Dr Bikramaditya K. Choudhary, USI visiting scholar
Discussant: Prof dr Paolo Favero (USI, ViDi)
Tuesday 30 April 2024, 12.30 - 2 p.m.
University of Antwerp, S.KS.204 (campus map)
The talk aims to deconstruct the dominant monolithic image of Banaras and would engage with popular subversive identities which embodies plurality of images in terms of spaces and performances and may provide what David Harvey (2000) would term ‘the plurality of alternatives’ for ‘the spaces of hope’. Space, here cityscape of Banaras as an outcome of social production remains amenable to have multiple identities. The predominant identities are formed and propagated through agencies of power with intention and Banaras is not an exception. In this process, the subversive practices and spaces are at best ignored. These two sets of identities, I term as the ‘projected identities of Banaras’ and the ‘practiced identities in Banaras’. When practiced identities are considered as substantive category; the projected identity would naturally be exhausted.
To elaborate this, I employ ‘space’ and ‘performance’ as experiential and ontological categories to examine the politics of processes, in which these images are embedded. Using interdisciplinary approaches of space, performance and material practices, I wish to configure the image of a traditional urban space of Banaras beyond the monolithic identity.
Drawing from the specific works of David Harvey and Henry Lefebvre on space, the work deconstructs the predominant holy image of Banaras through the existing material practices such as weaving, brass work, trade and alternative cultural performances like Ravidas Jayanti, and Kabir Mela. The plurality of “holy” also is to be deliberated based on observations, narratives and ethnographic accounts of participants collected during 2015-2019.