Lacking Imagination?

A G K Menon in a post published on The Wire questioned the lack of imagination and increasing generic-ness in Indian planners' work, we examine the same

Any work of architecture is a part of a larger built environment its constructed in. Bourdieu’s ‘self structuring structure’ analogy applies perfectly to a work of architecture as the built environment consists of cultural and identity markers which reflect the nature of the society that work of architecture/building is embedded or placed in in addition to its relation to surrounding buildings and spaces. These spatially produced relationships, however, are changing due to globalisation as increasingly structures like malls, commercial complexes, office complexes, all with glass exteriors are being replicated and reproduced in the global south since they denote the future. They seem to represent value attached to development and progress. These structures which have come from a consumerist and capitalist culture are what it means to be modern in the contemporary world. This seems to inform the planning practice of Indian urban planners as well and architects who design structures which seem to have no relation to the local Indian cultural context. Rather, they seem to be placed by transporting it from the west, and the propping up of similar structures is transforming the cityscape in the Indian context, and leading to the creation of cities which can best be compared to tabula rasa cities following a generic pattern derived from Western spatial understandings and can be reinvented without any connect to their pasts. Even in the Indian context, modernity and aspirational building seems to influence architecture and planning practice in cities, for instance, HITEC city in Hyderabad or the planned cyberhubs in the city like Cyberabad. There is always a ‘catching up’ to the structures present in the west and the developed world because in those structure lies the promise of future development something which is desired by the countries of the global south.

In such a contemporary practice of urban planning, what AGK Menon calls for is a self reflexive planning practice in India, where urban planners need to ask themselves that do they need to look outward for problem solving or look inwards and follow the principles of indigeneity for local problem solving. However, conservationist methods to preserve the ‘Asian’ identity have been problematic in many Asian countries not just India, when many cities in the global south have a colonial past so the cityscapes are dotted with various colonial constructions which are non-indigenous and Western. Issues of conservation and heritage are complicated by these imperial or colonial histories of many of Asia’s urban environments, as well as by pressures of economic development and population growth. Menon notes this pattern too, where he says that even when taking inspirations by global trends, the global market is the arbiter of decisions, not ust in contemporary planning practice but how it is taught as well, which means colonial prescriptions form the canons of the disciplines of planning and architecture.

Menon’s concern with the lack of indigeneity in the imagination of Indian planners and architects hints towards a worry about the loss of ‘Asian’ identity in the wake of modernity and globalisation and this is something not new. In fact, the assertion that the distinct Asian identity lies only in its traditions and its consequent problematizations are not new as well (Logan 2002:xii). According to Beynon,”As contemporary built environments continue to develop, however, identity remains contested, as does the question of cultural sustainability in relation to architecture as even indigeneity continues to be redefined, as it is important to recognise no culture is constant and it is ever evolving and dynamic in the face of new cultural influences. The question remains, therefore, in a contemporary environment, can architecture and planning engage with its traditional role as cultural symbolism and planning as the most efficient use and allocation of space to the needs of the population in a given area while at the same time remaining open to newer reinterpretations, reimaginings and reappropriations of its fabric, its spaces and surroundings to move towards more aspirational ends?” (Beynon, 2010)

The role of planning and architecture is rooted in attempting to provide solutions rooted in a cultural context in order to remain relevant and useful. The United Nations 2002 Kanazawa Resolutions provide some useful definitions for discussion of the question about the interaction between architecture or planning to the local cultural context in India. The resolutions argue that that sustaining cultures in contemporary life is a matter of ‘dialogical coexistence’. The notion of  cultural heritage in a contemporary and globalised world order is linked to pluralism, cultural modernity and looks at cities emerging from a series of fluid processes resulting in ‘spatially constructed communities’ (Zukin 1995:289). So for planning and architecture to remain rooted in a local cultural context does not mean a reinvigoration of the culture of the past but rather an ongoing dialogue with the dynamism of cultural change and the people of a culture(s).

In order to answer the question about the links between architecture, planning and cultural identity, one can look at the paper by Beynon where he has examined the concept of dialogical coexistence of the Kunzawa Resolutions in relation to Southeast Asian built environments. In the urban context, Beynon says that there are self conscious architectural attempts to straddle tradition and modernity as well as notions of a broader collective identity, whether in service of nation building or in the case of Thai architect Sumet Jumsai, constructed imaginings of a pan Asian future. We can see this argument playing out in the context of Indian cities like Delhi as well, with attempts to make Delhi into a world class city. In an essay by Ghertner, he argues that an aesthetic regime exists which seems to determine legality of buildings based on their planned or unplanned appearance and is codified in laws and judgements, taking the example of the Vasant Kunj Mall complex which came up on land designated for other uses in the Delhi Master Plan simply because it aligned with the broader aspirations for the National capital to look like a world class city and not a city ridden with poverty in the form of slums. Beynon, in addition to the urban context, also looks at an increasingly globalised context, where identities are being reshaped by cross cultural consumption, material and ideological flows, and contemporary identity and the roles of tradition, locality and architectural expression are being questioned and needs to meet the test of relevance and usefulness at the global stage.

