Accumulation by Segregation

Description

This work explores the processes of creation and articulation of social identities of Muslims in Delhi. Mapping the landscape of discrimination in Delhi’s neighbourhoods, Jamil tries to see how such fractured geographies are created. We come across people whose sense of belonging to each other is complex, and subject to forces such as regional and class identities instead of an ubiquitous ‘Muslimness’. Segregation in an urban space is produced, as Jamil argues, not only by communal conflict and threat of violence but also maintained and strengthened by processes of capitalist globalization.
Through case studies of five localities, which present a historical continuity in the narrative of Delhi’s Muslims, the book presents compelling evidence of market and governance processes that aid accumulation by segregation. It offers an ‘against the grain’ reading of quotidian practices of residents within such boundaries such that a counternarrative of resistance and hope may emerge—one that may allow for re-imagining alternatives.

About the Author

Ghazala Jamil is Assistant Professor, Centre for the Study of Law and Governance, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

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Reviews

‘As she brings together a sociological reading of identity with a grounded and material spatiality, Jamil should be read to understand not just the everyday life of the contemporary urban Muslim but the city of Delhi itself.’

Gautam Bhan, Faculty, Indian Institute of Human Settlements, Bengaluru, India


‘This book introduces an original perspective on how materiality, spatial reorganization, and state intervention intersects to organize minority identity in urban India and in turn creates the conditions for the formation of new actors and agencies.’

Sujata Patel, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Hyderabad, India


‘This spatial political economy of Delhi, using revealing narratives of Muslim citizens, raises fundamental questions on the dominant ideology of urbanization in contemporary times.’
Manoranjan Mohanty, Distinguished Professor, Council for Social Development, Delhi, India

Table of contents

Acknowledgements
List of Abbreviations

Introduction

Section A Accumulation by Segregation

1. Materiality of Culture and Identity
2. Variable but Durable Marginalities

Section B Discursive Bases of Segregation

3. Muslims in Delhi: The Normative Non-Citizens of the Global Urban
4. Media Representations: Providing the Discursive Logic

Section C Counter-Discourses

5. Avenues of Hope and Optimism
6. Coda: The Problématique of Envisioning the Ideal Delhi

Closing Gesture: A Vision for the Ideal City

Annexure: Brief Profiles of Key Participants
References
Index
About the Author