Heterotopic Assemblages within Religious Structures: Ganesh Utsav and the Streets of Mumbai

Abstract

Indian urban public spaces have witnessed massive transformation post liberalization and globalization. In 2017, city spaces offer novel experiences and unravel new political dynamics in tune with the paradigm shifts in socio-political, economic and cultural domains. The city was shaped by the colonial and later modernizing forces, is being foregrounded in the postmodern, postcolonial discourses, and its public spaces therefore emerge as significant components in the social developments as witnessed in the new millennium. Ganesh Utsav in Mumbai is closely linked to India’s history of political struggle against British colonialism. There has been a phenomenal growth in its popularity and visibility, as a festival for ten days, encapsulating the whole city, transforming its identity as a financial capital of the country to a multiple layered carnival ground, with processions and festivities involving the majority of its population. Post globalization and neoliberalisation, the festival has transformed itself, assumed an identity uniquely political along with the rise of the right wing to power. My paper will be an attempt to critically evaluate this festival and the paraphernalia of sacredness that encapsulates the city space for ten days every year. While the spatial identity of religious practices is fascinating to observe, the ten-day festival of Ganesh Utsav builds a fabric of the sacred and profane across the city. The theoretical tool used in this study is Foucault’s heterotopias and Deleuze and Guattari’s concept of assemblage. The de/re-territorialising aspects of these spaces will also be examined.

Religiosity, Space-making, Exclusion: ‘Kanwar Yatra’ Celebrations in a North Indian City

“…These were strictly male-dominated spaces wherein young, male Kanwariyas engaged in and participated in diverse forms of leisure and fun, combining notions of lower-middle class consumerism with religious fervour (Kumar, 2018a, p. 117). The banter, frolicking and entertainment associated with Kanwar Yatra and its public display on the streets helped young people relish the ‘public arena’ for themselves by challenging the common imaginations of a bourgeois public space (Gopinath, 2019, p. 101). It provided avenues for young people from varied castes within the rural, lower middle classes with marginal resources to engage in diverse forms of entertainment and fun at a low cost.…”

“…It provided avenues for young people from varied castes within the rural, lower middle classes with marginal resources to engage in diverse forms of entertainment and fun at a low cost. 11 Reversing ideas of ritualistic traditions and civility on its head, sections of the pilgrims essentially used the festival as a vent for the ‘release of social frustrations’ (Ghosh, 2000; Gopinath, 2019, p. 101).…”

“…In Meerut, the ideas of fun and devotion around the Kanwar Yatra celebrations were subverted by visions of majoritarian aggrandizement and exclusive sacrality as well (Gopinath, 2019, p. 104). With the involvement of a diverse set of socio-political leaders and the state, the festival was embedded in ideas of belonging and identity (Anderson & Jaffrelot, 2018).…”

“…However, in contrast to the re-imagination of a place as part of a movement or projects of reclamation, this study provides a granular insight into the making and unmaking of a diversely populated space like Meerut primarily through the temporary conclusion of a festival and its implied consequences for the everyday life of diverse communities. 14 This finds resonance in more contemporary work on the transformation of India’s public spaces post liberalization, globalization and the rise of the Hindu right (Gopinath, 2019). Gopinath documents how the Ganesh festivals in Mumbai are reterritorialized and exploited as an expression of Hindutva nationalistic identity (Gopinath, 2019, p. 103).…”

“…Marked by acts of public religiosity, this festival is an apt example to understand the growing intertwining of religious and national identity, state-led patronage of religious interests and the changing notion of religion as a ‘competing ideology’ in contemporary India (Ahmed, 2023). Moreover, the growing youth participation in the Kanwar Yatra celebrations is reflective not only of the rising trends of a ‘new consumptive religiosity’ among young people in western Uttar Pradesh but also an expression of ideas of fun and entertainment that combine ideas of lower-middle class consumerism with religious fervour (Gopinath, 2019; Jodhka, 2017; Kumar, 2018a).…”