Many planners, however do take the local regional specifics into consideration with the larger universalising trends when making plans. Dashrath Patel, considered an iconoclast by many including Menon, represented the modern Indian aesthetic in his work by giving a nod to Indian sensibility in his work and not blindly following the colonial prescriptions of his disciplines, but also managed to capture the changing and growing nature of India in post-independence. Critical regionalism as a planning strategy given by Tzonis and Lefaivre and given widespread recognition by Kenneth Frampton, attempts to link modernism and regional identity, taking what Frampton describes as “an arriere-garde position, ...one that distances itself equally from the Enlightenment myth of progress and from a reactionary, unrealistic impulse to return to the architecture forms of the pre-industrial past.” (Frampton 1983:20)

As opposed to this, there is also an idea of distancing ,which indicates idea of ‘universal civilisation’ by Frampton as derived from post Enlightenment Western world view. Alternatively, Perera has proposed a ‘critical vernacular’ position, in terms of his native Sri Lanka as not referring to a mere ‘style’ but to a cluster of broadly defined design practices that draw upon traditional Lankan forms of space creation and creating more appropriate buildings in independent Sri  Lanka (Perera 1998:144).

Perera’s argument is similar to Menon’s viewpoint as it contests the authority of Western models of modern architecture, instead investigating indigenous models for their adaptability to contemporary conditions, looking for ways contemporary Asian society can reconnect with its colonial past as a period of societal rupture rather than progress, an ironical association still made in the context of Indian cities with colonial buildings signifying progress, something which can hardly be achieved under conditions of colonial rule. The best examples of neo vernacular architecture operate as test cases for the coexistence of old and new ways of thinking. The most publicised examples can be luxury villas or resorts, whose architecture serves to create a romantic sense of locality, while demonstrating a genuine reinvigoration of traditional craft wisdom as cultural production is encouraged by touristic interest. On the other hand, cultural reinvigoration meant for touristic consumption leads to production of an ‘exotic’ aesthetic which is different from maintaining past lived culture in rapidly developing urban conditions of Southeast Asian cities. More appropriate examples can thus be, the roof of Malaysia’s National Library symbolising the traditional Malay headgear or the National theatre in Malaysia which evokes the traditional table arrangement (image below).

Malaysia National Library

However, a selective promotion of cultural motifs in official buildings needs to come with a disclaimer as it may be disingenuous in promoting certain folkloric aspects of certain cultures and conflating nationalism and ethnicities, while it is questionable how much such an overt cultural symbolism can influence the culture of the broader built environment. Alternatively, therefore, an adoption of a broader notion of contemporary culture is always possible to avoid folkloric representations. Iwabuchi, has discussed the exportation of Japanese technology and pop culture, to describe the late twentieth century realisation that Asia is no longer the passive recipient of globalised culture but actively produces and exports it too. More recently, Iwabuchi with Muecke and Thomas have also argued, that what has become more prominent is the emergence of popular Asianism whose main feature is not traditional Asian values or culture but capitalist consumer/popular culture. (Iwabuchi, Muecke & Thomas 2004:1)

To conclude, we can look at various examples cited above and arrive at certain practices to inform Indian planning practice in the contemporary world. The best case to take from is that of Singapore. Street culture has always been a key element in cities of Southeast Asia, and even though building structures are important, sometimes the street is so densely populated by hawkers and various other sellers of goods on the streets, the buildings are rendered completely invisible in the face of a sensory dominance by the street life. Beynon cites Brenda Yeoh’s example of SIngapore’s massive Suntec City convention centre as a place that has been extensively appropriated by a wide cross section of the local community for uses unrelated to the purpose of the building. The use of the building in terms of actual practice and the lived aspect of it is actually informal and opposed to the original intended ‘official’ uses. This multiplicity of incongruous uses is indicative of the nature of contemporary society. Building’s success is that it allows for this unintended engagement with its spaces, not that it evokes history or culture consciously in any of its diverse users. Even in India, the Informal sector forms a large part of city life and economic activities. However, increasingly there are attempts to formalise this bustling aspect of city life not only by effectuating structural economic policies but also in a more materially pronounced way by creating spatial transformations within the city which disenfranchise any involvement in public spaces by informal actors like street vendors. Although certain legislations in the context of street vendors specifically, have been brought into effect but they remain powerless in the face of various constructions with the power of global capital and the state behind them. More flexibility and fluidity is something which is needed in planning practice, to make allowances in terms of mixed land use especially in public areas to preserve the lived streetscapes in our cities.

