand, the other pointing outward ­toward the crowd. They take photos and make videos of ­these per­for­ mances and their other acts of creation and post them on social media. 2 Introduction elsewhere, are found in hip hop. This book is about so low. Why this lead anywher he dowiththissinginganddancing?”Hisparents ar H mer governmentschoolteacherofhissays, “What strange andthestrange ofaDelhi we play withtheoldanthropological adageabit,thefamiliarofDelhipast generates thecity’s spatialeveryday, itssubjects, andits aesthetic regime po keting campaigntopromote aglobalsneaker brand inIndia oranarrative of embodied r ies of an urban elsewhere to conceptualize and produce sonic, visual, and neurs’) aesthetic vision of the made through theelites’ (theplanners’, developers’, politicians’, and entrepre miliar repre culture, educationandsports.” ideas andactions, theseatofnationalgovernanceand acentre ofbusiness, authors oftheDelhiMaster Plan 2021,“a centre of primemoverandnerve scenes ofurbanlifeelsewhere in slums ofthecity di tential Paris orSingapore. village mutters, “Kya? Whatisthevalue?” fyda about globalization inthe so- the opportunity for a quick news story the urbanterrain ofDelhi.For them, drafted have been mobilized through an image of 1990s andthatpicked uppacein2006 cities r began soon circulations ofthem)ar ow f­ ­liti front of a graffiti mural painted by this young man and his friends. A for f Some The diverseyoung menwhopopulatethepagesaheadalsouseimaginar This hegemonicimageofa In hisrecent monograph, D. argues AsherGhertner thatDelhi has beenre For er ­cal valence thatcouldsuppor ­ent cit ­will heearnmoney?He isalr ather thanbysurveys, synopticmaps, ordemographic data. ­others, itisstr ­futures ofboth.However, thekey resource theyutilizeto imagine a ­ people whowitnesstheircreative per ­after economicliberalization policiesinI epr y andself, steeped in thefamiliarimages andsoundsof an urban ­ sen e. “Dress normally,” his e ­ta ­sen . 3 ­music?” becomes policy and practice and taken- ­tion ofyouthful urbanlifef Their per 5 He thaturbandevelopmentproj suggests ­ta ­tions ofthemselves, the cit ange, unsettling. An oldmaninaSouthDelhiurban e excited andenthusiasticastheycomeacross afa 4 ­ for ­future ­ towar ­mances alsoprovide a future Delhi,hecontends ­ 7 Ghertner contendsthat,asthistop- Ghertner ­future familiar t anongoingactivistproj eady disadvantaged andpoor. What d thegoalofmakingDelhi,toquote that places Delhi in comparison to, say, ­ mother say these young men ­ ­ after theDelhiMaster Plan2021w rom elsewhere laminatedonto under hisbreath ashe stands ­ for ­ s. “Stop wearing your pants . y theylivein,andthepo ­these idealized 8 ­mances (andsocialmedia ­ will hedointhe e uncertain thatthis e uncertain ndia ­these y ­ viable imageforamar ’s hiphopplay offers ­futures ­ wer for- ­ , valorizes familiar ects in Delhi that ects inDelhithat ­ ­ect. oung men— ­granted e enacted in the e enactedinthe . It makes, if 6 world- doxa, it ­future? ­called ­down class ­class ­ will ­will ­the as as ------3 Introduction ­ ------Cold ­Cold these ­ – e previ e These me These ­ As Donna . ­wer eading, and eading, ble through ­ble through 15 ­ si ers in the city—as the city—as ers in ­ others. , replete with unantici- , replete music, and the news— ­ ­people a site by which to Perhaps more importantly, importantly, more Perhaps 11 9 ­future . It suggests that by cultivating suggests by cultivating that It as it reconstitutes livelihoods, livelihoods, reconstitutes it as 10 ­ble. ­offers y, digital moment when a clear when a moment digital y, ­si ­ others, and labor others, ­sent and actice and the affective economy and economy actice and the affective lar place ­lar ­u cal changes that arrived in the post ­cal changes that arrived ­ temporar As Arjun Appadurai argues (as does Stu argues Appadurai As Arjun ­tic 12 ­ these understandings to ­ liti ­ent pre ­ a term used to describe not only the economic a term used to describe not only the economic e or “locally”— er f eimagine and remake self and city through hip through self and city eimagine and remake f­ people are not simply interpellated as docile sub ­people are ” these technologies can be made to conjure these technologies can ­ , a di om “below” an opportunity to reimagine the city and the city to reimagine om “below” an opportunity ent and productive terms ­ent and productive ­lar, ent moment and context), by listening to, r to, ­ent moment and context), by listening er f er f­ f­f ­ those fr ­ically “protected.” The availability of inexpensive smart the phones that allow for availability The ­ lar culture 14 ­nom ­enabled participation and pr , films, the explosion of access to tv, films, Rather, 13 . to de term globally familiar I use the synthetic this book, hroughout I pick up this idea in the con the in idea this up pick I T Since the 1990s, media consumption has become a key site to track the site to track media consumption has become a key Since the 1990s, oduction, they can fashion themselves and the worlds they inhabit. and the worlds they can fashion themselves oduction, ar era in national contexts, like India for instance, which instance, for India like contexts, national in era ar yriad forms, produces in a par a in produces forms, yriad lifestyles, and personhood. lifestyles, whether produced elsewher whether produced understand, engage, and even contest changes that the flow of capital, in its and even understand, engage, m of media forms has and production media consumption distinction between collapsed. watching the “popu watching themselves on di pated participation and opportunity, is pos pated participation and opportunity, children of newcomers, ethnic or caste or caste ethnic newcomers, of ­children - and social transforma economic of Delhi’s of age on the margins they come and media consumption transnational that through the promise tion with pr men the means to r young is the technological speaking, broadly globally familiar, The hop practice. as as well place and time facilitates connection across that infrastructure of media the diversity jects scribe and theorize how smartscribe and theorize and social media platforms offer phones diations offer W ously eco effects of what was somewhat faddishly (in both hopeful and pessimistic was somewhat faddishly (in both hopeful and effects of what called globalization— ways) but the social, cultural, and po but the social, cultural, media- the globally familiar is a feeling of connectedness made pos is a feeling of connectedness made the globally familiar this feeling produces. of aspiration structure the self through the consumption, production, and circulation of transna circulation and the consumption, production, the self through tional popu art Hall, in a di art Hall, possibility to access and repost (and remix) existing media and creatively existing media and creatively (and remix) to access and repost possibility come to know shapes how we our everyday experiences profoundly capture this moment, media is not simply something ourselves in the world. In oneself and the to actively create to consume and imagine with but a way world anew and communicate 4 Introduction class orontherur dered body, withananalytical focusoncasteHindumalesexuality, bodily ship. The first strand hasengaged withcolonialism’s impact onthemalegen study ofmasculinity, thistendencyhasresulted intwo strands ofscholar one analyticalproj and peri- rary embodimentsofworking- Delhi. T tal hip hop” as a site of gendered becoming and spatial transformation in bodies moment, digitalcommunicationtechnologiesholdthepotentialtoremak connectivit as offers opportunities tointerrupt them. as offersopportunities normative anddeeplyproblematic ideasaboutgenderandsexuality aswell have paidcloseattention tohowhiphopenvisions, articulates, andshapes through digitalmeans toproduce unanticipatedsubjectsandplaces. India istorecognize thereach ofAfrican astheyare diasporicarts amplified technologies Haraway presciently argued almostthree de scholarship onIndia hastendedtofocuson of postliber in andwiththecit dered (classed,andracialized) difference in ways thatproduce new relations to understandandcreatively mobilizetheirperceived andexperiencedgen global familiarbywhichtheyoung menImetinDelhi’s hiphopscenecome African diasporiccir phenomenon andthatr ties. Idraw from arange ofresearch thathasengagedwithhiphopasaglobal ted forrebroadcast through hiphop’s sonic,visual,andkinestheticsensibili Black American masculinity asitisdigitallybroadcast, received, andretrofit that centerEu argue, to move away from “normative imaginations of global technoculture” a siteof gendered becomingin Delhi is, as Joshua Neves and Bhaskar Sarkar plent subjectivities elsewher work onhowhiphop As importantly, I deploythegloballyfamiliarinthisbooktospecificallyengagewith “digi In thelastde y ofresearch onhiphop’s “global linguisticflows,” and placesprecisely he globallyfamiliar ­urban poorand y andcomparisontheyfacilitate. alization urbanIndia. AsSareeta Amrute argues, con

.

rope andN ­ .

­cade, feministhiphopscholarsworkingintheU .

​ are thecr ­ect ortheotherare leftoutaltogether y theycallhome al caste, religious, ethnic,andtribal subject. ­ there ha ­cuits toexplore howdigitalhiphopbecomesthek ’s aesthetics, initsglobaltravels, have e. ecognizes ther 20 working class, into as aresult, tendtogetsubsumed orth Amerorth , inthecloseethnographic reading thatfollows, is ucial toolrecrafting ourbodies.” ­because ofthespeedcontinuousandrecursive ve beenfewcloseengagementswithcontempo ­class masculinity inthecomplexsocialworlds . 17 To focusondigitalmediacirculations as i ­ ­ca. each ofAmerican Blacknessbeyond 18 To engagewithhiphopinurban 19 either theso- ­ However, while cades ago, “ ­ ­ there hasbeen ­called urban . With regard to the the to . With regard communications ­ shaped gendered 16 there hasbeen ­ In thepre 21 nited States The urban urban The ­ temporar middle ­ ­ little ­sent ey ey e y ------5 Introduction

- - - - 23 li . there there ­ ­ these opriative ­ here and and here 27 ers, as they as they ers, class young men ­class young tention to the ways tention to the ways ve, with few excep- with ve, these engagements, these engagements, ­ ­mances of a diverse In other words, other words, In ­ for 24 ­class men in Delhi the ations are influenced as ations are migration and expr migration ­ ­cuits of becoming. children of work children ­ . class” masculinities and sexua masculinities ­class” ­ nationalist identity formation, formation, identity nationalist either in the village or in one of village or in one ­either in the men in the context of the city they men in the context of the city owing up in urban India as well as as well owing up in urban India lar, I push for an at ­lar, The settings for settings The ­u 22 ­tic ansnational cir lence. ­ oss section of working- ­class men gr mances and gendered aspir ­mances and gendered ed to tr ously included me in their cipha but also in their au- ceptions, have been have ceptions, for ­ tier cities or large towns or large ­tier cities ­fashion themselves as ­ these studies have included cities but ha these studies have y, I push against readings of masculinity as regional (South as regional of masculinity I push against readings y, egional mass media, and a newfound sense of publicness egional mass media, 25 y to self- 26 provides a diverse cr ­provides , and their opportunities for work. In each case, I look at the ways in I look at the ways each case, , and their opportunities for work. In ’s many second- many ’s The second strand has delved into “middle- has strand second The By engaging with Delhi as a spatial field of transformation made optical, engaging with Delhi as a spatial field of transformation By I engage with masculinity in my participants’ social (media) play, physi play, social (media) participants’ in my I engage with masculinity In the pages ahead, I foreground how transnational media circulation in media circulation how transnational the pages ahead, I foreground In oup of young working- of young oup with some notable ex with some India gr opportunit media content they consume and much by the context they live in as by the By and everyday hip hop embodiments. emulate in their online productions of working- account among a diverse group situating my ­future which their social per I focus on the fluid and complex as Rather, Asian) or national (Indian). the miniaturized screen—as it brings notions of personhood and place from it brings notions of personhood and place from the miniaturized screen—as with the conversation into immediate and productive elsewhere now— call home. within the and ethnicity race, caste, to class, semblages of gender in relation context of Delhi but link - becomes a site of trans in which media production the ways think through par In formation and opportunity. cultivation, semen conservation, semen cultivation, religious- sectarian vio and consequent living in the cit young men who gener young audible, and visceral not only in the ethnographic cut I inhabited with not only in the ethnographic and visceral audible, in which ways to the I offer an alternative narrative diovisual productions, fluences the aspirations and everyday per and gendered aspirations the fluences for the aspirations conceptual understandings of gender, cal embodiments, has not been a close engagement with how in- has not been a close impacted how the male development have come and perform them- imagine of age in urban spaces of transformation, selves as men. The settings for settings The tions, failed to differentiate male subjects based on their laboring opportu laboring their on based subjects male - differentiate to failed tions, or spatialized conditions. positions, racialized nities, ties in the postliberalization period, touching upon the impact of consumerism,ties in the postliberalization national and r 6 Introduction imagined asglobalorworldclassnot lized hiphoptoreimagine theircity asglobal style, andcirculation ofcity buses— on thewalls Brian Larkinpoeticallyargues that“the quotidianlandscapesoflife— fantasy energy bywhichthecollectiveper gr cial medianarrations ofthediverseyoung malehip hopdancers, mcs, and concr modate thesur their plightasaresult ofslumclearances andthelike. focused on tunit pages ahead,Ishowhowdigitalhiphopoffered d r urban poorandworkingclassare depictedashomogenousand ruled byexper ruled isoftendiscussedinSouthAsia—asaproj urban place-making tialize Delhiasasiteofproductive mobility and recalcitrant in some countsbutwas deeplyunequal(and segregated) in production— the city coupledwithmy ethnographic deepdiveintothecontextsoftheir while themassesdonot. cosmopolitan elitehave accesstotheglobal— who portray thecity intermsofcleardemarcation anddivisionwhere the than naries. This book provides a di dexed theirgendered becomingbutwas constitutiveofDelhiasaplace. hop– murals across the city’s expanses, anditsregular hiphop events. Their hip nate thecity’s builtenvirons. the countlessshoppingmallsandprivate hospitalsthathave cometodomi normative understandingsoftwenty- waysand urban villages where they reside—in that productively disrupted the historical ruins, the cement walls surrounding the streets of the slums ecipients or, atbest,asexamplesofanachronistic re ian pre affiti writers Consider thatmuchofthescholarshipontwenty- In theirrenderings andinhabitations, con T his doubling, where theyoung menIgottoknowdeployed hiphoptospa y toclaimandreimagine thespacesoftheircity— ­inspired self- ­those offered byscholars ete priv ­sent and ­either atop- , shopsigns, dancinggirls, bestsellers, pa ate housingdevelopments;theshinyor internationalairport; ­was apictur ’ everyday border’ everyday crossings andrelational entanglementsin ts andratified bythedesires oftheso- ge inprivately ownedautomobiles;thenewglass, steel,and ­fu ­fashioning proj ture that, ultimately, doesnotincludethemin its imagi ­down reimagining of thecit 34 e ofDelhithatdidnotseem so clearlydividedon Whatemerged—in theimages, videos, andso 31 Rather, theyoung menImetinthecity uti , literary writers,, literary orthemainstream media, f­f er ­ects inthecity ­ent entr ­first- ­ are allsurfacer ­ because ofthenewroads toaccom century Delhi ­century ceives thesocialorder.” y point to engaging with Delhi because ofitsslums, itsgr ­ literally andmetaphorically— ­ ­ these young mentheoppor , inthissense, notonlyin ­ temporar y or on the urban poor and y orontheurbanpoorand sis ­ first- ­ 33 epre ­called ­tance toanurbanIn In eachcase, Delhi’s noramas ­ ­ the parks, themalls ’s socialorder. ­others. century Delhihas ­century y Delhiwas re ­ sen ­ equality ­middle class. ­ta either passive either passive ­ ­tions ofthe , theshape, ­ ect thatis 29 , at once , atonce ­posters In the 30 32 affiti 28 ­ ------,

