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Papers by Jonathan Galton

South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 2019

Drawing on a year’s fieldwork in the Mumbai BDD Chawls neighborhood, this paper analyses an urban... more Drawing on a year’s fieldwork in the Mumbai BDD Chawls neighborhood, this paper analyses an urban migration phenomenon called the gramastha mandal. Gramastha mandals are village-run committees that buy chawl (tenement) rooms and rent them to single male migrants from their own villages. Save a few studies and cursory references, gramastha mandals have received limited academic attention, especially in today’s climate of economic liberalization following the widespread closure of Mumbai’s cotton mills. Through an examination of gramastha mandal living arrangements, working patterns and social activities, I answer three broad questions. Firstly, how have the gramastha mandals been impacted by the closure of the mills that once provided a major source of employment? Secondly how does living in a gramastha mandal room impact migrants’ relationships with the city around them and, thirdly, how does this arrangement perpetuate societal divisions from the village? I suggest that most gramastha mandal residents remain more part of their villages than of Mumbai’s social structures, and that this alienation has increased since the mills closed and opportunities for forging a working-class urban solidarity correspondingly declined. Moreover, through strict eligibility criteria, gramastha mandals replicate, rather than erode, village fault-lines between caste Hindu and Dalit Buddhist communities, a phenomenon that shows only limited signs of changing.

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The SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, 2018

Colonialism, and hence decolonisation, is usually associated with European expansion ove... more Colonialism, and hence decolonisation, is usually associated with European expansion overseas. This paper is premised on the possibility of an internal colonisation within India, a country famously colonised by Britain. My argument is rooted in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mumbai among a community of Mahars, a Dalit (formerly “untouchable”) caste that converted to Buddhism en masse in 1956. As a cornerstone of its self-respect, this community embraces an “alternative history” in which its members cast themselves as the original inhabitants of an ancient Buddhist India, subjugated through the imposition of caste Hinduism by Aryan invaders from an unclearly-defined West.

Another strand of this history is the 1818 Battle of Koregaon, in which a Mahar battalion, fighting on behalf of the British, defeated the forces of the local high-caste Hindu rulers. Through an annual commemoration, Dalits frame these rulers as oppressors, while portraying the British as liberators. I ask whether, counterintuitively, this alternative history can be read as “decolonisation in praxis” vis-à-vis Hindu caste oppression. By examining the multiple ways in which this history, and associated scholarship, is intertwined with British colonial knowledge-making I conclude that this is a fruitful but problematic position to adopt.

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Conference Presentations by Jonathan Galton

The city is often regarded as a site where social proximity softens divisions between communities... more The city is often regarded as a site where social proximity softens divisions between communities. Nevertheless, cases of often violent social fragmentation can be found in cities across the globe. Social histories of Mumbai typical align with either or both of these narratives and frequently focus on regional or religious divides.

Less studied are the deep relationships many Mumbaikars maintain with their ancestral villages. This paper draws on a year’s ethnographic fieldwork (till Jan 2018) in the BDD Chawls of Lower Parel to ask how villages are represented and recreated in a contemporary urban context. In particular, I examine the phenomenon of gramastha mandals, village-run committees that buy and rent chawl rooms to single male migrants from their own villages. Originally established in the heyday of the city’s cotton mill industry, many rooms now house a third generation of migrants working or studying, while some earlier inhabitants have returned to a life of farming in the village.

These rooms perpetuate a sense of belonging and nostalgia among migrants. Constant flows of people, money and ideas between village and chawl mean that the village is recreated in Mumbai through festivals and food practices, while Mumbai is simultaneously expressed in the village in built forms and social capital. However, while residents claim the rooms promote an urbane egalitarianism, they are by definition exclusive spaces and some also reinforce internal village divisions through religious segregation. Meanwhile, new conflicts in the city can spill over into village social life.

Approximately 25 recorded interviews (in progress) and long-term interactions with seven gramastha mandals are the core material from which conclusions are drawn.