References:

Beynon, D. (2010). Architecture, identity and cultural sustainability in contemporary Southeast Asian cities. [online] academia.edu. Available at: https://www.academia.edu/6218443/Architecture_identity_and_cultural_sustainability_in_contemporary_Southeast_Asian_cities [Accessed 8 Mar. 2019].

Menon, A. (2019). When it Comes to Urban Planning, India Suffers From a Poverty of Imagination. Retrieved from https://thewire.in/urban/dashrath-patel-india-architecture

Bourdieu, P 1990, In Other Words: Essays towards a Reflexive Sociology, Polity, Cambridge.

Frampton, K 1983, ‘Towards a Critical Regionalism: Six Points for an Architecture or Resistance’, in Foster, Hal (ed.), The Anti-Aesthetic: Essays on Postmodern Culture, Bay, Seattle.

Iwabuchi, K, Muecke, S & Thomas, M 2004, Rogue Flows: trans-Asian cultural traffic, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong.

Lefaivre, L & Tzonis A (eds) 2001, Tropical Architecture: Critical Regionalism in the Age of Globalisation,  Wiley- Academy, London.

Logan, W 2002, The disappearing ‘Asian’ city: protecting Asia’s urban heritage in a globalising world, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

Why can't they see me?

Migrants in India remain invisible as argued by many scholars in the policy imagination. But what is the solution for an emerging economy like India?

Source link: https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwi-lfeXuOrfAhWSinAKHYjKB8oQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aajeevika.org%2Flabour-and-migration.php&psig=AOvVaw1oSTk95v65p42d6mLpnyrJ&ust=1547457931844614

Migration is nothing but the other side of urbanisation, says Bhide in her article published in the journal Infochange Agenda. The city forms a harsh reality, which has to be encountered by approximately 100 million circular migrants come in the search for better livelihood opportunities. These migrants have to face policies with a territorial bias which increases their vulnerability and denies them developmental opportunities, argues Bhide. According to her, these policies end up invisibilizing migrants in the city when there should be an acceptance of these migrants in policy through protocol if urbanisation can be effectively pursued as a development strategy.

Uneven development needs to be accepted is an argument which has pushed urbanisation as ‘an engine for economic development’ in countries like India says Bhide citing the appearance of the same in the World Development Report titled Towards a New Economic Geography. This has led to an emphasis on infrastructural development in cities along with urban reform. But in the steadfast pursuit of economic development by rapidly urbanising the migrants who come to the city in large numbers and are contributors to the urban economies are nowhere in the policy frame of reference. A reason for this says Bhide is the bias of territoriality in existing policy initiatives.

BIAS OF TERRITORIALITY

In order to avail basic amenities and services the migrant is rendered handicapped in the city. Bhide says that several policies of the state and city administration are territorial in nature leading to the creation of a harsh terrain of survival for migrants in the city; with various groups of migrants experiencing this harshness in particularistic ways. One example is that of the ration card to avail foodgrains which are subsidies through the Public Distribution System. Issuing a ration card needs proof of local address which the migrants working in the informal sector lack. Thus, even though in recent policy imagination, the ration card as a policy tool was viewed as an instrument to improve targeting and make the most basic need that if foodgrain available to the most vulnerable sections of society like the homeless, widows, poor in cities is ineffectual as this sentiment has not translated into any modification in protocol. Verification procedure in issuance of a ration card still requires proof of address. And with the history of the importance of the ration card as documentary evidence of citizenship, it does not only block access of migrants to subsidised foodgrain but one can also interpret the lack of a ration card as a major obstacle in availing other services like that of a bank. Services like these are critical for the migrant as well as their family in cases where the family depends on remittances and the lack of access to such services increases the vulnerability of migrants making them open to exploitation and lacking any insurance.

Routes to Survival

In such situations, migrants must act in order to alleviate their vulnerability so that they can survive in the city, says Bhide. And one such route available to migrants, she says, is the political route. The presence of a large population of migrants in the city allows them to gain a foothold and gain political opportunities, however in recent times the son-of-the-soil arguments have led to their expulsion from the political scenarios of the city altogether and cases of violence, hatred and intolerance against them. Accordingly, we see an inescapable (almost) invisibility of the migrant in the policy imagination and also the most crucial city data, and such an invisibility further resulting in non-access to city services and support systems.