­ 7 Introduction ­ ­ ------. ­ ity ­simple futures ­futures s trans Rather, Rather, 35 ” ­ Lughod de vision of Delhi as Delhi of vision , urban space, and , urban space, ve taken up the hope ve taken cades since economic ­ will not offer a ­will not offer ist dispossession: the kind of ­ist dispossession: the ound them through hip hop–ound them through middle class utopias. ­middle class mances of distinction that did­mances of distinction ve about their hip hop practice ve about their hip hop practice down aesthetic aesthetic ­down ­tal ­ i ­ for ­sis of masculinity ically and socially privileged peers but­ically and socially privileged ­ these young men negotiated the chang these young This diagnostic concerns itself, in large in large itself, diagnostic concerns This oung men’s economic and social economic and men’s oung these young men ha these young ­ ­ nom 38 y and its cities irrevocably. tance against the dominant aesthetic that has the dominant aesthetic ­tance against ry Ortner has described as “dark anthropol ry Ortner has described as “dark ­wise in the shadows of globalization’ ­ sis e positioned) as gendered subjects in the fast- e positioned) as gendered with its focus on transnational (digital) media, ­with its focus on transnational ­ these y ­ wer epresenting racial capitalism and its effects, would capitalism and its effects, racial epresenting Rather, I endeavor to explore and unwind the stories the unwind and explore to endeavor I Rather, 37 y and the opportunities and exclusions they encounter y and the opportunities and exclusions ains of the city more than two de than two more ains of the city . In this sense, the pages that follow the pages that follow this sense, . In , critique their eco The mere fact that mere The 36 eties their elders and parents ha ­eties their elders and parents ­i aken in this spirit, my analy in this spirit, my aken axis, masculine becoming, and urban change in India’s capital and urban change in India’s masculine becoming, axis, ­cal history of r ­class city ­liti wise. T ­wise. f the anx e meant to productively grab their attention even if that sometimes meant even if that attention their grab e meant to productively In this sense, this book— this sense, In I Nor does this book offer a dismal narrative of digital subjectification, of digital subjectification, this book offer a dismal narrative does Nor ? What is the value?), my participants’ insistence on insistence participants’ fydamy value?), the is What ? (Kya city the the last twenty years transformed many of India’s urban spaces into whatspaces urban India’s of many transformed years twenty last the eworking of the cit ale of celebratory re subaltern the story that unfolds centers on how of how my participants’ digital hip hop practice in Delhi reflects the com in Delhi reflects practice digital hip hop participants’ of how my part, with the ways in which the young men who let me into their lives po in which the young part, with the ways digital hip hop in Delhi offers something akin to what Lila Abu- akin to what Lila digital hip hop in Delhi offers something changing urban terr liberalization changed the countr liberalization hip hop pr pursuing hip hop art forms and developing digitally enabled transnational arthop hip pursuing transnational enabled digitally developing and forms imagine the transformative they the ways reveals communities of practice possibilities for life new to create potential of digital technology and hip hop other marginal male subjects other as marginal and the country. formation of the city to limits linked the reflect in make that impossible. that make not, for instance ­wer real their shared that produced forces the structural calling into question influenced modes of consumption and per influenced modes challenged and reinforced the logics of a top-a of logics the and reinforced challenged turn the (digital) communicative exemplifies Dean argues ogy” and that Jodi in capitalism. of power.” scribes as a “diagnostic a world- ful, creative, and vitally embodied and spatialized practices of hip hop, with of hip hop, and vitally embodied and spatialized practices ful, creative, its po ing economic, social, and spatial conditions ar ing economic, social, plicated relationship between their desire to participate in global capital’s to participate their desire in global capital’s between plicated relationship r sitioned themselves (and global consumerist interpellation, and cap global consumerist media theorist Ravi Sundaram has argued are “ are has argued Sundaram Ravi media theorist t in Sher account that ethnographic 8 Introduction fashion themselvesasmusical performers, evenifthepossibilit for nationalfameare sparked andcultivated by thepromise and possibil vi por ered intastes, desires, aspirations, andpo fully engagedwiththeways inwhichaccesstoglobalcirculations hasush American showbyasimilar name kose describesasaRagga- the Tamil filmKaaladan (Loverboy),begantoshopforanddress inwhatLu - in postliberalization India. In Lukose’s bywatching account,Devan, inpart town Ker r reconstitute gender r mulation ofgender city— ity oftelevisualappearance. tices andaspir r Blackness, mediatedthrough Tamil cinema,offered adi and aponytail)tobe“chethu,” inaneffort coolorsharpinMalayali. Global other and act ofwatching togetherinanera marked byaconsciousnessofelsewhere tions, po in India. In theiraccounts, what emerges are thekindsofgendered rela about hownationalandregionallifeforyoung men cinemashapeseveryday film- in small- ization India hashighlightedmassmediationasakey ele they inhabit.Someofthisrichcorpusscholarshiponyouth inpostliberal reinforce class, religious, caste, and gendered difference in thelifeworlds habits, oftheirhopesanddreams, andarticulations atoncetransgress and fatally markaspiration as focused on the liminal category ofy ­focused ontheliminalcategory of flows ithassinceletloosehave transformed publicspace, understandings how economicliber acialized possibility forDevan and,inturn,produced di eimagine andreposition themselvesthroughchoice, sartorial consumptive ­sion showslik ­gender, andaspir I alsothinkofDevan, theyoung low- F I tunities tocriticallyreflect onhow young n mor or instance ­star fanclubsinasecond- ­offers thelatest “digital tak ­town Ker liti ­ ala whoappearsinRitty Lukose’s workonyouth transformations ­wise e recent ethnographic work, ­cal sensibilities, andspatialinhabitationspr . ations forhimandhispeers. 41 , Filippo OsellaandCaroline Osella’s account ofyoung men e ala Indian Idol and the ways in which youthful aspirations ed subjectivities, socialpractices, andspatialrelations. ation foryoung alization inIndia inthe1990sand consumptive ­going tothecinemaandSarah D oles, reimagine publicspace, and,insomeinstances, inspired st ­ ­ future death. 42 Simplywatching theshow— ­ tier city inT e” onabodyoflit outh inthepostliberalization era hascare — ­people. yle pants, (baggy looseshirts, sneakers, ­sparks thedesire iny ­there hasbeenafocusonr ­caste collegestudentbasedinsmall- 40

liti ­ ­These accountshave offered op amil Nadu provide away tothink 39 Anthropological workthathas ­cal sensibilitiesthatanxiously people livinginIndia, asthey ­ er ­ ickey’s theorizationof ­a ­ture concernedwith f­ f oduced through the er f­ ment intherefor ­ f er ­ent gendered and ­ modeled oung ­ent socialprac- y toaccess eal ­people to ­after an ­ity tele ­ ------­ 9 Introduction ­ ­

- - - - - e 47 a ­ the 48 pop, ­pop, and ­year , and , and g ­five- ogy and the ­ These users ­These

45 enty- tier cities like tier cities like ­ ed around one ed around apid creation of apid creation tw ­ eproduction of a of a eproduction ndian” youth. ndian” y for new modes of y for new modes of people). ­ rom around the world: around rom after 2008, when 3 ­after 2008, , all of which supplement favor the r favor ­ 44 te tape boom in the 1980s or te tape boom in the emier League football, K- As with previous shifts in media shifts in As with previous ­ fashioning, and unbridled aspir and unbridled fashioning, 43 divides in urban India with, among with, India urban in divides . ous media manifestations, is mor ous media manifestations, ­ there has been a r has ­there limited based on gender, class gender, based on limited ­ 46 ­glish Pr e than half the nation’s population. e than half the nation’s ari oduced by national and regional mass and regional by national oduced . the 1990s that caused the proliferation of proliferation the caused that 1990s the cade, especially ­cade, ­ future y that shapes desire, personhood, relation y that shapes desire, based media directed at “I ­based media directed ­ lar pr ous social ­ous lar cultural content f lar cultural ­ , acts of self- ­wise), En ­sion in lar, in its v lar, ­ ­vi for instance, the casset ­for instance, oss vari oss lar aesthetics of the show ­lar aesthetics ­u e auctioned by the government to private interests that interests e auctioned by the government to private ­tic aphies of youthful media practice have not (and, in some not have media practice youthful aphies of nese manga, and, of course, hip hop ­nese manga, and, of course, ­wer people acr ­people lit screen in public space ­lit screen umbai, and Bengaluru where umbai, and Bengaluru where people (in the case of this book, young men) gather ­people (in the case of this book, young things, access to popu ­things, granted horizon of possibilit ­granted These ethnogr ­These The globally familiar, in this sense, demands a recognition that in the age demands a recognition in this sense, globally familiar, The The globally familiar takes up this new spatialized media ecol up this new spatialized media takes globally familiar The For instance, as of 2019, India has the largest number of regular Face regular of number largest the has India 2019, of as instance, For In the current moment, quite literally, the global can fit in one’s pocket pocket the global can fit in one’s moment, quite literally, the current In spectrums e concentrated in India’s urban centers, particularly first- urban centers, in India’s e concentrated aija pop, Japa aija pop, for- cases, could not have, given their timing) paid close attention to the ways to the ways paid close attention given their timing) not have, could cases, become a taken- has media connectivity networked in which transnational, dominant aesthetic. dominant Delhi, M in the last de digital infrastructure ar 4g expanded internet connectivity. rapidly other and other global news (fake old demographic that comprises mor old demographic the requisite training to become one is one to become training the requisite the par caste and for the and dreams ships to space, the advent of satellite tele satellite of advent the infrastructure in India— infrastructure media forms— globally circulating and of local, regional, variety a broad and production. consumption, communication, post-2008 digital explosion has opened up the possibilit digital post-2008 of social media, the popu concomitant social practices book users in the world (approximately 269 million book users in the world (approximately under- diverse youth—an among India’s tion it motivates small blue- has pro digital infrastructure emergent to be summoned in an instant. This The globally familiar pushes us to think what happens when the silver screen pushes us to think what happens when the silver screen globally familiar The is miniaturized, when media of all sorts with a swipe or a click can be evoked of group a of consist practices viewing collective when and button, the of young young vided N of the popu diet previous their media industries as well as web-media industries as well 10 Introduction they too they they argued theyfelt noconnectionto cultur nant narrative hip hoptr theticized through hiphop. Their reclamation ofalag(difference) through aadmi. home. “Ghazals?Filmy the mountainsofNorth India toSouthDelhiin2003butclaimedNepal as A talented Hindi andEn lationships theyfindthemselvesenmeshedin. miliar one— media depictions cities around theworldare justaslikely tobeaccessedascorporate- diversified than ever before. Amateur YouTube videos shot by youth living in hoods ofurbanAmer out itsforty- economic mobilit cialized difference becomes a resource and strategy for realizing socialand ­Others conditions ofpossibility asthe belonging through stylistic play and embodied practice that exceeded their young mendescribed,allow tively charged one:hip hopisfreedom; hiphopislife. Hip hop, as frequently earlyoninmy stay inthecity. The response Igotwas anaffec hiphop?”was aquestionIasked“Why b- Why HipHop? they consumeisincr neither globalnorlocalbutinexcess ofboth. site bywhichtounderstandhowplacesandsubjectsare produced thatare thattransnationalfamiliar suggests circulations ofmediacontentopenupa of whotheyare andwhere (andwhen)they live. In thissense, theglobally as a and hispeers, andaes theirpositionsasalagaadmicouldonlybearticulated “Bollywood films. Ihatethem. They are horrible,” said Jay, inamixture of whole, ar ­ ­imagined regional and nationalcinemaand al worldsbeyond whattheydeemed“Indian” popu 53 . 51 Ordinary man.Mainalagaadmihoon.Iamadi Ordinary ­wer For ansformed theiroutsiderpositionalit mc andb- e inglobalcirculation withinandbeyond diasporic cir ­year histor ­ where acr glish. Ja ­ e constitutiveofhowyoung these young men,digitalconnectivity offered accessto youth ­ ­these popu , andtheways young y . Assuch,hiphopfulfilleditself inDelhiasithasthrough easingly afunctionoftheonlineandoffline webof re boy, hemovedwithhis ­ ­ i y was eigh ­ca: asatechnologyofcreative bricolagethatopens up eative embodimentofspatialized,gendered, andra y sinceitsinceptioninBlack andLatinxneighbor ­ music? That isnotforme ­lar r ed themtocreate a feeling ofconnectionand epre teen years old whenIfirstmethimin2012. ­ children oflabor ­ ­sen ­ta ­because they people inIndia gainaccesstowhat ­ ­tions por ­ boys people inurbanIndia mak ­ father fr ­ , graffiti writers, andmcsquite 50 49 y inDelhiintoagloballyfa

