While in India, I want to research the relationship between land and systematic oppression. While reading John McLeod’s History of India, I found a recurring trend that land was frequently used as a means of subjugation, from the resettling of Tribals in Mughal-era India to tea plantations under British rule. This trend of power structures being especially demarcated by one’s physical space isn’t just an agricultural phenomenon, but even continues into the twenty-first century with the middle-to-upper class status symbol of having domestic servants and housekeepers. I am academically interested in how different groups use space, and through preliminary research, I found that India has a tight relationship between physical space, socioeconomic status, political influence, and even health.
Although this research topic is based around geographical divisions, I have found that this relationship between space and power is one that permeates Indian culture so deeply that I can, and would benefit from, studying this topic from a variety of cities and regions. Delhi, Varanasi, and Chennai all have illustrious histories and modern importance that my topic of choice will be relevant throughout India. Delhi, being one of the most notably polluted cities in the world, provides an interesting opportunity to explore the disproportionate effects of air pollutants amongst different neighborhoods and socioeconomic levels. Varanasi, although a much smaller city than Delhi, is positioned on the banks of the Ganges, which is a large source of water pollution. Poorer inhabitants of Delhi rely on the heavily polluted river as a source of water, which makes the sanitation of the Ganges a much more pressing issue than for wealthier residents who can afford a more sanitary water supply. This makes different socioeconomic classes have differing relationships to the river, meaning that the space of the Ganges can take on a vastly different importance to different groups. Finally, in Chennai, a city that has a burgeoning real estate market, land use and housing poses a unique paradox. The city has a surplus of about 50,000 houses due to the city’s real estate boom, but also is home to over ten thousand homeless with an insufficient and outdated system of shelters. These examples illustrate the modern division of space in India.
While in India, I want to focus on the modern privatization of land but also find it important to tie in the historical ways in which land use was used to divide peoples. I have a keen interest in interviewing city planners and other community leaders who deal with land use and can offer a more detailed perspective on the intricacies of how different communities occupy space and what their relationships to their surroundings are. I would like to address this topic from political, environmental, medical, and social perspectives, which gives me a variety of options when it comes to interviews. I feel that my jumping-off point for these interviews is with officials who deal directly with the issues I pinpointed for the various cities, such as the housing market in Chennai or the role of the Ganges in Varanasi.
As for material research while in India, I am particularly interested in city plans, various districting maps, census data, and environmental records from historical periods to the modern day in attempt to discover more connections between land and power. This includes historical accounts of the origins of certain practices that remain in some form or another til this day, such as the lagaan land tax system or the economics surrounding agriculture. As for now, I am keeping my scope of research relatively broad, so I can make more discoveries pertaining to my topic while in India, and also as a safeguard for if my perceptions, although based on research, are off-base and not as prevalent as my research up to now suggests.
The research I have already conducted on issues relating to my broader topic has been fruitful and it shows the various ways I can ultimately take my research. Ten important sources I have already found cover a wide variety of relevant viewpoints, but I feel confident that my own research will be unique. They are as followed with a brief description of their relevance to my proposed topic.
Aiyer, A. (2007), The Allure of the Transnational: Notes on Some Aspects of the Political Economy of Water in India. Cultural Anthropology, 22: 640–658.
This article illustrates the social justice issues surrounding the privatization and commodification of water in India. It situates the difficult relationship between corporations and municipalities, which simultaneously helps and harms Indians.
Anjaria, J. S. (2011), Ordinary states: Everyday corruption and the politics of space in Mumbai. American Ethnologist, 38: 58–72.
In this article, Anjaria examines the role low-level corruption plays in Mumbai, particularly regarding land use.
Dannhaeuser, N. (1988), Applied Anthropology: Land Consolidation and Economic Development in India: A Study of Two Haryana Villages. American Anthropologist, 90: 1025–1026.
This article describes the extent of land fragmentation and consolidation in modern India, and how the caste system and the legacies of colonialism effect it.
Dickey, S. (2000), Permeable Homes: Domestic Service, Household Space, and the Vulnerability of Class Boundaries in Urban India. American Ethnologist, 27: 462–489.
This article explores the often paradoxical occupation of space that domestic workers face. While it is a status symbol for middle class Indians to have domestic workers, they also feel uncomfortable sharing their space with those of a lower class.
Lipuma, E. and Meltzoff, S. K. (1997), The crosscurrents of ethnicity and class in the construction of public policy. American Ethnologist, 24: 114–131.
This article is not a case study of India, but the theory used in it is important for understanding my topic. This article examines the intersection of class and ethnicity in terms of land-use plans and the subsequent symbolic power structures enforced.
Mathur, C. (2015), The Darjeeling Distinction: Labor and Justice on Fair-Trade Tea Plantations in India by Sarah Besky.. American Anthropologist, 117: 177–178.
This article examines the modern role of tea plantations in India. Drawing from the era of British colonialism, classism remains in place as laborers are used to harvest a luxurious crop that is classified as region-specific.
Mines, D. P. (2003), Castes of Mind: Colonialism and the Making of Modern India. American Ethnologist, 30: 312–313.
This article examines how British colonizers in India used the caste system, and how it had a lasting impact on Indian society
Pandian, A. (2008), Pastoral Power in the Postcolony: On the Biopolitics of the Criminal Animal in South India. Cultural Anthropology, 23: 85–117.
This article illustrates the systematic dehumanization of Tribal communities in India, and the official vernacular that describes them in ways similar to during the era of British colonization.
Raheja, G. G. (1996), Caste, colonialism, and the speech of the colonized: entextualization and disciplinary control in India. American Ethnologist, 23: 494–513
This article describes how castes are portrayed through official documents, land settlement reports, and national censuses. It deals with both historical and modern forms of colonialism and describes different groups both in their own terms and in the terms of other groups that they share space with.
White, A. (2010), A Legacy of Suffering. Visual Anthropology Review, 26: 144–150.
In this article, White examines the high correlation between socioeconomic class and the relation to water, both in terms of access and use.