[Reader-list] Second posting for Sarai Independent Fellowships.

[ambarien qadar]

Title: Women and Zakir Nagar.

Dear Readers,

This update of our study carries an account of the interaction with one of our characters, Jameela Begum popularly known as Dilli Wali Amma. Many of the interrelations that we draw upon, happened during our interaction. The study took considerable shape while it was being conducted.

We are eagerly looking forward to extensive feedback.

Ambarien/ Khadeeja.

" Interrelations between objects occur in space and time; it is these      relationships themselves which create/ define space and time."
                                                                             (Massey 1992: 79)

Zakir Nagar is a resettlement colony that is only defined by its absence in the mainstream mapping of Delhi. But, as a community of Muslims coming together in the wake of innumerable and specific anxieties; it negotiates with the conflict arising out of the constant interaction between the 'outside' world and the 'inside'.
History of Zakir Nagar as recalled by one of our characters, Kehkashan Siddiqui, is of dislocation, urbanization and a constant movement of people in search of 'security' and 'identity'. Zakir Nagar is seen as a 'cohesive inner space', secure from the communal culture of the city/country. At the same time it is a space that necessarily exists both in relation to its internal dynamics as well as the city of Delhi at large. The movement from the 'inner' to the 'outer' and back has led to the emergence of a fascinating space of tension, contradiction, and cultural identity. By focusing on the gendered nature of this contradictory space, we draw attention to the complexities of women's existence in urban/city spaces.

"Burqua Ne mujeh bhuat azadi di hai"


"Lakin jab mein East of kailash jati hoon tab to Byrqua nahin Pahenti hun
kunki waahn sab    hindu hain
aur hum alag Dikehnge

bahar  Jao to burque walio ko Band gobhi kehtein hein
"

"Aaj Zakir Nagar mein Light mere dam Se hai'
                                                                            (Dilliwali Amma)

Jameela Begum, popularly known as DilliWali Amma in her neighborhood, came to Zakir Nagar in 1975. This movement was a result of the communal anxieties inBaradari- Kuche Chilan area behind Daryaganj. As recalled by her, there were constant fights between the people of her community and her neighbors' -the Safai karamcharis. As a divorcee, responsible for her six children, she felt that a place like Zakir Nagar was most secure. Amma took up sewing jobs. Her work involved moving in the neighborhood frequently. Amma had to (and still does) interact with men ranging from the local plumber to the DESU. It is within this that she found the 'anonymity' within the burqa extremely liberating. At that point of time Amma's Zakir Nagar was only a collection of four houses with the Yamuna canal running past. The work of filling up the Canal (Patai as it was locally called) for large scale urbanization had already begun. But Zakir Nagar was an 'unauthorized' colony (parts of it are still so) and so there were no legal electricity and water connections.
Amma mobilized her neighborhood. Collected money and sat on a Dharna outside the DESU premises. Finally, when the first legal routeline was laid, the DESU men asked Amma to pose for a photograph with the electricity pole. The photograph is with the authorities as proof.
Amma claims, " doosri bar Indira Gandhi ko election maine jitvaya tha" She has a photograph of herself with Indira Gandhi in Baradari. For her, the notion of the private and the public is inextricable. Thus, the private space of her home is also the public space of appeal. On Sundays, Amma sits at her home and people (both men and women) come to her with their problems. On the day we were interviewing her, a woman came to her for help in the construction of a shop and her home. The Metro project had resulted in large scale demolition in the Old Delhi area. Jahanara Begum had lost four shops in Daryaganj with no hope of compensation in the near future. She desperately wanted to shift to Zakir Nagar with the help of Amma.
Now she owns around four flats and ten rooms that she hires out on rent. Amma has her own criterion for selecting the tenents. Through this she has been in close association with people ranging from Kashmiri migrants to Sardars. 
Amma has a tailoring shop in Vasant Vihar. Back in 1984 she had a Sikh working there. While there was an organized attempt to wipe out the Sikh community in the country, Amma got the Sikh worker transported to Zakir Nagar hidden in a van used to deliver butchered meat. The worker stayed with her for a long time after that.
Amma's political motivation should be situated within the web of relationships within the macrocosmic and the microcosmic 'histories' and how the 'grand narrative'  gets ruptured by individual cases.
The idea of 'representation' in the mainstream functions around a 'type'. Thus the necessity of the muslim socials as a genre. Much of the television programming of the day builds up heavily around the idea. As the movement of muslims in huddled up communities is taking its course, it is becoming more of an 'imagined' community for those who are becoming outsiders to it. The 'represented' of the mainstream is becoming 'real' for them. The burqa in Amma's case becomes liberating in the sense that she can negotiate the public space with much more fluidity clearly veering off the masculine 'gaze'. It is the space that defines her relationship with her body and how she negotiates with it. Thus, when she moves in places like East of Kailash , she does not cover herself. She feels that this makes her more comfortable in that space.

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