­ These mediaforms, taken trayed. In their accounts, . That isforIndians. Aam tv aslocal,eventhough ers, refugees, andcaste ­wer om Garhwal districtin f­f e outsidethedomi- er ­lar culture ­ent man.” F produced ­ ­cuits. , which e sense or Jay these ­ 52 ------11 Introduction ------55 54 ­class riends ranchise ­ically valu clusion, bru nom ­ ­ these young men a these young class Delhi through ­class Delhi through ate vitality, relation ate vitality, wise been foreclosed ­wise been foreclosed ­vis hip hop became a s aesthetic and its suc ­ à- ­ cesses of disenf cesses these diverse young men, ­these diverse young ted to signify ex ­ted to signify e even able to participatee even able to in these young men made f ­these young ­ven to pro ­wer Blackness vis- 56 its capacity to gener its capacity ­ as unique, creative, even entrepreneurial entrepreneurial even creative, unique, as y, (some of) y, ys that would have other that would have ys y and inclusion for ve never met, found unanticipated work, explored explored work, unanticipated found met, never ve e able to first imitate and then embody the circulat e able to first imitate and then embody y for solidarity and friendship across ethnic, religious, ethnic, religious, across and friendship y for solidarity ­ fashion as a response as a response fashion wer ­ s capacity to signify subversion and sovereignty in its subversion and sovereignty to signify s capacity ­ has been foundational to hip hop’ has been foundational wise ha ­wise ­ fashion themselves fashion , also “becomes the symbol of a conscious desire for life, a force a for life, conscious desire of a the symbol , also “becomes et despite the opportunities that arose for some, the potential for the potential for some, opportunities et despite the that arose clusion— ­driven initiatives in wa e sense of themselves, individually and collectively, as marginalized marginalized as collectively, and individually themselves, of sense e 57 ­cal category of possibilit . Which is to say, digitally enabled hip hop offered digitally enabled hip hop offered . Which is to say, chandise Yet hip hop’s practices, styles, and embodied ways of being, especially of being, and embodied ways styles, practices, hip hop’s Yet By remaking themselves and the city, even if uncomfortably and unevenly, even if uncomfortably and unevenly, themselves and the city, remaking By The dual nature of Blackness— dual nature The In this sense, practicing hip hop in Delhi reveals what Achille Mbembe what Achille reveals hip hop in Delhi practicing sense, this In mak ­liti status. subjects in the capital city of India. subjects in the capital city springing forth, buoyant and plastic, fully engaged in the act of creation andspringing forth, fully engaged in the act of creation and plastic, buoyant histories at once.” times and several midst of several capable of living in the means to self- opportunitiesself- to men I the young hop, hip in Delhi. Through on display cess globally and was got to know in Delhi and rebellion bravado hip hop’s clothed in ing image of Black masculinity to ment, and to generate new social and economic possibilities as a result. possibilities new social and economic to generate ment, and caste, and racialized difference. and racialized caste, also offered media circulation, when coupled with the potential for social way a global hustle: a experience as their unequal to frame means the them striving to become world class precisely city even succeed, in a to get by, as socially and eco public affect and its embodied experience po an incipient possibilit ­because of hip hop’ able to them. Y the breadth of the city, and (in some cases) and of the city, the breadth to fit the narrative capital has produced about a world- capital has produced to fit the narrative activist- to a postponement linked in the background, and dislocation lurked fracture their claims to Black masculinit other would they describes as the “manifest dualism” of Blackness as it circulates across the across as it circulates of Blackness dualism” as the “manifest describes in was that “Blackness argues world. Mbembe talization, and degradation, to point to a limit constantly conjured and ab and conjured constantly limit a to point to degradation, and talization, art the world as and across in its travels Blackness, he argues, yet, And horred.” mer with or becoming synonymous while indexing value and economic ships, violent ex individuals who could participate in urban India’s aspirations for world- aspirations individuals who could participate in urban India’s 12 Introduction Marwick teasingly andtantalizinglywrites, mightevencreate “instafame.”Marwick audiovisual self- classed, andr “likes” intensifiesthecirculation andproduction ofpar never knowshowfarwhatonemakes it offersahiphopother cap #dmforcollab. for newrelations asittravels through ofsocialmedia: thedigitalcircuitry one produces beckons, cajoles, invites, and,invariably, offers thepotential what oneproduces andviceversa.The do- but rather “intheway theypickupdensitiesandtexture astheymovethrough linity in Delhi’s mi check (likely from acasualser of aprescribed reproductive and production inthedigitalageisrecursive. aspect of theglobally familiar. The relationship between media consumption social mediacirculation withinandbeyond one’s existingnetworks asakey media promises something more. it only partially, at best, lives up to the expectation it generates, even if social ever bodied practice andthe thrillofdigitaldocumentationoffera way outofthe and social) is thus an ambivalent optimism (rather one). than a cruel an au part succeed financiallyasdigitalhiphopartists—in of the several years that I have known ar petition, disagreement, andhostility between Delhi’s aspiringyoung hiphop their succumb tolivingaduallifeofbeingwage laborer tohelp andahiphopartist explic to obtaingiventheirsocialbackgr fest gendered andracialized subjectivity thatpromises adi resources fortheself- tists inw As Kathleen explains, Stewart affectsdonotworkthrough explicitmeaning T ­These potentialanddela Throughout thebook,Ithinkthrough andtheorize hiphoppractice for ­i ­tal y he globallyfamiliar, asitmanifestsAmerican Blackmasculinity inDelhi, ­then ­family pay thebills day andachancetoconnectwithunanticipated ­itly pushedagainstthrough hiphoppr ­ist realism oftheA ­tic “Indian ays thatfractured solidarity asitbecameevident,overthecourse ­ future acialized subjectivitieslaminatedontospaceandplace. One 61 The content that gets ratified on social media through ­productions onplatformssuchasI . It deliversonitspromise inthemomentwhenvitalem grant andworking- ­ ” hiphopurbanity stuckbetter than ­cultivation ofanaffectivelychar . The promise alsocreated offameandfortune com ­wise thatisalwa tlantic world. yed ­ future ofmar ­vice futures evok ­ ounds, accesstoeducation,andsoon). ­labor job, whichisalltheywouldbeable ­class neighborhoodsthattheyoung men ­these y 59 ­will tra It feedsaspiration byproviding the ys already saturated inracialized riage, axis, evenassomeofthemhadto ed aspecterofnormativemascu oung men, that only some would oung men, that only some would ­it- 60 ­yourself ( vel. One’s affectivelycharged Whatoneconsumesshapes ­ children, andasteadypa because their claims to because theirclaimsto ­ ged andgloballymani ­ others. Y diy) mediacontent ­others. nstagram, asAlice f­f ­tic 58 er Why? ­u ­ent (economic ­lar gendered, et overtime, Because ­ y 62 - - - - -

13 Introduction ­

------­ lar vel , rap tifacts in ­ imagined boys ­ evious and ’ rather than ’ rather The globally famil The ­ inflected concepts concepts that tra ­concepts that 63 64 y “global” anthropology as anthropology y “global” ­tions. 68 ” ­ta , and aestheticize their situated ­ sen temporar ­ lar place and time, animates what ­lar place and time, It also pushes us to recognize how also pushes us to recognize It ­u alue for the young men who remade remade who men young the for alue 66 cal, and social impact of Black cultural ­cal, and social impact of Black cultural ­tic ­ liti G. Spady argues, “loop link,” or “reenact, or “reenact, “loop link,” argues, Spady G. ­ent contexts. cal v ­cal

er ough circulation as well as during the behind- as well ough circulation f these concepts both disrupted­these concepts both pr liti ­ f­ If he gave me the time, I would explain that me the time, he gave If 67 y di To engage with the hip hop– To but also animated in other transnational popu transnational in other animated but also 65 , when theorized as a tracking of mediatized moving , when theorized as a tracking ag, racist, nigga, nation, race, slum, and bro, to name slum, and bro, nigga, nation, race, racist, ag, to work as connoisseurs of the ‘not quite to work as connoisseurs of the ‘not ​

ys in which in ys .

.

.

ganizes affect thr ganizes affect friend, sw ­friend, s spatial coordinates, and indexed their aspirations as well as the un as well their aspirations and indexed s spatial coordinates, ­and the wa media consumption media consumption he globally familiar scenes work that needs to be done to produce the audiovisual ar done to produce that needs to be ­scenes work Indeed, if I could go back in time and respond to the old man who looked to the old man who looked if I could go back in time and respond Indeed, T In the chapters ahead, I explore the ways in which aspiring b- the ways the chapters ahead, I explore In moving concepts, held together and intensified in hip hop’s aesthetics, pro aesthetics, hop’s hip in intensified and together held concepts, moving enact, and update the aesthetic, po themselves in and through them. themselves in and through such an endeavor, value of aloud about the and wondered mural at the graffiti when made into an image that can travel I would tell him that the mural, pos Delhi swag, opens up worlds of deferred with a caption that might read movements in new and ver the city’ Michael of con Lampert is the role argues that purport concepts itself on critically pluralizing to be the same it “prides contexts across capital. and potential sibility a few— concepts as they shape life in a par of the strange.” peddlers the- bodies, dreams, dramas, and social worldings of all kinds.” worldings and social dramas, dreams, bodies, to the sign- attention It also asks us to pay the first place. as citation in everyday inter in consumed and reproduced the media that are social media repre action and in subsequent discourses— re and embodiments of masculinity, new understandings generated to them. even social and economic opportunities available hip hop’s technologies of practice, as they have been picked up across the up across been picked as they have technologies of practice, hip hop’s materi of concepts, appropriation been about productive always have globe, als, and technologies to, as James and technologies to, als, subject formation is to recognize that media consumption generates new that media consumption generates subject formation is to recognize well as and articulating difference understanding, hearing, of seeing, ways place. as opportunities for producing these young men use to understand, theorize ­these young s in Delhi’s margins evoked and deployed gen and deployed evoked margins and djs in Delhi’s graffiti artists, pers, hip to their and kin concepts linked classed, spatial, racialized, dered, hop iar, in this sense, asks us to pay attention to the ways in which digital contentdigital which in ways the to attention pay to us asks sense, this in iar, or channels and duce social, economic, and po and economic, social, duce 14 Introduction tion men whoare other offline practice of b- offline practice of Jafa describesitspractices ofomnivorous bricolage, whenmadedigital,amplifies it pushesustoconsiderhowhiphop’srupture, aestheticofflowand as Arthur tal through theirhiphopself- pr blage tion, generates vitality in a specificplaceandtimewith par practice, asitisintensifiedthrough digitalmediaproduction andcircula r ties togetherintomultimodalrelations inways thatpushagainstscholarly in whichhiphopbringsitsmusical,lyrical,visual,andkinestheticmodali- South Delhimetro station.Singhisasociolinguist f their experimentationswithhiphop, whatJ clave in West Delhi. As we waited, I found a sliver of shade on the edge of a aspiring rapper f in Punjab, andSoni was, atthetime, anineteen- It was February An EthnographyoftheGloballyFamiliar theorize adigitallyenabledshar enter intotheirworldsasacollaborator and,withthem,toimagineand city theycallhome. ­shaped how for social,economic,andpo reaching the wa cuts. Then, what b- linguistic. AsDelhib- hop ar hip hopele phy and perhaps even social media literacy are integral skills (maybe even ­people: in eductions ­boy movefr acticed, andpr The globallyfamiliarasksustoconsiderhowthe“looplinks” ofhiphop In so Sudhir’s recognition thatshootingandeditingare impor of pr and improvisation is now eminently digitalintheways it is consumed, tist. ys inwhichtheyoung meninDelhi’s hiphopscene ­doing, thathiphop’s thegloballyfamiliarsuggests aestheticofassem actice (apractice ofpractices, asit arts movements of the past threearts de Delhi in the second de 70 ments intheirownright)foranaspiringtw ­ of hip hop that pose its traveling traditions as solely musical and Assuch,thegloballyfamiliarpushesustoconsiderways ­these young mencametoseeandpr om YouTube. Onehastolearnhowshootitproperly. Lotsof

