‘Samudayik Shakti’: Working-class feminism and social organisation in Subhash Camp, New Delhi

Abstract

This article illustrates the intersections between architecture and agency in Subhash Camp, a squatter settlement in New Delhi, by ‘situating activism in place’. It highlights the significance of place in social action by examining the architecture of everyday places—the house, the street and the square—as the sites of both individual transformations and collective consciousness. Through observations of the activities of and interviews with members of Samudayik Shakti, a women's organisation and a men's panchayat, this article highlights a number of related processes in Subhash Camp: how different women experienced different places through everyday spatial practices; how the spatial practices in these places were shaped by different social structures at different scales, from the family to the state; how the architecture of these places was significant both as sites of control and of emancipation of women's bodies; and how this dynamic contributed to the making of social action in Subhash Camp.

A través de situar ‘el activismo en lugar’, éste artículo ilustra las intersecciones de la arquitectura y la agencia adentro del campo de Subhash, un asentamiento espontáneo en Nuevo Delhi. Se subraya la importancia de lugar en la acción social a través de una análisis de la arquitectura de lugares cotidiano—la casa, la calle, y la plaza central—como sitios de transformaciones personales y de la conciencia colectiva. Utilizando observaciones de las actividades de y entrevistas con miembros de Samudayik Shakti, una cooperativa de mujeres, y con un ‘panchayat’ de hombres, éste artículo subraya varios procesos relacionados en el campo de Subhash: cómo tenían las mujeres experiencias diferentes de prácticas diarias espaciales; cómo las prácticas espaciales en éstos lugares son influidas por las diferentes estructuras sociales en distintas escalas, desde la familia hasta el estado; cómo la arquitectura de éstos lugares tenía un papel significativo como un sitio de control y de emancipación de los cuerpos de mujeres; y cómo ésta dinámica contribuía a la producción de la acción social en el campo de Subhash.

Keywords:

• Working-class feminism
• agency
• intersectionality
• architecture
• place

Keywords:

• feminismo de la clase obrera
• agencia
• inter seccional
• arquitectura
• lugar

Acknowledgements

I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to the participants and the residents of Subhash Camp who have made this study possible. Also thanks to Jagori for their support of this project. My gratitude also goes to Brenda Yeoh and the anonymous referees of this paper without whose insightful comments this paper could not have been completed.

Notes

1. This literally means ‘five members’. It is a form of rural local governance structure and is derived from the oldest judicial systems in India where collective decisions are taken by a group of five elderly members elected democratically.

2. All names used in this study are pseudonyms.

3. This is unlike middle- or upper-class houses in Delhi which have ‘standard’ plans consisting of living/dining room, kitchen, toilet and one or more bedrooms in legalised colonies. Subhash Camp houses, as in other squatter settlements, differed due to their lack of space and of legal tenure. The women in these camps were further marginalised in cases of dowry or domestic violence cases since the police in many instances would not lodge a complaint if the address was in an unauthorised area.

4. She is referring to the assassination of Indira Gandhi, the Prime Minister of India, by her Sikh bodyguard in 1984. This led to communal violence when over 10,000 Sikhs were killed across the country.

5. This refers to the conflicts around the Babri Mosque near Ayodhya in North India which some radical Hindu groups claim as the birthplace of ‘Rama’ (a sacrosanct figure from Hindu religion) and where they want to construct a temple. In 1992, L. K. Advani, an Indian MP led a procession (called Rath Yatra) to rally support for this movement which resulted in damage to the Babri mosque by radical Hindu groups. This led to communal violence across the country.

6. A traditional bed made out of a wooden frame with a tightly strung hammock in between on which people sleep.

7. Yet I was always given correct directions by residents when I lost my way.