Route of Subversion The only way of survival then is the route of subversion, says Bhide. Quite often it can be observed that migrants possess two ration cards, one has the original address of their native place and the other has their address in the city and they even register their names in the electoral roll. Bhide is therefore saying that circular migrants have two ration cards and two electoral identity cards which is essential to counter their invisibility created by the territoriality of policy. So invisibility is countered by a dual visibility.

Source link: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-uMgJ0Mlma6g/UROUR1T-hLI/AAAAAAAAANA/NiyMUpGh7LY/s1600/02migration3.jpg

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, the importance of the ration card and its need by the migrants only increase their overall dependence on their employers for food in addition to temporary shelter, if they are new to the city, wages and so on. Such an increased dependence only leaves them open to further exploitations, says Bhide. Therefore, what is needed is the reimagination of policy not only in terms of intention but intention which translates onto protocol. The UID or Aadhaar can be seen as a possible way to extend access to basic amenities to migrants in cities. However, to realise such a possibility a huge overhaul of protocol needs to be done. For starters to take the case of access to foodgrain, if this is to be achieved through UID, firstly the quota of foodgrain sanctioned by the ration cards under the Public Distribution Government by the state needs to be extended to not just the household level but an additional option needs to be created so that migrants can fit into the system. If such a provision is made, families of migrants can opt for a little less foodgrain on the assurance that the deduction is being made available to their family member who has migrated to the city for work by his registration under the PDS there as a migrant. This is just one possibility, there exist many others.

The major learning from this article is that if urbanisation is to serve as a tenable means to achieve development, then policy needs to take into account migration. An overhaul of policy is needed to make cities a place where migrants can flourish instead of being trapped in vicious cycles and doomed to perish by the state and city administrations. If the bias of territoriality is not overcome by policy initiative it will only lead to the aggravation of uneven development at the macro level and increase the worsening conditions of the urban poor/migrants.

Additionally, the focus is on the survival based circular migration which arguably is extremely widespread in India’s case further accentuating uneven development. Therefore, other literature on migration in India recognise this reality and suggest many policy reforms based on the same understanding as in the article by Bhide that an overhaul of policy is needs. Some of these suggestions are food and credit based interventions as Bhide has also put forth. These initiatives focus on strengthening the position of the ‘invisible migrant’ in cities, by implementing food for work schemes or organising the poor into self help groups to make micro credit facilities available to them. A major reason why circular migration is the trend in terms of kinds of migration which takes place in India is because there is an extreme lack of access to various services for the migrants so migrants come to the city and go back to their villages. This has served as a major impediment to India’s urbanisation according to many reports and papers (Tumbe,2016). The challenges which the migrant population face in cities force them to only continue living in cities for a limited time, that is, seasonally and it is common that the male members of the family migrate leaving their families back home because in addition to lack of foodgrain and credit spoken about earlier there is lack in terms of schooling of children and other healthcare needs of the family. In terms of improving accessibility of migrants to facilities such as schooling community based interventions is an area of further exploration.

As outlined earlier, the migrants have little to no bargaining power which stems from their invisibility in the arena of policy and further increases their dependency on their employer. A possible way to improve their bargaining power is to make them visible and documenting them through registers of the Panchayat office or other local bodies. Upon such a record making, civil society actors like NGOs can play a groundbreaking role in terms of mobilising these migrants who largely work in the informal sector to take up the issue of identity cards and negogiate their contracts. The enforcement of labour laws and the Unorganised Sector Workers’ Bill which rests on governmental and non-governmental interventions and makes it mandatory for employers’ to submit a list of their workers to local bodies will definitely be an important start in terms of mitigating the invisibility of migrant and the disadvantages it produces to them in India’s cities.

References

Bhide, A. (2013). The Invisible Migrant. Infochange Agenda, 10-12.

https://www.livemint.com/Politics/p9l9OfhAoycxqPq9wShSmI/Circular-migration-is-holding-back-Indias-urbanization.html

Tumbe, C. (2016). Urbanisation, demographic transition, and the growth of cities in India, 1870-2020. International Growth Centre.