2013. Iwaited withJaspal SinghforSoniatthe mouthofa rom aneco ­ music toputon?Y oduced. Onecouldargue thatvideography andphotogra- ­wise boying, r ­ 71 Their interest in generating socialand economiccapi ­boy Sudhir oncesaidtome:“I ­imagined tobeonthemargins ofchange apping, orpaintingthrough anonlinerepre nom ­ liti ­ making proj ­ ­cade of ed anthropology. cal participation inw ­cal participation ­ically depressed postpar eh bhizaroori hai.That isimpor the twenty- ­wer ­ects openedthedoorformeto eff Changcalls “the mostfar- ­cades, e). 69 oduce themselvesandthe first ­ rom Germany withroots ­year t’s notenoughtolearna ” created opportunities enty- century ­century - ays thatrecursively ­old Sikhb- tition Punjabien ­tant (too)marks first- ­ imagined how ­ among young among young ­tic century hip ­century . Moreover, ­u ­lar y ­tant too. ­boy and sen ­ oung oung ­ta ” ­ - - - - ­ 15 Introduction

------) 72 dslr y or leg y or ­ until the ­doing re their raps raps their ­ production ­ music video ord ­ord e both , I had a difficult temporar ­ ­ lens reflex ( lens reflex doing fieldwork. ­ , we met over a re , we wer ­ e ovided him into their 2013 e not many professional professional e not many

people to experiment with ­ ­wer e meet in Delhi.” , said, “You should keep mak should keep , said, “You anuary ­ there there ­ ics; it would also allow him to offer . hip hop acts a few weeks prior. Singh Singh prior. weeks few a acts hop hip ously invited me along for the meeting. me along ously invited vors oreover, oreover, after we found out w after we ­ going to be in Delhi in 2013 going to be in Delhi ous local ­ous ­ a promised the exciting possibility for what our possibility the exciting a promised appers from South Delhi the previous summer (in the previous South Delhi appers from studio space, he believed, would not only give only he believed, would not space, studio diy ­after a momentary pause after I arrived in Delhi in J ­after I arrived inflected musical ideas, even if they had the money to spend. ­inflected musical ideas, - clandestine and improvisa about I had written ence abstract ects on the emergent hip hop scene in Delhi. Singh had stumbled hip hop ­ects on the emergent music production and gener ­music production he idea of a providing idea of a providing he ch proj e interested in expanding their hip hop repertoires to rec to repertoires hop hip their expanding in interested e music studio, the camer ­music studio, ­ music videos with the rappers and dancers w music videos with the rappers T While we sat waiting for Soni and took the commuter bustle in, Singh sat waiting While we Singh and I had recently met met Singh and I had recently worlds. As we leaned against the parapet, I told Singh about the I told Singh about the parapet, leaned against the As we worlds. something back in return for the access that they pr something back in return how, I described into the scene. first foray 2012) when I made my had needed me to shoot this video moment that this group in them se interest my them take with them or having in touch time getting him the opportunity to develop relationships with young aspiring musicians aspiring with young to develop relationships him the opportunity articulations of self and the kinds of stylized in the Delhi scene and to capture in their lyr world that they made available of r I had filmed for a crew camera I brought with me to Delhi, I explained, facilitated access. Much like like Much with me to Delhi, I explained, facilitated access. I brought camera his Singh, and circulation. interlocutors perceived as a paraprofessional opportunity for self- opportunity a paraprofessional as interlocutors perceived ment, where he could invite dancers in Delhi’s emergent hip hop scene who emergent dancers in Delhi’s he could invite ment, where as anywhere he reasoned, Studio time in Delhi, beats. and learn to produce their hip hop– digital single- afar). The endary from hip hop practitioner ing ­wer M ­else in the world, is expensive. told me that he was planning to set up a recording studio in his new apart planning to set up a recording told me that he was in Delhi for young studios available recording tional hip hop dance sessions in South Delhi malls the year prior and con sessions in South Delhi malls the year tional hip hop dance upon a confer parapet so Singh and I could sit and talk a bit before Soni arrived. Singh had Singh had arrived. Soni bit before and talk a I could sit and so Singh parapet once Lion (now, hop concert with Soni at a hip connected featuring Snoop Dogg) vari and Snoop again, interview South Delhi for an him to come to had asked and a conversation about he was tacted me to tell me not a journalist or a con riously (once they found out I was sear Once we figured out we both would be in Delhi at the same time, we planned planned we time, same the at Delhi in be would both we out figured we Once to connect. Soon to supporting committed (rice and lentils) and assuring meal of dal chawal endea each other in our fieldwork 16 Introduction and epistemicsensibilities pants intypical socialscienceendeavors byharnessinghiphop’s aesthetic attempts to displacethe power differentials between andpartici experts someone new. Assuch,hiphopography isanapproach toresearch that them. portantly, thediscussionswe hadaboutframing, producing, orlocating composed oftheimages, sounds, andvideosthatwe madeand,asim Indian American anthropologist whoarrives (largely ment eventsandper repr kind offamiliartheglobalmakes pos eventually, astheircollaborator. In so their cameraman, astheirproducer, astheirpersonalphotographer, and, of dangerous gr selves asmencomingofagein acity, asIdescribedinthepreface, thatwas think throughwhat theyvalued astheyactively andarticulate an emer than them,couldandshouldinfluencethew New York whomtheyperceived asclosertoanau dr I wouldbewillingtogoshar altern Delhi masculinity through the aesthetics of hip hop as well as how far ficult con uncertainty,discomfort, and,attimes, disagreement. new onesforthem. that reaffirmed existing relations(through “likes” on Facebook) or created for my ( areall participants ers’ is away ofconducting research thattakes seriouslyhiphopprac For as instantiationsofahiphop– book, Itouchupon in explicitcollaboration withyoung meninthescene. Throughout this to create audiovisual contentinconversation instances, and,incertain appling withitsmediatizedr ew attention tohowmy presence, asanoldermaleIndian American from Throughout my days inDelhi,Iengagedwiththeyoung menImetas During thet During Making together, whilemutuallybeneficial,alsogenerated momentsof

e H. Sam efforts totheorizeand efforts represent themselvesin theworldto become ­sen ­These collabor ­ future) analy gent Delhi hip hop scene. Moreover, my presence pushed them to ­ta versation centered around howbesttorepresent thecity andasub ­tions ofhiphopIsaw f y Alim, James , itinerant, andunemployed men. wo years I lived in Delhi, I took up any and all opportunities wo years IlivedinDelhi,tookupany andallopportunities imagined asexperts ­ ­these digitallyenabledshared ethnogr ­for ­sis asittra ative media artifacts couldatoncebecomethesiteative mediaartifacts ­mances astheyunfold.

G towar ­ . Spady, andSamirMeghelli, hiphopography eputation asaplacehostileto e m ­ infused ethnograph veled insocialmediaaswell asthevehicle rom afar)andstandsjustoffstagetodocu d dialogueandimprovisation suchthat y resources. ­ si ­ble— . doing, Imark ­ 73 Ourcoproduced knowledge was ­the tw ays inwhichthey ­ These challengingmoments ­then enty- y, or“hiphopography.” ­These momentsofdif ­because ofthemedia ed myself asanother ­tic Blackmasculinity ­first- aphic moments ­ women andfull century male ­century shaped them ­ imagined ­ ­ ti ­tion - - - ­ - - - , 17 Introduction

------ed ays ays . Along . Along fetish, a al to consti appers as we jhopadpatti (in one that traces the ­one that traces 1, I discuss the w

music video we work music video we ­ boys and r ­boys , gendered, and gender , gendered, articulates with ­ these instances of shared of shared instances these ­ s ability to congeal relations relations congeal to ability s ­thing’ In this sense, the pages that follow the pages this sense, In 74 ers in Delhi deployed to understand the ­ers in Delhi deployed 75 ­tion backdrop of neoliberal valorizations of entre of valorizations neoliberal of backdrop ­ a globally circulating caste Hindu Nepali living in a ­caste Hindu Nepali ­ti y and friction to reflexively engage with what engage to reflexively y and friction y travels with several b- with several y travels media logic of friend and the fracturing discourse fracturing the and friend of logic media om Mizoram (a state in the Northeast of India) who of India) (a state in the Northeast om Mizoram , in some cases, rejected)— , in some cases, ­cultivation. social oss ethnic and class difference as well as bridge the religious well as bridge the as oss ethnic and class difference 2, I discuss m citement, anxiety, and hopefulness linked to improvisational to improvisational and hopefulness linked citement, anxiety,

others against the ­others against lar term hip hop prac ­ things they feel are essential to being and becoming hip hop ­things they feel are ­ doing, I theorize how the globally familiar becomes centr I theorize how the doing, ­woman originally fr In chapter In The first two chapters foreground masculinity, its embodiments, and its its embodiments, masculinity, foreground two chapters first The In the chapters that follow, I think through I think through follow, that the chapters In riendships acr of “love jihad” currently circulating in India while also revealing Jay and his Jay while also revealing in India circulating of “love jihad” currently spatialized understandings of gender in the city. crew’s making as sites of possibilit making as it means to do media ethnography in the digital moment and what sortswhat moment and the digital in of ethnography media to do it means that, an activity together becomes when making insights emerge surprising the as it is about of value much about the cultivation is just as ultimately, immediacy of coproduction. energetic offer a way to think through and engage with what Amit Rai has recently de recently Amit Rai has what with engage and through think to way a offer term used to think through the magic of a of magic the through think to used term things they wanted (or ­things they wanted on together, ostensibly for the parents of his unrequited love, a young Chris a young love, of his unrequited ostensibly for the parents on together, tian maintain, and deepen as a means to make, hip hop through tion and play f interest. love his from him separates that disapproval familial and difference so In and emotive masculinities in the context of the tuting intimate relationships globally ubiquitous and other material signs in shopping malls, sneakers, hats, sought out clothes, to think through, the city across I use our forays and online spaces. markets, of a normative hip hop masculin their bodies in the visage as they remake their search through what sorts with urban space emerge of relationships ity, for the I theorize how swag— the way ing popu lived on the other side of the city and whom he met in a hip hop jam months and whom lived on the other side of the city produc creative imagines his Jay the ways to an attention for argue I prior. making with feelings of ex formal housing colony) in South Delhi, and discuss a formal housing colony) relationalities in and through digital hip hop. In chapter In hip hop. digital in and through relationalities in which cultural producers in the scene mobilize the globally familiar to scene mobilize the globally familiar in the producers in which cultural in difference across romance and enact heteronormative friendship forge an upper- Delhi. I focus on Jay, scribed as an affective ethnography in and of the media— ethnography scribed as an affective preneurship and self- preneurship 18 Introduction Specifically, Itrace the ways inwhich Jay and par which thekindsofcooperative, aspirational, andoften emergent youth culture industry. Iargue foranattention totheways in result oftheironline andofflinehiphop creativity inDelhi’s (and India’s) in the vari gent racialized spatiality inDelhi.Chapter st tion toargue foratransnational gendered andracialized understandingof conversation withrecent theorizationsofstyle, citationality, andconsump as well asitspower toalienate. In so villages inSouthDelhiascenters fornightlifeandboutiqueconsumerism. coincides withpr as aglobal’hoodisutilizedby subaltern subjectivity. ­wer the same’hoods, thatarose andtheopportunities for actors astheyallsoughtthesame“au I discussthef tive sponsored bythe GermanconsulateandtheGoetheInstitut in2011–12, the exampleofIndo- culinity, andurbanspatiality togettheattention of they mobilizetheir(media- they seekout“au cal economy ofr and aspiration. tinues tounfoldinways thatcreate novelarrangements ofgendered whathasbeencalledimmaterial articulates hip hop production of my participants. I discusshowthe globally familiar erates fortheyoung menIgottoknowinDelhi.Chapter kinds of exciting yet conflicted workand networking it gen opportunities Sudhir andhiscr into therelationship bet this movetochampionurban villagesaspotentialmodelsfora calls forthescalingdownofurban space. Idiscuss theconsequencesofhow an alternatedevelopmentmodelsituatedinanewurbanism discoursethat y le andstylistic choicesinrelationship tothechangingurbanity ofDelhi. The final andanemer two chaptersforeground hiphopplace-making I The nexttwo chaptersforeground whatIcalldigitalhiphopandthe ticipants offer as artists andmedia producersticipants offer as artists reveal how capitalism con e abletoeffectivelychannelandperformagloballyfamiliar spatialized n chapter ­ous gendered andr rictions thatemer

