Architexturez South Asia
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Squinches and Semi-domes between the Late Sasanian and Early Islamic Periods
No full textThe aim of this paper is to present a first attempt at a comprehensive classification of squinches related to semi-domes, in Persian kāna pūsh, in Greater Syria, Mesopotamia and Iran between the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods. This feature is a characteristic of the Persian architectural tradition: all the preserved examples are in buildings of considerable importance (most are related to the architecture of the élites) and demonstrate a typological evolution. Furthermore, their origin can also be backdated to between the late Sasanian and early Islamic periods.</p
Do Politicians Discriminate Against Internal Migrants? Evidence from Nationwide Field Experiments in India
No full textRural‐to‐urban migration is reshaping the economic and social landscape of the Global South. Yet migrants often struggle to integrate into cities. We conduct countrywide audit experiments in India to test whether urban politicians discriminate against internal migrants in providing constituency services. Signaling that a citizen is a city newcomer, as opposed to a long‐term resident, causes incumbent politicians to be significantly less likely to respond to requests for help. Standard “nativist” concerns do not appear to explain this representation gap. We theorize that migrants are structurally disposed to participate in destination‐area elections at lower rates than long‐term residents. Knowing this, reelection‐minded politicians decline to cater to migrant interests. Follow‐up experiments support the hypothesis. We expect our findings to generalize to fast‐urbanizing democracies, with implications for international immigration too. Policywise, mitigating migrants’ de facto disenfranchisement should improve their welfare.</p
Architectural Adventurism in Nineteenth-Century Colonial India: Begum Samru and Her Sardhana Church
No full textThis article explores the politically fluid and culturally hybrid environment of the Indian subcontinent during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Interaction between European mercenaries and their Indian patrons led to acculturation of both sides. This cultural affinity also extended into the realm of architecture and building patronage, resulting in a stylistic hybridity that drew upon both Indian and European traditions. This article examines the building projects of Begum Samru, bibi (consort) of a German mercenary and ruler of Sardhana near Delhi. The Begum, born a Muslim, converted to Christianity, but nonetheless still valued her roots, creating a syncretic identity that was reflected in her architectural patronage. The scope of her patronage went beyond domestic architecture to serve the cause of her adopted religion as well. While she donated generously to Catholic institutions, it was in the building of churches that the Begum resorted to what one may call architectural adventurism to mark her identity as a devout Catholic. Transcending the prevalent notions of space and aesthetics, the Begum's architectural trajectory was unconventional due to her gender, social status, faith, and patronage of churches. Commissioned in 1821, Sardhana's Catholic Church became a symbol of her architectural adventurism: it epitomized Begum Samru's feisty spirit and her quest to champion Catholicism in the subcontinent.</p
Incorporating Practices of Publicness in Kuwaiti Parks: Chai Ithahha, Cricket, Diwaniya, and Malls
No full textThis paper focuses on practices of publicness in Kuwait that do not necessarily fall under accepted discourses of public space, highlighting the importance of incorporating such practices within the existing literature as they affect landscape architecture. The practices include chai ithahha (women’s morning tea), diwaniya(predominantly men’s gathering), cricket games played by South Asian men, and mall outings. I suggest using these practices in the design of parks at a time of increasing privatization. While these practices enhance social connectivity in Kuwait and highlight political demands as in the case of the diwaniya and chai ithahha, I contend that these examples have limitations because they take place in exclusive settings, affecting access and appearance of certain publics based on class, gender, nationality, and location. The mall is a landscape and one can argue that malls can incorporate spaces for diwaniya and chai ithahha gatherings, and perhaps even cricket courts. Yet, there is something about the tactility of the landscape that is unsatisfied by the mall. The mall is meeting a certain need but is insufficient, as it remains an exclusive, private, and closed space. Parks stand as complex cultural spaces of representation and risk and they offer the best opportunity for an inclusive atmosphere. The practices highlight a potential for parks in dealing with privatization and segregation. Embracing and reinterpreting these practices in more inclusive parks may lead to the appearance and representation of more publics in spaces tailored to a place’s identity and people’s needs. This could mean introducing multiple programs in one space, like gathering spaces for a diwaniya and chai ithahha, and sports areas, within diverse urban settings, while also focusing on the micro-scale of design elements like seating. This paper concludes that public parks which embrace such practices begin to respond to the needs of society with all its complexity, becoming a terrain for fostering both community engagement and placemaking.</p
The Pavilions at the Alhambra’s Court of the Lions: Graphic Analysis of Muqarnas
No full textThis research documents and graphically analyzes the pavilions muqarnas at the Court of the Lions in the Alhambra in Granada, a World Heritage Site. In order to cast some light on the understanding and preservation of these 14th century architectural elements, after a brief report of historical data on catastrophes and restorations, a novel methodology for the case study based on three complementary graphic analyses is presented here: First, there is a review of outstanding images ranging from the 17th to the 20th centuries; subsequently, new CAD (computer-aided design) drawings from pavilions muqarnas testing the theoretic principles from their geometric grouping are accomplished for the first time; and finally, a 3D laser scanner is used to understand the precise present-day state from the point cloud obtained. Comparing drawings allows us to assess the muqarnas relevance while proving, for the first time, that the muqarnas of both pavilions have distinct configurations and different amounts of pieces. Besides, this process reveals geometric deformations existing in the original Nasrid muqarnas compositions, identifying small pieces hitherto unknown, plus additional deformations resulting from adjustments after important threats that both pavilions and their muqarnas overcame for centuries, despite their fragile construction. </p
Sustainable disposal of the dead: A study of Nigambodh Ghat in Delhi
