| Pub. Date | : March, 2021 |
|---|---|
| Product Name | : The IUP Journal of English Studies |
| Product Type | : Article |
| Product Code | : IJES030321 |
| Author Name | : Maya Vinai and Revathy Hemachandran |
| Availability | : YES |
| Subject/Domain | : Arts & Humanities |
| Download Format | : PDF Format |
| No. of Pages | : 12 |
The city of Mumbai, India, has always been represented in fictional narratives and mainstream Bollywood cinema as the land of endless opportunities, unfathomable surprises, and awe-inspiring success stories. The most educated migrants who come to the city from elsewhere (fortified by language and hope) aspire for a permanent address or a living space to call their own or to belong. And in fact, many of them do succeed in their aspirations and enterprises. However, the focus of this paper is on the scamper for space amongst the migrant middle class and particularly the process of appropriation and contestation for common spaces like corridor, terrace, and compound in the apartments. The paper argues as to how these acts of the migrants are orchestrated to inform and re-evoke their sense of being and identity. And this happens in cities such as Mumbai, as newer identities are being configured each day, resulting in complexities and threats of erasure. The argument is substantiated by the first author's own experiences and memories of the city. In addition, the paper also borrows from the narratives of Chandrima Pal, Gregory David Roberts, Vapu, and Rohinton Mistry.
Postcoloniality has been inextricably concerned with space, and of late academicians and
researchers have taken a "spatial turn," after understanding the broader implications of
"space" in the postcolonial context. Said (1994, 7) begins his seminal text Culture and
Imperialism by insisting that no one is ever "outside or beyond geography," nor are they ever free of "the struggle over geography." In fact, theorists like Ashcroft, Griffiths,
and Tiffin (2002) point out that it is "place and displacement" which is the primary
concern, through which the special postcolonial crisis of identity comes into being. The
focus of this research paper is the scamper for common spaces in the enigmatic city of
Bombay (now Mumbai) during the colonial era and the politics of migrant identity creation
through spatial reconfigurations which dynamically took place in the city over the last
few decades.