4, Idiscusshowdigitalhiphopcr ecognition between visitinginternationalhiphopactorsas ew’s globallyfamiliarrepre ­ then o ­cesses ofurbanchangethat have r ­tic” Indian hiphopandy ween the youth culture industry andthediydigital ween theyouth culture industry ­German HipHop P influenced) understandingsofclass, r ­ acialized laboring opportunities thatariseasa acialized laboringopportunities ge between differently situatedinternational artists andactiviststomake their case for artists ­ doing, Iputthegloballyfamiliarinto ­ then

­tic” malehiphopsubjectsfr ­ labor inthetw 5 focusesontheways inwhich sen ­ roj others ­ oung ect, asoftdiplomacyinitia- ­ ­ta eates acomplicatedpo ­tion oftheirurbanvillage in the scene participate ­ people inthesceneas these actors. U ­ those young menwho ­ emade several urban fr ­ enty-

ee 3 divesheadlong ­labor thatmy ­ first ­ future Delhi ace, mas ­century tilizing labor ­ liti ­ om - ­ - - - - .

19 Introduction - - - - - ­ - - - - ­ si ve returned ve returned ers in the Delhi hip hop ­ers in the Delhi hip ­ after we ha after we oss difference made pos oss difference chable in online worlds. As chable in online worlds. ­tion ti ­ y, as he and his crew recount recount as he and his crew y, ough their raps. I use their tes I use their raps. ough their ­ble by social media, tell us about oung men, about Delhi, and about si ­ ame to be liminal, a period of time esult of this constant state of connec e become sear , requires us to pay attention to how our in attention us to pay , requires ­tic timefr y that the digital produces. efugee in the cit efugee in ne ­ these creative y ­these creative ecarit ace to describe their experiences of discrimination. ace to describe their e fractured when certain actors are excluded from a from excluded certain when actors are e fractured called field. I pose some thoughts about the ethical and ­called field. I pose some thoughts about y and aesthetic by which to articulatey and aesthetic by which a sense and embody ­ labor and come to terms with their ascribed social posi labor and come to terms with their ascribed future for for ­future 6, I explore how the category how the and de summoned is I explore of race 6,

Black racism they face in Delhi thr they ­Black racism , in this (final) instance What does a return to their lives regularly over the course of several of several over the course to their lives regularly What does a return ­sent and ounds mobilize r 76 ­cal conundrums that arise as a r ed vocabular I conclude with an epilogue that describes where some of the young men, some of the young where I conclude with an epilogue that describes In chapter In I also argue for an attention to how anthropologists can be tracked and can be tracked to how anthropologists for an attention I also argue ­liti years, a return at least in part made pos a return years, the pre it grounds us in the same everyday practices as our interlocutors, the glob our interlocutors, as us in the same everydaypractices it grounds ourselves as equally steeped in ally familiar ultimately asks us to recognize the enchantment and pr where an exploration of life leads to a blurring of social norms as young of social norms as young of life leads to a blurring an exploration where ­people learn to tions. blurs as it comes into contact with online, tellectual work, as it circulates our social media personae when w of common difference among the diverse prac among of common difference ble through hip hop ar ble through scene. I also discuss how potential solidarities acr also discuss how potential solidarities I scene. imaginary. itself in an Indian Delhi hip hop scene as it seeks to understand lives their in are ahead, pages the populate who and 2011 in met first I whom writing Much of the anthropological of this book. as I write the final draft assumes its ontoge on youth In this reckoning, the globally familiar draws attention to how digital media to how digital media attention familiar draws the globally this reckoning, In engages with discrimina as a discourse that directly of hip hop, circulations the anti- diverse and dancers from mcs other young how think through timonial to backgr a produce globe, the across notions of difference tion based on essentialized shar ployed by the young men in my study to describe their experiences of ex their experiences study to describe men in my young by the ployed they live in. to the neighborhoods and their relationship the city clusion in r first on a Somali I focus at the global itself? the digital, long summoned as familiars through po opportunitiesthe discuss I as even differ tion think to us for up open that globally The age. the digital in done be might ethnography about how ently familiar home from the so-home from Notes

Preface 1 Moonis Zuberi, “The Rise of the Aam Admi: A New Season for Indian Politics?,” Wall Street International, May 30, 2015. See also Webb, “Short Cir­cuits,” for a more detailed account of the links between aap and its links to the anticorruption move- ment, which started a few years prior to the formation of the party. 2 Kapur, Makeshift Mi­grants and the Law. 3 Atluri, “Young and the Restless,” 362. See also Rupa Subramanya, “The Perils of Unfulfilled Indian Youth,”Wall Street Journal (blog), February 28, 2013, https://­ blogs​.­wsj​.­com​/­indiarealtime​/­2013​/­02​/­28​/­the​-­perils​-­of​-­unfulfilled​-­indian​-­youth​/­, which offers an in­ter­est­ing view into the popu­lar discourse on youth in India as at once a promise and a peril to the nation’s ­future. 4 Rohit Dasgupta and Debanauj Dasgupta discuss the discursive production of the “monstrous” working-­class male subject in urban India in relation to emergent Indian queer publics. Dasgupta and Dasgupta, “Introduction: Queering Digital India.” Sareeta Amrute argues that the Delhi rape case offers a way to look at gen- der in relationship to spatialized ­labor in the ambivalent postliberalization era and argues for an attention to the discourse of “immobility” that surrounds men from the urban and peri-­urban working class. Amrute, “Moving Rape,” 334. 5 The expansion of the city was in part demographic, the result of tremendous in-­ migration as ­people from near and far sought out opportunities in the city. It was also topographic, as the borders of what constituted the city expanded outward, swallowing rural peripheries into the fold of what is now called the National Capital Region (ncr). For a historical account of Delhi’s growth and development, particularly from the late colonial period to the pre­sent, see Hosagrahar, Indigenous Modernities. For a more recent account of the ways Delhi has transformed through simultaneous pro­cesses of dispossession and accumulation that expand the perim- eters of the city, see Searle, Landscapes of Accumulation. 206 Notes to Preface

10

14 12 13 11 6 9 8 7 1

Introduction Ritty Lukose discussesthepopu ment perspective)inthecity. practices todemarcate urbanvillagesasexceptional (from aplanninganddevelop- Delhi DevelopmentA take onauniquedevelopmenttrajectory. In theperiodjust jurisdiction ofcity plannersdueto come tothecity tofindworkandlife. Urban villages, importantly, falloutsidethe been subsumedbytheexpansionofcit In theIndian context,urbanvillagesare preexisting agrarian settlements that have of liberalization wholiter also Mehr next. Lukose, Liberalization’s liti detail inthechaptersahead.For detaileddiscussions ofurbanvillagesandtheirpo I discussurbanvillagesandtheirrelationship toaDelhihiphopscene insome in urbanIndia audiovisual pr termed consumercitizenship.This proj which economicliberalization created thepossibility forwhatLukose hasaptly ization transformation ofpubliclife:Breckenridge, Consuming Modernity . choose from. See, forinstance, oneofthefirstbookstocapture India’s postliberal- its impactsonpublicculture andsociallife, Since thelate1990s, sever For detailedaccountsofI Sanjay S Jeff “Masculinity ofDis- opposition between tradition andmodernity isnotgrounded inhistory. Srivastava, young menImetinDelhiaboutthecity’s pre Anand T / http:// 2011, India, of Census Data,” meration the larger citiesandtownsofthenationastheycomeage thirt In I Atluri, “ City,” whichIengagewithmore directly intheintroduction. urban India, andDelhimore specifically,DuPont, see “Dream ofDelhiasaGlobal For adetailedengagementwiththeworld- cit Taneja,. Jinneology and through hiphopanditsevocationofurbanit ­population y ofjinns(spirits)tiedtothecity’s Mughal past.In thisbookIthinkwiththe ­cal economichistories, seeGovinda,“ rey, ndia y. The majority ofthisdemographic already liveinor Timepass. Young andtheRestless.” rivastava rightly suggests that this mediatized discourse that offers a binary rivastava thatthismediatizeddiscourseoffersabinary rightlysuggests aneja hascompellinglyargued foranattention to present- ­there ar a, “Urban Villages inDelhi.” ​_ ­enumer oduction forsocialmediacirculation asakey force shapingsubjects ­today e approximately sixhundred million ­Location.” . Lukose, Liberalization’s ation uthority (dda ndia’s transition intoanactorintheglobalmarket and ally zipsaboutfrom oneconsumerexperiencetothe ​. al scholarsofSouthAsiahave focusedontheways in ­html. ­Childr ­These r ­lar discourseoftheZippie, themiddle en. ­legal pre ) continuedtousecoloniallaldora (redlining) edlining policiescontinuetothepre ­ect looksatconsumptioninrelationship to

‘First Our F y andhave absorbedmi ­class city discourseinr ­ce ­there ar ­Childr ­sent and ­www ­dents fr y andmasculinity elsewhere. en; Leichty, SuitablyModern. ​. ­censusindia e several wonderfulbooksto ields, Now Our ­people om thecolonialera andthus ­future asitis ­will eventuallymoveto ­after in . “Population Enu- ­under theageof ​. ­gov elationship to grants whoha ­ ­day Delhiasa ­de ​. ­in ­imagined in ­Women. ­pen ​/ - ­2011census ­class child ­dence, the ­sent day ’

” See ve ​ . ­ 207 Notes to Introduction

​

, ets .” ­com ​. ou.” ou.” ­ ­ doing, doing, ­ brother ­family’s e very ­painted wall. ­wer ­Class City ains open up here for y ­here future in it (see ­future ­masterplan ​- et totally in control” in control” et totally yed a role in why in why a role yed ­delhi ground tr ­ground ­cal, economic, and social ’re just sittin’ at home doin’ at home doin’ just sittin’ ’re t nothing out ndia’s postcolonial history. In In history. postcolonial ndia’s lar, pla ­lar, ­liti ­u ­You ­ain’ ­tic e cided to open its protected mark ­cided to open its protected , 2013, http:// , 2013, 6 , who has just returned to his , who has just returned

­Ther ed in a period of tumultuous change , 70–71. Foundation boys as “intense and y and as “intense ­boys tion of hip hop cynicism and competing con- ­tion of hip hop cynicism ­brother ­ta ­. ​/ . Searle, “Constructing Prestige and Elaborating and Elaborating Prestige “Constructing . Searle, ­sen ” in their movements across the city. I witnessed a I witnessed a the city. across ” in their movements ­2021 ’s slums have been published by national and interna- by national and been published slums have ’s ​- doing, it usher ­doing, his!” He turns his head to gaze at a graffiti- his!” He ’s creative zeal and saw an (economic) zeal and saw creative ’s ” accessed February ­mpd ​- he Genesis,” which samples Zoro’s dialogue with his which samples Zoro’s he Genesis,” . In the film, Zoro, the the film, Zoro, . In Style y in the classic hip hop film Wild doing fieldwork on hip hop in the first place. Some of the hop in the first place. ­doing fieldwork on hip ­children battle mode ­battle there is! T ­there ” 271.

