IN-PERSON ISTANBUL HERITAGE(S)

Abstract

“Bawana girls are not like other Delhi girls; they give it right back” is how the adolescent girls living in a relocation settlement in Bawana reflect on their identity as tied to the spatiality they inhabit. The relocation colony has residents displaced from the Yamuna Pushta slums in the late 1990s and early 2000s. The contrast of ‘giving it back’ (alluding to being retaliatory as opposed to complacent or passive-receptive), which constitutes the epicentre of these young girls’ identity, stands starkly against the history of being displaced. The girls reconcile with the risks and limitations of living in the Bawana colony, with their aspirations shaped by exposure to social media channels and fandom. The spunky, confident and confrontational Bawana girls’ work’ the social media and this ‘social media chalana’ or ‘working social media’ captures the fractures of their identity and aspirations. The paper explores the tensions between the aspirations and lived realities of the Bawana girls, their reconciliations and negotiations with patriarchal concerns, risks associated with low-income neighbourhood life of safety, reputation and the risk of an early marriage ‘trap’; and their fantasies of South Korea, transition reels and going viral. The paper draws its insights from two rounds of focus group discussions with girls in the relocation settlement in Bawana. The four first rounds (6-8 participants) focused on their lives, aspirations, et cetera; the second round (14-16 participants) focused on their practices, identity and spatiality. The insights highlight girlhood and the relationship between identity, spatiality, and virtual space.