Srivastava, R. and Sasikumar, SK. (2003) An overview of migration in India, its impacts and key issues. Regional Conference on Migration, Development and Pro-Poor Policy Choices in Asia, 15-24. #youth #work #urbanmigration #migrationinindia #circularmigration #invisiblemigrant #opportunity #migration #indianyouth #indiancities #city #cityinindia #indiancity

From Ameerpet to America

A global software gateway for many aspiring youth in Hyderabad, India

Charminar, Hyderabad

Nestled in the north west area of the city of Hyderabad the famous neighbourhood of Ameerpet caters to over a lakh students daily as they make their way to Ameerpet in the early hours of the day to learn software skills. The skills imparted at Ameerpet by the various coaching centres which are placed here are no ordinary skills. They are highly specialized, in-demand skills of softwares which are the latest in the information technology sector in the world. Nearly everyone in Ameerpet is aware of the power of the gateway to send people to the most sought after countries outside of India. As one enters the Shyam Theatre Road in Ameerpet, they are faced with an overcoming visual experience of hoardings on both sides of the road. These hoardings, mostly in primary colours, completely hide any trace of the structure upon which they are hung. And the text of the hoardings apart from shouting out the kind of software skills on offer also advertises the potential employers of the students after learning a particular software.

This visual experience is heightened even further when one stands in the middle of the atrium of Annapoorna Complex and looks up. However, the comings and goings of students through the atrium to their coaching classes, to Qualitea and Cofee shop during the break and so on has an abiding rhythm to it. The students coming from all walks of life with different end goals share at least one thing in common if nothing else. They all want to leave Ameerpet after completing their coaching for much better prospects than before Ameerpet. Such is the power of the gateway of Ameerpet, you walk in the coaching institute’s cramped classrooms with plastic chairs and walk out to big, swanky offices of tech giants like Wipro, Infosys and even companies like Deloitte.

‘Madam, iss jagah ko toh kehte hi hai from Ameerpet to America, yahan har jagah se seekhne ko aate aur phir job karne ko jaate’.

Ameerpet can be best described as a hub of IT knowledge which came into existence in Hyderabad shortly after the IT boom in the city in the late 90s and early 2000. The boom was followed by an increase in jobs in the attractive BPO sector for the youth and soon after the demand for jobs in big IT companies which required technical knowledge of certain softwares contributed to the present state of Ameerpet. On speaking to the young students coming to Ameerpet for the purpose of gaining such operational knowledge, stories of their agricultural background are juxtaposed with images of them working in a high paced technological world; the village with the city; the familiarity with the diversity. Such were my conversations with some of the students who spoke of their ‘native’ with a romanticized nostalgia and a wish to retire in the villages they have come from amidst relatives and families of their own. Nevertheless they had dreams of their own and a willingness to work towards a good job. The entries and exits from Ameerpet were as dramatic as their descriptions and while some students hope to achieve what they described as their dream jobs, some already had a job in hand in places like America, UK and Ireland and had come to Ameerpet to be well equipped for their futures.

In an interconnected world like ours which is overrun by global flows we need to acknowledge movement of people above and beyond flows of capital, technology and knowledge. Ameerpet provides insight as a unique gateway which is dependent on technological innovation from the developed world but not necessarily the knowledge of that technology as most softwares used in the coaching centres are pirated versions. The transfer of this knowledge unto students and their further placements across the world by the pull created by large IT firms is truly remarkable when one attempts to understand the bigger picture. While for someone from outside Ameerpet the bigger picture seems beyond comprehension since it involves factors like sourcing of softwares, instructors, infrastructure to enable the running of coaching centres and teaching in addition to support services needed for the students, and the larger pblic infrastructure and facilities available in the city of Hyderabad; for a tea stall vendor standing right outside Annapoorna Complex atrium its only that simple. Or in his words, ‘Madam, iss jagah ko toh kehte hi hai from Ameerpet to America, yahan har jagah se seekhne ko aate aur phir job karne ko jaate’.

Annapoorna Complex Atrium, Ameerpet

Talking about flows like entries and exits there is always a possibility of outflows coming after inflows. Since a lot of what Ameerpet is today is based on inflows of investments by various actors both public and private, there is bound to be an outflow. While talking to a medical shop owner on the ground floor of the Annapoorna Complex, I came across a possibility of such a outflow in the form of flight of coaching centres out of Ameerpet, which according him was already happening to other areas closer to the HITEC city as the state is heavily investing in building infrastructure there. Thus, while it is fascinating to unravel the trajectory of Ameerpet what lies in Ameerpet’s future has to do with its impermanence as a hub of technological learning. The impermanence of a place like Ameerpet is interesting to note when we consider the technology sector as well, which in itself is extremely dynamic and ever changing. And even in the face of such an impermanence there are instances of returning to Ameerpet, if the situation so arises, as a means of reskilling oneself or making themselves more marketable by picking up new and relevant knowledge which is useful in the world of IT by the student of Ameerpet.

And perhaps for me this was the most beautiful thing to discover in the process of understanding the flows affecting Ameerpet and the students in it. That even in an ever-changing scenario of the IT world, therein lies a certain promise of a job if you’ve passed through the gateway.