epticism from some parents, I also met parents who I also met parents some parents, epticism from rastructure in relation to the media, I draw on Rahul Mukherjee’s on Rahul Mukherjee’s to the media, I draw in relation rastructure ticles) are discussed in the chapters ahead as analytic fodder for discussed in the chapters ticles) are ­masterplan he more cynical responses on the street by elders and from some of elders and from by street on the cynical responses he more ​- orientation in Delhi. Schloss, in Delhi. Schloss, ­orientation See also A. Roy, “Blockade of the World- See also A. Roy, Rule by Aesthetics. . Searle uses the phrase internationally familiar landscapes to engage with . Searle uses the phrase y scholarship on India begins with this watershed historical moment as a historical moment begins with this watershed y scholarship on India , 1). T G ­music video “T e reminiscent of the repre e reminiscent nt part in mymy writing) and I discussed one and fieldwork,my thinking,

­delhi ​- ­ta ­wer ­about By evoking inf By work on infrastructural imaginaries that “lie at the intersection of structured state imaginaries that “lie at the intersection of structured work on infrastructural materially shape urban landscapes the ‘Professional,’ the real estate developments that have reconfigured urban space in the ncr of reconfigured estate developments that have the real that the ways when thinking through works well phrase This Delhi since the 1990s. and, in so new imaginaries evoke media of and about urban life elsewhere “Delhi Master Plan 2021, “Delhi Master / Llerena conditions in the nation. to foreign investment. In so In investment. to foreign Economic liberalization marks a historic moment in I marks a historic moment Economic liberalization temporar which to think about changing po starting point from the early 1990s, the state, in fiduciary crisis, de in fiduciary crisis, the state, the early 1990s, of the con the nation. Much reshaped that has subsequently and profoundly Ghertner In Nas’s Nas’s In and its above- of the Bronx see the expansive landscapes we (Los Angeles: Style Wild dir., Charlie Ahearn, hear their voices. as we of us in front 1994). Columbia, York: Illmatic (New “The Genesis,” 1983); Nas, Rhino, Zoro replies, “Yes, “Yes, replies, Zoro this shit? Stop fucking around and be a man. this shit? Stop fucking around apartment in the Bronx from military duty. When he enters Zoro’s apartment, he sees When he enters Zoro’s military duty. apartment from in the Bronx “ and says, and tagged-up walls sketches, cans, spray chapter day, by his older is confronted protagonist, the parents I met, as Jaspal Singh (a sociolinguist I met in the “field” who played an who played I met in the “field” Singh (a sociolinguist I met, as Jaspal the parents impor ceptions of masculinit I wound up in Delhi videos (and ar and circulated. globally familiar is produced in which the the ways thinking through sk While I heard Stories about hip hop in India Stories about as well bbc as well , and the of India , the Times The Hindu like conglomerates tional news of the publications Many , since 2011. Times India such as players, online as newer short and young men to showcase their talent offer a space for videos that feature in par videos, The their hopeful aspirations. share supportive of their and constantly in “ and constantly Joseph Schloss writes about New York b- York New writes about Schloss Joseph similar self-

7 3 5 2 4 8 9 6

208 Notes to Introduction 10

12 11

con to digitalmediabricolageanditspotentialcreate rupture evenasitreinforces and Poetics ofInfrastructure.” Amit Raimakes arelated argument withregard citizens.” Mukherjee, “Jio 2.0,” Sparks Disruption 177. SeealsoLarkin,“Politics policy/corporate initiativesandlivedexperiences/affective encountersofordinary system thatisother to jugaad,aHinditermheglossesas“hack,” away tocreatively make alifein of thepastand ing insteadaway tothinkabouthowmultipleandsimultaneousunderstandings Antonio Gramsci’s notionofhegemony asatotalizingsphere ofinfluence, offer respond totheirpo that make vis structure offeeling,whichheusedtodescribeandanalyzehistoricalruptures pre ers toremind metothinkthrough theways ongoingpro tion was aphrase thatwas eloquentlydeployed byoneofmy anonymous review ways thatgenerate value. Ahmed, “Affective Economies,” 117. Structures ofaspira- ied experience and circulating discoursesofhowandwhotobeintheworld “surfacing” hasevery bodies through theaffective relationships thatlinkbodiesandsigns.” For Ahmed, to howemotions“play role acrucial inthe‘surfacing’ ofindividualandcollective I borr link production shapegendered subjectsandproduce di unsettling thenationalasIaminthinkingthrough howdigitalconsumptionand the kindsofambivalent multiplicitiesofexperience, affect,andmobility— the Indian context,Sareeta Amrute usesthetermpostliberalization todescribe argues thattheglobal— for anthropology torethink itsobjectsofstudy. For instance, William Mazzarella What Iammarking be more realizable. Mankekar, Unsettling India. but withmasculinity andurbanspace, thepossibility tounsettle thenationalmight ipation inthecity. However, “India” notwiththecategory Isuspectthatbystarting image tion ofimages, texts, andobjects. Sheargues that diaspora creates between theUnited StatesandIndia and that rely onthecircula- In herr Amrute, “Moving Rape.” since theearly1990sinurbanIndia. SeeWilliams,; and TheLongRevolution could easilybeglossed and representing theirrelationship toapolitics(andpo plinary Spaces andGlobalization.”plinary practice. Mazzarella, “Culture, Globalization,Mediation.” SeealsoHegde, “Disci- repre oppor ­sent and ­temporar ed toliberalization have reshaped howyoung ­sen ow thetermaffectiveeconomyfrom Sara Ahmed, whoargues foranattention tunities foranthropologists toshifttheincreasingly tenuousburden of - ­mediated linksunsettle theideaofI ecent book,PurnimaMankekar looksatthe affectivelinksthat Indian ­ta ­tion backonto ­future y discoursesofentrepreneurship inIndia. He argues foranattention ­i ­ble thewa ­future thatfloatinthepublicspher . The termisabit ofaplay onRaymond Williams’s phrase ­wise exclusionar ­liti ­here ar ­thing todowiththewa ­cal, social,andeconomicrealities as structures ofaspiration— ­exemplified inthemovementofmediaforms— y other ­those we meetinthefieldwhoar e theways inwhichthe“global turn” offered a way ­wise silencedorunattended subjectsseeand y. Rai,Jugaad Time. ndia. In thisbookIamlessinterested in ys inwhichtheinternetlinksembod- ­these affectivelycharged and ­people think/feel abouttheir f­ e structure thepre f ­that have beenunleashed er ent opportunities forpar ­ent opportunities ­liti . Williams pushedagainst cesses ofdevelopment ­ ­cal economy) ofcultur e reflexively assessing ­sent. In ­creates what ­

tic-

al - - 209 Notes to Introduction ­ ­ ­pean ­ ro ­neously ne ai takes ai takes . For . For ­ta elation to ­consumers ­ mul , between struc - , between ­ thereby thereby ” Appadur

’ ­ist apparatus ­lar. ­future eceived, produced, eceived, produced, ­tal ­i ­those who consume the ow from Juan Flores, who Flores, Juan ow from cesses of globalization linked to ­cesses of globalization linked ­supported cap , 5–7. Mana of Mass Society azzarella, , Theodor Adorno, having witnessed the witnessed having Adorno, , Theodor . , 164. See also Miller and Horst, “Introduction.” , 164. See also Miller and Horst, ­Hop ­century . We might also think with at Large. We ai, Modernity mance. M ­mance. oducers in addition to that moment where media is r ­that moment where ­Women ­for otes on Deconstructing ‘the Popu otes on Deconstructing‘the entieth “N

­tw opens up the possibility of seeing the subject in r ­opens up the possibility prosumer,” since critiqued as ahistorical and overly celebra- prosumer,” ­cesses of mediation, I also borr o , “Introduction,” 6. , “Introduction,” , Partridge, “Occupying Black Bodies and Reconfiguring Eu Black Bodies and Reconfiguring “Occupying , Partridge, From Bomba to Hip- Bomba From ; and Hall, ­tion Simians, Cyborgs, and Simians, Cyborgs, ­ta . Flores, circulations. Hegde, “Disciplinary Spaces and Globalization,” 60. Mazzarella Mazzarella 60. Globalization,” “Disciplinary and Spaces Hegde, circulations. .” For a broader take on globally circulating forms of Blackness and their on globally circulating take a broader For .” ­sen ­lar raway, raway, Culture Industry working in , 282. Hall, Culture Adorno, their subordination. eproducing Spaces See, for instance See, Globalization and Race. Thomas, and Clarke see effects, and Sarkar Neves Ha popu argues (in a predigital moment) that Hall’s invocation to engage with media as a to engage with invocation moment) that Hall’s (in a predigital argues as a site of media engagement site of contestation and negotiation often prefigures under us to think with encourages Flores than production. consumption rather ground musicians and media pr ground The concept of (the) “ concept The and consumption si While the move to think about media production tory, attempted to capture this collapse in distance between what we consume as what we between this collapse in distance to capture attempted tory, Conver- Jenkins, for instance, content. See, as digital produce media and what we . gence Culture to digital pr is linked media the past and the in tension between anew, media circulations up this call and looks at digitally enabled globally familiar takes The and agency. ture and the affects and embodiments media in the moment it is consumed/produced that it constitutes as social per aries of subjectification. Appadur aries of subjectification. up a similar argument in the late 1990s, arguing for an attention to the twin axes of axes to the twin for an attention arguing late 1990s, in the up a similar argument established bound the world beyond to understand as way media and migration interpellating discourse and site to think about mass media as an way offers a lovely (ethnographic) to encounter. An for an attention arguing of agentic reformulation, engagement with encounter— and cited— interpreted, Radha Hegde, who recently has argued for an attention to media consumption to media for an attention has argued who recently Radha Hegde, unanticipated pro through below” to think “from with state and other forms of power. For Althusser, subjects are always subject always subjects are Althusser, For other forms of power. with state and and Lenin and Philosophy See Althusser, a locus of agency. also are but to power the mid- . In Other Essays a crucial played that mass media argued Germany, media in Hitler’s of mass power into a state- in interpellating individuals role docile citizen- tool in producing the ultimate mass media was Adorno, in the 1980s and Kingdom of the United world context the postcolonial Atlantic of at once a product theorization of the subject who is Althusser’s recovers 1990s, complex understanding of mass for a more arguing and agentic force, structure See Hall, contestation, and reformulation. for reception, mediation that accounts Repre to explain how ideology shapes shapes how ideology to explain interpellation concept coined the Althusser Louis world that fall in li ideas about the into subjects with normative individuals r by subjecting them to the “humiliating conditions” of their lives— “humiliating conditions” by subjecting them to the

6 17 13 15 14 18 1

210 Notes to Introduction

20 22 23 25 24 19 21

New urban consumercitizenasthedriverofcultural, social,andpo or theAmerican r and desire incon in Delhi.Ithinkthiscategory, evenifusefulasanindexofshared consumption book Isteerclearfrom usingthefuzzylogics ofthe“ property— of castedemarcation andupendedclassicaldefinitionsofclassin relationship to comes andnewfangledaspirations— as away totrack theways inwhichthisgrowing demographic withdisposablein- “ ployed thecategory of India (adjacenttoongoingrural orvillagestudies). The newscholarshipde- ­middle classemerged asw In theearlyt traveled across contexts. For anexception, seePardue, “Getting anAttitude.” example ofthekindattentive scholarshipthathasbeenproduced ashiphophas contexts. SeeA instance, someofthescholarshiphasfocusedonhowintroduction ofEn tic practice andlocalizeddebatesaround authenticity amongyoung Much oftheworkonglobalhiphophasfocusedhowshape Rose, BlackNoise; andShange, “A King Named Nicki.” Perry, Prophets oftheHood ; J. Morgan,When ChickenheadsCome Home toRoost; For examplesofpower subjects. AsAmrute hasargued, liti categor India and,indeed,inther life.” Amrute, “Moving Rape,” 337. “From SeealsoAgarwala, Work toWelfare.” garding the“ill- Materialism; andHansen, Wages ofVio Imperial Leather;Krishnaswamy, Effeminism;Alter, TheWrestler’s Body;Alter, Moral and “South Asian” masculinities(which are oftenconflated),see McClintock, For examplesofhistoricalandanthr South India; Srivastava, Masculinity “The ofDis- Nakassis, “Youth Masculinity”; OsellaandOsella,Men andMasculinities in Masculinit For con ties inurbanI “Semen, History, Desire, andTheory.” him thatworking- punctures itscategoricalsameness. See, forinstance, hisdiscussionsofworking- of category The class malesame- The notableex ­cal livesofmy interlocutorsasspatially ­limited (andrelev ­Middle Class;Leicht y todescribethegendered andeconomicpositionsoftheyoung menImet ­temporar y”; andDwyer andPinney, Plea ­negotiated theirsubjectpositions. See ­middle classtoengagewithmasculinity andsexualit wenty- ndia hasoffered insightsintohow young working- ception isSanjay Srivastava’s work,which,whileitmobilizesthe lim, Pennycook, andIbrahim, GlobalLinguisticFlows,foragood ­defined placeofurbanandperi- ­sex sexualrelations— y scholarshiponmasculinity inpostliberalization India, see ­temporar acial schemashapestheway young ­class subjectivitiesmediatesame- ­first ­middle class” tothinkthr ant) scholarshiponworking- ­ful workongender, queersubjectivities ­century y, SuitablyModern;andBrosius,India’s egion. The category ofthe“ egion. The category ay tospecify liberalization’s effectsintheurbancenters y urbanIndia, obfuscatestheeconomic,social,andpo , awave ofscholarshiponthenewSouthAsian ­there isalacunainthelit opological scholarshipon“Indian,” “Hindu,” ­a demographic thatcutacr ­lence. ­where hecr , eco ­sure and theN ough theemergence ofanaspiring ­nom ­urban workingclassesinevery ­Location”; S , forexample, Fernandes, India’s edits Stacy Pigg forremindingedits StacyPigg ­ically, andr ­class (heterosexual) masculini- ­sex intimacies. S ­middle class” asananalytical ­people thinkabouttheirlocal ­middle class” w ation. ­er ­a rivastava, “Modi- ­ture ofSouthAsiar , andhiphop, see acially marginalized liti ­ ­Middle Class. oss traditional lines y inDelhi,also ­class menare ­cal changein ­people. F rivastava, as utilized s linguis- In this ­glish or ­ day ­ e- ­ 211 Notes to Introduction . ​ ,

- 3 .

