Nalasopara: Peripheralised-Tadipar

Nala Sopara

PERIPHERALISED TADIPAR

PE.RIPH.ER.AL.ISED

1. Related to, located in, or constituting an outer boundary or periphery
2. Perceived near the outer edges of the retina: peripheral vision or as the outer part of a body or organ
3. Of minor relevance or importance
4. Seen as auxiliary: something that works in conjunction with something else, such as printer with computer

TA.DI.PAR

To banish | To extern | To exile

Section 56(1) of Bombay Police Act banishes a ‘proclaimed offender’ to live outside the limits of the city or some area on grounds that s/he is engaged in or about to be engaged in dangerous activities and could incite violence. Those targeted include, “goondas”, “bootleggers”, “dacoits”, “drug-offenders”, “land grabbers”, “gamblers”.

TADIPAR

Peripheralised / Tadipar traces the violent processes of peripheralisation — displacement, organised abandonment and disposability — that are bound up in Mumbai’s development. Illustrating both historical and ongoing processes of peripheralisation, it aims to provoke reflection on the mechanisms that create tadipar, the consequences of banishing certain social groups, ecologies and ways of being from the city, and the counter-narratives that ‘see from Nala Sopara’. The work thus abandons simple dualities of centre-periphery, choosing to focus on the relations and mobilities that connect places.

Displacement + Disposability + Organised abandonment = Peripheralised

These 3 processes of peripheralisation reinforce each other.

Displacement

Occurs in the name of environmental protection, due to mill closure and deindustrialization, and through redevelopment processes. These 3 forms of displacement use different arguments but all serve to dislocate and push people out, rupturing the habitats and support systems that communities have laboured to build over time.

Disposability

Connotes the disregard for local ecologies and poor, working class/caste, ‘migrant’ lives that render these socio-natural habitats vulnerable to being erased and/or harmed. At the root of disposability is the norm of devaluing poor lives and local ecologies that prevents us from caring about their wellbeing and promoting the fair distribution of public funds and services.

Organised abandonment

In management literature it has been coined as a way for organisations to stay ahead of their competition by regularly assessing, identifying and abandoning things that are no longer profitable to the interests of the organisation. Here, organised abandonment refers to state institutions deliberately abandoning their responsibility for providing basic public services and social goods to certain of their citizens. This frees up resources for being used in other areas the state sees as critical to the future.

Kamathipura

JVLR

Nala Sopara

M-ward