Abstract
India’s recent rapid economic growth has not improved the lives of those living in poverty, such as those residing in Howrah’s bastis (slums), which have been described as “deplorable”, “dirty”, “filthy” and “overcrowded” since the late 1800s. In this chapter I argue that Howrah’s bastis, many of which are inhabited by the minority and marginalised Muslim population, are “forgotten places”: historically and politically constructed habitats that are neglected, but nevertheless deeply inhabited, by the state (Lee and Yeoh, Urban Studies 41(12): 2295–2301, 2004; Fernandes, Critical Asian Studies 42(2): 265–272, 2010). In these bastis, services that are the responsibility of the state, such as access to education or the civic amenities discussed by Walters (this volume), are not adequately provided for, resulting in uneven development and vulnerable urban spaces within Howrah city. Furthermore, I show how “forgotten places” leave a gap that NGOs and grassroots organisations try to fill, drawing on ethnographic fieldwork to describe the efforts of Howrah Pilot Project, an organisation that runs grassroots-level development initiatives in one of Howrah’s bastis. By considering how Howrah Pilot Project works to provide Muslim children from the poorest households within that basti with access to education—widely considered a basic human right—I argue that it can be viewed as a response to the processes of “active forgetting” perpetuated through historical sociocultural structures of inequality and injustice. However, such organisations need to be augmented by a responsive state in order to achieve meaningful, long-term, beneficial change.
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Notes
- 1.
This is an article I co-authored with Ramaswamy and Sita Venkateswar, who has also conducted research with HPP.
- 2.
Chatterjee (2004) also discusses citizenship and identity politics in postcolonial India, framing struggles over urban space as a contest between civil and political society.
- 3.
My research in Howrah is based on three fieldwork trips of seven to eight weeks in length carried out over this period (5 months in total). Making short, repeated visits allowed me to build relationships over time, which we continue today via email, text and Skype.. My main tools were participant-observation, interviews, focus groups, photography, and teaching an introductory social anthropology class at Talimi Haq School (see Ramaswamy et al. 2010).
- 4.
Calcutta was the anglicised version of the name of the fishing village around which the city grew during the period of British colonial rule. In 2001 the West Bengal Government changed the city’s official name to Kolkata to better reflect Bengali pronunciation (and, perhaps, as part of a Hindu nationalist agenda). I use Kolkata to conform with the official designation and Calcutta to refer to the city before its name change. Where I quote other sources I retain the original spelling.
- 5.
Sohel Firdos carried out household surveys between 2005–2007 in wards in Howrah and Kolkata where more than 90 % of the population lived in bastis. His preliminary findings suggested a high correlation between these “slum wards” and deficiencies in access to public goods and services (Firdos 2007).
- 6.
Appadurai (2004, pp. 78–79) points out that the absence of toilets and good sewerage systems can make diarrhoea a humiliating as well as dangerous experience in urban slums.
- 7.
Education and the ability to speak English became crucial forms of distinction in Bengal from the 19th century, as I have discussed elsewhere (Gibson 2012; see also Andrews 2006; Bose and Jalal 1998; Moorehouse 1971; Roy 1994; Viswanathan 1989), influencing access to economic and political power along lines of class, caste and religion.
- 8.
- 9.
Although many people I spoke with are critical of the value of Urdu-medium government schools, suggesting they do not provide students with the skills or opportunities necessary to participate in India’s globalising economy. See Ramaswamy et al. (2010, p. 296 note 212), M. Weiner (1991) and a collection edited by Chopra and Jeffrey (2005) for critiques of India’s state-led education system.
- 10.
“Talimi haq” means “right to education” in Urdu.
- 11.
I discuss how Amina came to join HPP and her personal quest for education in Gibson (2012).
- 12.
Binod, who is about Amina’s age, is the eldest son and main income earner in a Hindu family. Binod was somewhat reticent in talking about his family he avoided my questions about whether he had experienced any problems working in PM Basti because of his faith, saying that people quickly became used to him.
- 13.
Ramaswamy has invested much time and energy into raising the profiles of HPP and Talimi Haq School in India and abroad. This includes using his extensive networks from his travels, blogs, seminars and publications to bring visitors from India and abroad to HPP. The money he has earned by writing and giving lectures about slum-related issues from 1997 onwards has also helped support HPP’s work. Visitors to HPP see a social movement involving people living in poverty who are articulate, intelligent, and actively struggling to create meaningful lives for themselves and their families.
- 14.
Some Talimi Haq School students who also attend formal school told me that some classes have more than 100 students per teacher and that they sometimes have to sit on one another’s laps (see also Khatoon 2009c; Ramaswamy et al. 2010, p. 295; or Siddiqui 2005). They said that it is hard to hear the lesson or concentrate when the room is full of noise and one’s desk is far from the blackboard.
- 15.
The authors of the Sachar Report take care to point out that while many Muslims perceive the problems they face as community-specific, poverty and low socio–economic indicators are not exclusive to Muslims; they are experienced by all disadvantaged socio-religious communities in India (Government of India 2006, p. 25).
- 16.
See Chakraborty (2010) for a discussion of the constraints on the mobility of young Muslim women in Kolkata’s bastis, and how they negotiate them.
- 17.
Husain (2005) also provides evidence to counter the perception that low literacy levels among Muslims are due to conservative Islamic values.
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Gibson, L. (2016). Bastis as “Forgotten Places” in Howrah, West Bengal. In: Venkateswar, S., Bandyopadhyay, S. (eds) Globalisation and the Challenges of Development in Contemporary India. Dynamics of Asian Development. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0454-4_10
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