.

.

­ factors ­vice ­ times ”; and

gue for ­others ­wise seem- n chapter esentations ­time they y Delhi draw y Delhi draw ­ repr nited States (and cal Act?” I ­cal Act?” stems of classification ent spatiotemporal scales ­ent spatiotemporal ­liti ­temporar ,” see Chakraborty, “Map- see Chakraborty, ,” er f f­ he Delhi Gang Rape’ he Delhi Gang ­tion of the space- ‘T

­ture These sy ­These ­ta ­a ork, for instance) allowed them them ork, for instance) allowed time configuration to ar ­time configuration ­er e.” Hardy, “Introduction,” 7. Asif 7. “Introduction,” Hardy, e.” ­sen shaped as a result of the new oppor result ­shaped as a e tions of space allow images and ­tions of space allow images labor. ­labor. y, in construction or security, while while construction in or security, y, ­ent subject position. ­ta e themselves and the ways in which e themselves and the ways er f f­ ­sen ed difference in con ed difference labor, sa ­labor, wise exist to emerge into social imaginaries into social ­wise exist to emerge cesses of racialization in the U ­cesses of racialization futures and pasts alik ­futures lar forms of ­lar forms class masculinities are are ­class masculinities aphic engagement with mediatized masculinities in Delhi aphic engagement with mediatized masculinities , Gidwani and Sivaramakrishnan, “Circular Migration and Migration “Circular Sivaramakrishnan, and , Gidwani e discursively produced as virile and martial while e discursively produced ­u wise (hip hop in 1990s New Y ­wise (hip hop in 1990s New ­tic ­wer ­ent understanding and repr oductive to think with Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of chronotope concept of chronotope Mikhail Bakhtin’s oductive to think with etches of er om similar backgrounds find themselves in “pink collar” ser “pink collar” in find themselves backgrounds om similar f f­ e I draw from Amanda Lock Swarr and Richa Nagar, who argue that who argue Nagar, Richa and Lock Swarr Amanda from e I draw y, “Why Is Buying a Madras Cotton Shirt Po a Cotton Madras a Buying “Why Is y, ate times, spaces, and histories. Kathryn Hardy argues for an attention for an attention argues Kathryn Hardy and histories. spaces, ate times, ­Her toward par ­toward sent. Formulations of gender ­sent. Formulations ­women fr factors come together, in motion, in their performative self- in motion, ­factors come together, e seen as effeminate and fit for cognitive that shape how subjects are made and mak that shape how subjects are ­these in space. in space. ping South Asian Masculinities.” To engage with the ways in which ethnicity, race, race, in which ethnicity, engage with the ways To ping South Asian Masculinities.” Williams scholar Kimberlé from draw and caste shape male experiences in Delhi, I the “Mapping See Crenshaw, conceptualization of intersectionality. Crenshaw’s I do not wish to suggest that preformulated evoking intersectionality, By Margins.” I think with inter- class) shape lives. race, categories of experience (such as caste, of sociohistoric to multiplicity to signal an attentiveness rather, sectionality, elsewhere) that are depicted in circulating media forms. In this sense, I am writing this sense, In media forms. depicted in circulating that are elsewhere) or masculinity Asian” “South against accounts that seek to essentialize a regional masculinity in which to the ways I push for an attention Rather, masculinities. and class at di ethnicity, caste, coarticulates with race, ­wer prevail in South Asia and, in the experiences of the young men I met in Delhi, men young in South Asia and, in the experiences of the prevail become enmeshed with the pro masculinities lit Asian an example of “South For I argue that an ethnogr I argue out in play and ethnic difference to see how notions of racial also opens up the way past American to an urban to gender formation in Delhi as it relates relationship and pre from India’s colonial history, which used precolonial caste and religious logics to caste and religious which used precolonial colonial history, India’s from to laboring needs so that men types according racialized, gendered differentiate groups some from inhabited in Delhi as well as fashion a di inhabited in Delhi as well Agha extends the chronotope as a traveling space- a traveling as Agha extends the chronotope a di to produce [and] produce sk [and] produce its capacity to produce subjects. He argues, “A chronotopic depiction formulates chronotopic “A argues, He subjects. to produce its capacity Selves in Mass Agha, “Recombinant time and place.” of personhood in a sketch know in Delhi, space- men I got to the young 321. For Spacetime,” Mediated and other elsewhere to chronotopes “as mass mediated repre “as to chronotopes not other sounds of places that do I have found it pr I have directed directed young for instance work. See, “ Roychowdhury, Assertion”; of Cultural the Spaces industries. culture and creative burgeoning India’s in tunities for work that emerge Bakhtin, chro- For alike. linguistic anthropologists up by media and as it is picked other between the relationship devices that locate narrative notopes are ingly dispar Ramamurth working- I discuss how

27 26 212 Notes to Introduction 29 28 30 32 33 31

relation toplace- requires “that we reconceptualize difference asconstitutedand(re)configured in to deployintersectionality asausefulanalyticincontextsoutsidetheUnited States multiplicity ofsubjectpositionscreates. Instead shedeploys theDeleuzian- tive subjectivitiesthatcirculate inthepre method- the other of Jasbir Puar, thatrecent whosuggests intersectionalapproaches attempt to“still” lationships.” Swarr andNagar, Assumptions,” “Dismantling 514.Seealsothework the City, whichpushesforanattention totheconjunctural spaces“where plea experience anddemonstrating skills Larkin, imagination ofpublicspace” (xxi). popu that callsforanapproach tothecity pointthekindsof thattakes asitsstarting Cipha. Idraw from scholarshiponurbanity andurbaninfrastructure inSouthAsia Cipha and politicsmightcometogethertocr subjects. Sassen,GlobalCity. The world- scalings thatproduce andsocial unevenandunexpectedlaboringopportunities influx andthedevelopmentoflinksbetween globalcitiesbutbythekindsof London, Tokyo— Saskia Sassen,whosecareful scholarshiprevealed cities— howcertain Anthropology,” 393. and intentions” sowe mightseeplacedifferently, from theperspectiveof ­ post– The idea(andheuristic) oftheglobalcit “mobile spatialfield— Her who sociallycreate thespacestheyinhabit.Low of theurbanpoor(andprob pr Place, Akhil GuptaandJames Ferguson argue foranattention to“social andpo tuted through intersectionsofsubjectivity. In theirintroduction toCulture, Power, gendered geographies thatargues foranattention toplaceasdialecticallyconsti- repr orientation tothecity on subalternurbanism.F ­imagined asthecreation oftheelitewhile megacit Anan cal pro See, forinstance ­Middle and elsewher discourse ofurbancomparisonusedtodrivedevelopmentinitiatives inIndia actices” (6). e IamthinkingwithSethaLow, whoargues foranattention tothepersonasa esentational proj ­lar understandingsthatemerge f ya Roy discussesthiseither/or splitinurbanstudies— ­Bret isahiphoptermthatindexes theimprovisational space- ­cesses ofplacemakingconceivedlessasa Class. Signal andNoise theory ofassemblagetogetatthekindsfluid,ephemer ­theory wise disruptive for ­wise disruptive ton Woods era. For Sassen,theglobalcity ismarked notonlybycapital’s e. SeeA.Roy, “BlockadeoftheWorld- , DemonicGrounds , Katherine McKittrick’s intersectionalworkon ­specific strug ­emerged ask ­ects thatimaginethe“slum , one that starts from, onethatstarts thebottom upandaccountsfortheself- ­a spatio- , 125–26. or Roy, adi thetermsubalternurbanismsuggests ce ofperpetualmotionthatanexplicitdeploymenta ­gles overrights, r ey nodesinthecirculation offinancecapitalinthe ­temporal unitwithfeelings lem for developmentalists to solve)—in her article ­lem fordevelopmentaliststosolve)—in herarticle . SeeSpady, Meghelli, andAlim, ThaGlobal rom thestreet. SeeChattopadyay, Unlearning eate performativeanchorsandenlarge the ­class city y was originallydevelopedbysociologist ­sent moment.Puar, esources, socialpractices, andre- , “Claiming Space foranEngaged ” “as aterrain ofinhabitation,live- , incontrast, isapopu ­matter ofideasthanembodied ­Class City”; Br y isseenastheinheritance , thoughts, preferences, ­where theglobalcit Terrorist Assemblages. ­time forsharing al, andperforma- osius, India’s New Y ­ ­lar imagistic f­ people ­ f er inspired ­ ­ent ork, ­sure ­liti y is ­ ­ 213 Notes to Introduction ­lar . ­u riting ­tic ­Doing he globally neously, as ­neously, ­sent day , ironically, , ironically, ­ta a to engage ” ­mul ­tance. ­Middle Class. W his Is No Longer the No his Is epresented, see epresented, ­sis e an aestheticized e an aestheticized ‘T

or a critique of this e simple binaries. T ­simple binaries. ­doing they have , “Slumdog Cities,” 224. For 224. For Cities,” , “Slumdog rogate dominant epistemolo-rogate middle class and the urban ­middle class and the urban tance as a diagnostic of power ­tance as a diagnostic of power ­sis , Entangled Urbanism Srivastava, 7. .” . Style ­pinnings of capitalism and subverted its y for embodied freedom. class in Delhi” (ii). F ­class in Delhi” edric Robinson to complexify Karl Marx’s Marx’s Karl to complexify edric Robinson ticle on re ­Doing middle classes and Indian diaspor ­middle classes and Indian ” 47. Dean argues that digital communications Dean argues ” 47. lar culture as a site wher as a site ­lar culture Lughod, “Romance of R ­Lughod, “Romance these contributions to capital cannot be seen as total- ­these contributions to capital cannot be seen ; Nakassis, Pursuit of the Good Life; Nakassis, en; Chua, In ­Others, opology as an anthropology that focuses on the “harsh that focuses on the “harsh opology as an anthropology ­contained realms imagined as global. A. Roy ­imagined as eceiving end of globalization and urbanization” and and urbanization” eceiving end of globalization ­Childr osius explains that “the lower lower osius explains that “the ect. Yet ­ect. Yet Cinema and the Urban Poor in Poor and the Urban Cinema en and Masculinities; Dickey, ”

