[Reader-list] Research proposal

[Rumman Hameed]

Here's my research proposal. Looking forward to comments and suggestions, if any. And wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year.

Best wishes,

Rumman Hameed

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REASEARCH PROPOSAL

A casual walk through Old Delhi reveals hardly anything but congestion and chaos. A major reason for this is that the residential areas are interspersed with commercial areas. But as one moves away from the congested roads and steps into the quieter lanes and by-lanes, one is struck by a conspicuous connectedness, which is often invisible, between the houses that apparently seem clustered together, but are spatially apart. One notices a convergence of buildings, architecturally as well as symbolically. 

During the day, one notices domestic-helps carrying bowls of food, neatly covered, from one house to the other. One also sees huge trunks and cartons of different sizes moving between the houses, which sometimes are across mohallas, and is surprised to find that these trunks contain the trousseau of a bride-to-be because her own house is small which can not contain all this. I intend to map this symbolic communication and connect architectural (or physical) convergence with vertical interactions.

I am interested in exploring the communication trajectories in an urban complex, the Walled City in this case, as a way of dealing with spatialities.  My study would primarily explore the unique forms of communication and different levels of interactions among these structures. I would focus on the vertical and horizontal interactions within a mohalla and also between mohallas. Interactions at the street-level, which I refer to as horizontal, spread over a wider area, stemming out in different directions across mohallas. This seems distinct from the interaction at floor level, which I call vertical. Vertical interaction apparently seems to be narrower, confined to a particular street / lane. For instance, direct communication between the fourth floor of one house and the ground floor of the other house. 

These different levels of communication also bring into focus segregation and differentiation of space and the simultaneous marginalization of one of the genders in particular spaces. I aim to understand this constant negotiation of space.



I would also enumerate the critical nature of such interactions. I would look into the manner in which these interactions, on the one hand, bridge the social differences and at the same time they create and reinforce the feeling of �the other�. People inhabiting Old Delhi for approximately 350-400 years call themselves �old� and �true� Dilliwallahs, with an air of arrogance. Today, the population of Old Delhi has a large percentage of non-Delhiites or �baahar-waale / baahar ke� (people from outside Delhi) as they are referred to by Dilliwallahs. In this context, it is interesting to note that food seems to be an important medium of perceiving a person differently, as an outsider. The old Purani Dilliwallahs distinguish themselves from people belonging to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab, who are now their neighbours, through food. 

This research would also help in understanding the nature of neighbourhood, what constitutes a neighbourhood in the context of Old Delhi, a different sense of boundaries, whether it is confined to the popular conceptions in urban literature or is it delimited to a larger space. 

METHODOLOGY

I would be covering mohallas that are completely residential like Ahata Kaley Sahab as well as those which are interspersed with commercial areas such as Kucha Ustad Dagh. I would primarily be studying families that are still living in Old Delhi, and a few of those which have shifted residence to other parts of Delhi over the past two-three years.

I will use a combination of participant observation and informal interviews for this study. I would, primarily, be �hanging out� in the streets, a visibly male domain, in order to observe the activities of the people and the various forms of communication. Streets offer a strategic position, which allow a close observation of the vertical as well as the horizontal interactions. I would also be relying on secondary data and archival research. 

The available information on and about Old Delhi is limited. Though there have been a substantial number of studies on the area but hardly any by the inhabitants of Old Delhi themselves. I aim to enrich the existing information and data on Old Delhi by generating materials such as photographs and slides, short video clips (if possible), taped interviews or simply the casual conversations of people among themselves or with me, and maps of the mohallas I would be covering. I would be documenting minute details about the life of people and their urban experiences in Old Delhi.   

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