No full textThe link between values and technologies is well established. The concept of sustainability here includes the desire to dispose of the dead in an easy, eco-friendly manner. Many authors have discussed sustainability and its relation to the various methods of disposal of the dead. However, it may be pertinent to explore if all stakeholders accept sustainability as their prime concern, and what explains their non-acceptance, if any, despite this value being an inherent part of several government policies and schemes in the last few decades. Nigambodh Ghat is one of the oldest, largest, and busiest cremation grounds in Delhi. Ethnographic insights have been discussed to understand the nuances and complexities of the interaction between sustainability and cremation technologies across the strata of users at this site. Although new cremation technologies are incompatible with established funeral customs, there is a growing preference for cheaper, simpler, and less ritualized methods, for instance, Mokshda, electric and CNG crematorium. The coexistence of various competing cremation technologies at Nigambodh Ghat highlights the increasing importance of sustainability.</p
The spatial practice of religious tourism in India: a destinations perspective
No full textReligious tourism refers to contemporary patterns of travel to sacred places and has taken many forms owing to different motivations of visitors. Researchers have discussed motivation, activities, and behaviour of visitors in framing what constitutes religious in religious tourism, but little attention is given to spatial manifestations of religious practice. Towing this direction, I examine the significance of religious practices to spatial arrangements in Hindu pilgrim towns in India by juxtaposing the concept of “spatial practice” from Lefebvre’s theory of production of space with an indigenous approach called the “sacred-complex model”. A fieldwork based collective study of six pilgrim-towns, namely, Alandi, Jejuri, Pandharpur, Tuljapur, Shegaon, and Shirdi, which represent a full spectrum of religious tourism destinations in India, provides a sound comparison of similarities and differences in spatial practice of religious tourism. In this analysis, four themes emerge: (1) the engagement of religious actors in religious rituals and performances over space defines the boundaries and territories of the sacred and religious; (2) the performance area of religious practice has reduced from traditional pilgrimage landscape to specific routes providing access to the main attraction which is a built structure (shrine/temple); (3) religiousness is also created by non-religious and seemingly “profane” commercial activities; (4) without the explicit expression of religiousness there is no opportunity for religious tourism or any other form of tourism. They are organized and presented following different principles from attractions elsewhere in the world, and that they are more important in the lives of the Indian people who visit and maintain them than they are to the Western tourist. Using spatial lens has reinforced that religious as a prefix, is a stronger and an essential concept for religious tourism in the non-western context of India, that needs to be factored in for sustainable management of religious tourism destinations.</p
The Delhi Bias: knowledge hegemony of India's slum governance
No full textSlum eradication has been a concern in South Asian cities since the colonial times. Legislation and policies are being framed both out of national desires and international strategies. However, very little is being studied on how these legislation and policies come into being, specifically geography's influence in their formulation. The article analyses parliamentary debates from India (Rajya Sabha, 1953–2014), and outlines the process of historical, political, and institutional dominance of Delhi. It shows that the slum legislation and policies in India are formulated by abstracting cases from the Delhi slums. This knowledge hegemony of Delhi is discussed within the growing consideration towards urban theory's southern shift, which puts the Southern cities (megacities) as underdogs. The paper argues that at a regional level, these megacities exert the same hegemony that the southern theory wants to avoid. The results argue towards broadening the southern theory and ordinary city discussions.</p
From Chinese dam building in Africa to the Belt and Road Initiative: Assembling infrastructure projects and their linkages
No full textThis paper aims to build a political economic geography of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). We draw on assemblage thinking and the notion of the Chinese Water Machine to examine Chinese practices and business-related outcomes of building a dam in Africa, stressing the complicated interactions between different actors. Based on fieldwork in China and Ghana, as well as documentary data, this paper argues that Chinese engagement with Africa is a global enterprise, in which players come from China, the recipient, and other countries; and that project-level organisation and implementation under BRI umbrella will also likely be a joint production by all such players, elaborated in a path dependent way but subject to the spatial embeddedness of specific projects. Yet whether BRI-related projects can advance the specific geopolitical and economic interests of China is uncertain: not only have Chinese players been co-constructing such infrastructure projects with non-Chinese players, but also Beijing's role in forging the expansion of Chinese corporations' business abroad is not clear.
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Neoliberal exception to liberal democracy? Entrepreneurial territorial governance in India
No full textFocusing on the industrial area local authority (IALA), a governance regime widely applied in the south Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana, this paper examines pathways to illiberal governance within ostensibly liberal democratic contexts. The history of the IALA exemplifies the modes by which the movement towards representative government at the local level in India was subverted at its very origins by the insertion of exceptions into the legislation that purported to establish and empower urban government. Applied to demarcated territories, both established industrial areas and spaces dedicated to globalized information technology and financial services, the IALA instrument devolves the powers and functions of the municipality to an agency controlled by the state government. The career of the IALA thus demonstrates how neoliberal agendas are enacted in enclave settings through the interplay of discursive logics of participatory governance and strategies of entrepreneurial governance in practice. Using Hyderabad as an empirical case, the paper argues that special purpose enclaves, subject to regimes of exceptional urban governance, represent vectors both of neoliberalism and neo-illiberalism in avowedly liberal democratic contexts in the Global South.</p