Singing through the Screen.” Singing through oduce self- Lughod’s germinal ar ­Lughod’s ead across the world, it did not break from the feudal order that the feudal order from the world, it did not break ead across , 5. Modernity Pirate lar account of how the elite/subaltern division is r division elite/subaltern ­lar account of how the cade ago, Br ­cade ago, Liberalization’s Liberalization’s am, , Stephens, “ ­Stephens, ence Abu- ecent engagements with youth, aspiration, and gendered becoming, see Chua, becoming, and gendered aspiration, ecent engagements with youth, . India in Urban Class and Education Youth, ; Sancho, rope and spr ­rope clusionary logics to produce (aesthetic) value. In so In clusionary (aesthetic) value. logics to produce tyle ather than a subversion of it. Abu- S Osella and Osella, M . South India Desai- For r For Pursuit of the Good Life; Nakassis, In Lukose r I refer izing, as hip hop also offers a possibilit izing, universalizing history of capital. Robinson argued that as capitalism emerged in that as capitalism emerged universalizing history argued of capital. Robinson Eu ex contributed to its proj Racial capitalism is a term coined by C class and a racialized it but used its logics to reproduce supposedly preceded colonial and imperial expansions that exist to the pre during hierarchy Ortner describes dark anthr of its practice since the early days Black Marxism. Hip hop artists have, Robinson, under pointed out the racial York, in New dimensions of social life” and the totalizing effects of governmentality. Ortner, Ortner, and the totalizing effects of governmentality. dimensions of social life” and Its Anthropology “Dark and tame its that channel in ways technology pushes us to perform our politics deeply ensconced in capitalism. Dean, Democracy more we become affects so that . Fantasies and Other Neoliberal Sundar sort of tendency to describe Asian cities in terms of their sharp schisms, see Neves see Neves sort schisms, describe Asian cities in terms of their sharp of tendency to see to this sort of binaried approach, an exception For “Introduction.” and Sarkar, si city, ties that bind the of Delhi and “the exploration Srivastava’s they appear to pr India’s India’s a scholarly account, see Brosius, . For Capital Dasgupta, suggests a focus on the “new upper suggests “new a focus on the For a popu For about a de at the r poor (in Delhi) are of world- with the mediatized concept lihood and politics.” Roy uses subaltern, a Gramscian concept that has a par that concept a Gramscian uses subaltern, Roy and politics.” lihood historyintellectual inter Asia, as a means to in South that privilege in urban studies gies and methodologies digital popu the familiar recognizes of the emphasis on the dilemmas on Delhi that places an of research an example see Bhan, “ the urban poor, and the disconnect of megacity I Once Knew.’ City subaltern urbanism can be subaltern urbanism

37 41 35 42

39 40 38

36

34 214 Notes to Introduction 43 47 46 45 44 49 48 50 52 51

ated aspiration) inany way. meaningful Poonam, Dreamers. ethnographic materialiscaptivating, itdoesnottheorizethedigital(ordifferenti- Poonam, Mukherjee - www “India: N pation”; andUdupa andMcDowell, “Introduction.” Manuel, aspir Snighda Poonam’s recent bookoffersasnapshotofthe youthful structures of mediation, Bricolage.” SeealsoUricchio, “Peer- I young working- fects ofnet globally familiarpicksupon networked publicssuchasalgorithmicallycurated platformslike YouTube. The variety ofuser- singular, perhapsnational,public.Rather, itasksustothinkabouttheastonishing media consumptionpushesagainsttheanalytic“mass media” a thatsuggests For adiscussionofnet million subscriberstotheirYouTube channelbefore they broadcastingstarted theirskitsonYouTube. By 2018theyhadmore thanthree Since 2012 work asar place- oflocalplacesandglobalforces thatwe shouldthinkinsteadof andsuggests binary that exceeds bothconstructs. In “Global Situation,” Anna Tsing argues againstthe in ways thatdonotaccountforthecomplexitiesofhownewmeaningismade ization studieshave oftenframed thelocalinrelationship toanamorphous global In “ post-9/11 era signalstheways inwhich“popu how theincreasing popularity ofBollywoodamongAmerican audiencesinthe Nigeria. SeealsoGopinath,“BollywoodSpectacles,” inwhichtheauthorshows ter See, for instance Streets intheGlobalHood.” IdiscussOusumare’s workindetailchapter of impossibility across difference andthuscreate new relations. Ousumare, “Beat what shedescribesasconnectivemarginalization,away torecognize shared conditions tion.” Halifu Ousumare discusses howhiphopoffersa way to recognize andarticulate Gidwani andSivaramakrishnan, “Circular Migration andtheSpaces ofCultural Asser recalibrate theirrelationship tolocalizedandglobalformsofhierarchical difference. producing hiphopallowed theyoung meninthemargins ofDelhitorecognize and by whichyoung Dalit andtribalmencanreject castehierarchies. Consuming and Vina ­users ndia. For instance, All India Bakchod (aib),acomedycollectiveoutofMumbai, rain forconsolidatingideologiesofnation,race, gender, andsexuality” (160). Youth Masculinity,” Constantine Nakassis rightlyargues thatdebatesinglobal- y Gidwani andK.Sivaramakrishnan discusshowconsumptionbecomesasite ation linked toIndia’s emergent digitalinfrastructures. However, whileits ​. ­statista ​/ ­making andforce ­. C umber ofFacebook Users,” Statista,accessedFebruary Dr assette Culture. SeealsoLiang, “Porous LegalitiesandAve esult ofsexualharassment allegations. , “Jio Sparks Disruption.” worked media consumptionandproduction, specificallyonthelivesof ­there hasbeenanexplosionofY eamers. ​. ­com ­generated andmassmediacontentthatcir ­class menlivinginDelhi. , SignalandNoise, Larkin’s accountofHindicinemainnorthern ​/ ­statistics worked mediaconsumption, seeDeuze, “Participation, Re- - ­making proj ​/ ­268136 ­these circulations andpushesustothinkabouttheef- ​/ ­top ­ects asatonceglobalandlocal. ​- ­15 ​- ­countries ouTube- ­lar culture becomesthecontested ­to- ­Peer C ­hosted mediaproduced in ​- ­based ommunities.” Networked culates inandthrough ­stopped producing new ​- ­on ​- ­number

6 , 2020, https:// ­nues ofPar ​- ­of

6 ​- . ­facebook tici- ­ - ​ 215 Notes to Introduction - ­ ­ there is there alent y that y that elationship, elationship, ­ future outside it. future little to do with ­little ­cal part y ­ liti recognition, r ­recognition, ; and Rose, Black Stop; and Rose, ’t Gordon pushes for an engage ­Gordon . The hashtag makes explicit hashtag makes . The ­will do us harm. Ambiv ­Won ­lar deployments of concept, ­u e implicitly, unexpected sexual e implicitly, matter) had ver ­matter) ­tic ’s framework and no framework ’s ’t Stop, Stop, ’t ­Can ­cited concept of cruel optimism, which, Style. chase of citation as a way to understand social chase of citation as a way , fail to fulfill their full promise. Ambivalent Ambivalent , fail to fulfill their full promise. people in the scene, who felt the politics of the who scene, ­people in the oduction as entrepreneurial closely aligns with closely oduction as entrepreneurial ­Doing ­after I left the city others but also, mor ­others but also, . efashionings of racial subjectivity. In this book, I am interested I am interested this book, In subjectivity. efashionings of racial , for that and bjp ongress e with will also, ultimately ­will also, couple of years ­couple of years Realism. , Deuze, “Participation, Remediation, Bricolage”; and Jenkins, and Jenkins, Bricolage”; Remediation, “Participation, , Deuze, ake in India, Shining India, and jugaad discourse that has sought and jugaad discourse Shining India, in India, ake echniques of the Self,” which focuses on on Brazilian mcs and their which focuses on on Brazilian echniques of the Self,” , suggests that we often want what , suggests often want that we y of hip hop, see Chang, see Chang, y of hip hop, ­ist ­but ordinary man,” is a term coined by and for a po coined by is a term ordinary man,” ­tal for Tom Boellstorf’s discus- Boellstorf’s for Tom See also The Gay Archipelago 380. mitation,” ritique of Black Reason, 6. ­i C era M ­era ring to Lauren Berlant’s well- Berlant’s ring to Lauren is a term Mark Fisher coined to describe the feeling that Fisher is a term Mark realism Ordinary Affects, 3. , and so on, see Nakassis, , and so on, see Nakassis, ansnational) hashtag #dmforcollab exploded in the Delhi scene (and across scene (and across exploded in the Delhi ansnational) hashtag #dmforcollab t, ­ist ­tal wick, “Instafame.” ­i isher, Cap isher, Lampert, “I optimism suggests a kind of bittersweet knowing that the objects or subjects of knowing that the objects or subjects of optimism suggests a kind of bittersweet need— us something that we might provide our desire Mar Stewar a discussion on the analytical pur For in shaping par role and media’s performativity gesture Dubbing, quite.” to understand the familiar or “not as a way sion of dubbing culture context to another but is one sociocultural a linguistic concept moves from where resemblance to how I am conceptualizing bears a in its usage, differently rendered See, for instance See, (tr The opportunities to mak connection— and affective and gendered of its classed, racialized, optimism is necessarily aware Optimism. material position. Berlant, Cruel Cap no alternative but to work within capitalism F . Culture Convergence a in 2016, India) to unexpected collabs— that images or videos one posts can lead the aspiration I lived in Delhi to come into being when While this hashtag had yet encounters. was palpable. affect to 2014, its prelinguistic 2012 from I am refer in the multimodal refashionings of gender, race, ethnicity, caste, and class in Delhi. caste, ethnicity, race, of gender, in the multimodal refashionings hip hop and media pr think of To the Modi- to quickly gloss ment with linguistic r in the country demographic youth to mobilize the enormous to fuel economic that would undoubtedly come with youth upheaval and sidestep the social growth . Dreamers ; Poonam, Time unemployment. Rai, Jugaad In “Linguistic T In claims to American Black subjectivity, Jennifer Roth- Jennifer subjectivity, Black claims to American For a US histor For Mbembe, them or their families them or their . Tha Global Cipha and Alim, Meghelli, see Spady, a global history, For Noise. emerged in Delhi in late 2012. The party has since come to national prominence. to national prominence. has since come party in late 2012. The in Delhi emerged something man was a strange to himself as he referred on the term where play Jay’s young by several repeated I heard , “ Aam Aadmi Aam Aadmi (or the C Aam Aadmi

57 53 55 61 65 62 63 64

60 59 58

56

54

216 Notes to Introduction 66

70 69 68 67

72

76 74 7 73 71 2 5 3 1

disparate contexts, create per ­ Ther about howimagesandsoundsinthedigitalagealsobecomesitesoftranslation. the (globally)familiar. Iextendthelinguisticfocusofdubbing, however, tothink 1. FriendshipandRomance sati, whileIwas livinginDelhi,was spoken ofasfash small,shelteredusually hasalarge indoorspace. outdoorspaceandavery Abar- would say, you cannotfindonefor years ago” onecouldfind a barsatifor creativity, andalternatepossibility hadalready passed.Iwouldhearthat“justafew in theirlatetwenties afeelingthattheirtimeasspacesofrefuge, andearly thirties: a senseofnostalgiaregarding barsatisamongwell- dation ofchoiceforcool,young urbanprofessionals andcreatives. A barsatiisatop- tion, seeM enregisterment, whenaccompaniedbythepotentialforcommodification, Chang, “I Ismaiel Jaffa inR 2000, 16. tural Consciousness inthe21st James For anengagementwith“ Language andSocialRelations. with whenwe engagewiththegloballyfamiliar.Agha,“Meet Mediatization”; Agha, Agha hascalledpro tion oflinguisticconcepts, whatAghahascalled enregisterment. Media- Ahearn, The pr of theNetwork Society. in perpetuity long ships totranslate intooffline relationshipsandtheoffline relationshipstocontinue Manuel C market fundamentalist viewofcon tural value are inextricablyentangledwithoneanother, evenifeconomicsinthe I amthinkingwithDa Newsreel, 2007). Cinema.” SeealsoJesse Shipley’s film,LivingtheHiplife (New York: Third World Spady it. Graeber, theworldwecome tounderstandasvaluable liveinandhowwe constructs inhabit Willis Rai, Jugaad T e hasbeenagrowing interest intheways thatmediaforms, astheyconnect , Meghelli, andAlim, ThaGlobalCipha; Dattatreyan, “Critical HipHop ,

G e Learning to - ­sen ­Wendt andStemmler . Spady, ofMass “LooplinkingtheOutlawz BasedBlackCul- totheHistory I ose, BlackNoise, 52–56. nvitations toLove. t’s aHip- astells theorizes“portfolios ofsociality,” thepotentialforonlinerelation- ­ta olnár, “Street Art andtheChangingUrban Public Sphere.” ­Towar ime. ­tion isnowabookchapter. SeeD floor apartment inabuildingconsistingofthr ­floor apartment ds an Anthropological Theory ofValueds anAnthropological Theory . ­Hop W ­Labour. ­after face- cesses of mediatization and is a very r ­cesses ofmediatizationandisavery vid Graeber, whodiscusseshoweconomic,social,andcul- orld,” 60. street art,” socialmedia,andpro ­to- , “Playing theTranslations.” ­sis ­ ­face contactceasestobeapossibility Centur ­tent relations thr ­under 15,000 r ­temporar ­under 10, y,”, December PhiladelphiaNew Observer y capitalismsays other attatreyan, “Small Frame Politics.” 000 rupees amonth.Now,000 rupees they ough themigration andadop- upees. ­educated, well ion ­ ­able; itwas theaccommo elevant concepttothink ­cesses ofcommodifica- ee tofourflats. It - ­to- ­Ther ­wise. Whatw . Castells, Rise do Delhiites e was also ­enabled iswhat

13 e , -