Festival “noise” and soundscape politics in Mumbai, India

ABSTRACT

Issues of soundscape hold special significance in the daily lives of residents of Mumbai, India. “Noise pollution” has become an integral concept in how many Mumbaikars understand and frame auditory experiences of the city, and anxieties over sound figure prominently in public discourse, with local news media and Bombay High Court legal proceedings often fervently debating over the topic. Unlike other large cities with high ambient decibel levels, however, Mumbai’s noise pollution most visibly (and audibly) concerns sound from religious sources, most notably Hindu religious festivals taking place during a lengthy “festival season”. Close examination of this “festival noise” situation reveals a vastly intricate system involving political strategy, community imagination and labour politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Religious festivals
• soundscape
• noise pollution
• Mumbai
• India
• mandals
• political parties

Acknowledgments

The research contributing to this article would not have been possible without the continued and dedicated support of my advisors at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Ronald Radano and Maria Lepowsky. I also owe my most sincere gratitude to those agencies that have generously funded my research trips to India, specifically the UW-Madison Centre for South Asia under the Student Dissertation Travel Award, the UW-Madison Institute for Regional and International Studies under the Graduate Student Summer Fieldwork Award and the Scott Kloeck-Jenson Travel Fellowship, and the UW-Madison Anthropology Department under the John T. Hitchcock Prize. I deeply appreciate all of your help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UW-Madison Center For South Asia; UW-Madison Anthropology Department; UW-Madison Institute for Regional and International Studies.

Notes on contributors

Julian Anthony Lynch

Julian Anthony Lynch is a joint PhD candidate in anthropology and ethnomusicology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His ethnographic and ethno-historical dissertation research focuses on contestation over the sound of religious festivals in modern Mumbai, exploring themes of soundscape, musician labour, sectarian relations, ethno-politics in western Maharashtra and interactions between state and non-state modes of governance and institutional provision of services.