Paper presented at: European Conference on South Asian Studies, EHESS, Paris, 24 -27 July 2018

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Struggles for autonomy are often perceived in terms of a quest for separateness: a separate state... more Struggles for autonomy are often perceived in terms of a quest for separateness: a separate state, a separate nation or perhaps separate rights. Dalit movements in India are frequently framed around the latter, a notable example being reformer Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s campaign for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes in the early 1930s.

In this paper, however, I draw on a year’s ethnographic fieldwork in a Mumbai housing colony to examine how an ongoing quest for dignity and autonomy among a Dalit Buddhist community is rooted in a claim to being a part of, not distinct from, the Indian national project. Through a series of vignettes, I explore the ways in which members of the community position themselves as the “true nationalists of India”.

Firstly, I reflect on the myriad ways in which Ambedkar, often elevated by the community to an almost godlike status, is presented as the father of the nation and hence forms the focal point of Republic Day celebrations. In doing so, I consider how “We are Indians, firstly and lastly” (an epigram popularly attributed to Ambedkar) is used by Dalits to differentiate their rational, egalitarian commitment to a socially progressive India from what they consider the superstitious blind faith of Hindu nationalism.

Secondly, I discuss how the Dalit community stakes a claim to autonomy from the prevailing Hindu discourse through an alternative reading of history in which Buddhism is the primordial faith of India. In this narrative Hinduism is cast as a weapon of domination imposed by invading outsiders that has been used to enslave the minds and bodies of Indians for thousands of years. In a sense, therefore, my informants argue that India is still colonised, and that Indians will not achieve autonomy until the Hindu caste system is eradicated.

Finally, I describe the ways in which Chhatrapati Shivaji, seventeenth century ruler of the Maratha Empire and familiar as an icon of the Maharashtrian Hindu right wing, is also an object of reverence for many Dalits. Framing him as a just, egalitarian leader and a spiritual antecedent to Ambedkar, Dalit pride in Shivaji can be viewed as claiming a stake in Maharashtrian history and identity and, by extension, that of India itself.

At a time when minorities’ national loyalty is increasingly called into question, I contend that alternative and sometimes counterintuitive strains of nationalism demand academic attention alongside the more familiar narratives of separatism.

Paper discussed at: “Struggles for autonomy” South Asia Anthropologists Group (SAAG), St John’s College, University of Oxford 5-6 September 2018.

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Books by Jonathan Galton

UCL Press, 2023

In an age where history is a global battleground and fake news proliferates, culture wars are bei... more In an age where history is a global battleground and fake news proliferates, culture wars are being waged across India over its future – majoritarian or inclusive, neoliberal or socialist, religious or secular?

Fake Gods and False History takes us to the BDD Chawls, a central Mumbai neighbourhood of tenement blocks (chawls) on the brink of a controversial redevelopment. It reveals how contested narratives of Indian history play out in the daily life of this divided neighbourhood and how the legacies of certain godlike but very human historical figures, such as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji, are invoked by different communities. Jonathan Galton draws on research conducted among the formerly untouchable Dalit Buddhist community, who are staunchly opposed to the redevelopment plans and deeply critical of the religious nationalism they perceive in their Hindu neighbours. We also meet young male migrants living in village-linked dormitory rooms called Gramastha Mandals, trapped in a liminal space between urban and rural.

Throughout the book, which is woven through with candid reflections on methodology and research ethics, readers are challenged into drawing connections with their own experiences of history impinging on their lives. A story that might initially seem parochial will thus resonate with a diverse global audience.

ISBN: 9781800085787

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South Asia Multidisciplinary Academic Journal, 2019

Drawing on a year’s fieldwork in the Mumbai BDD Chawls neighborhood, this paper analyses an urban... more Drawing on a year’s fieldwork in the Mumbai BDD Chawls neighborhood, this paper analyses an urban migration phenomenon called the gramastha mandal. Gramastha mandals are village-run committees that buy chawl (tenement) rooms and rent them to single male migrants from their own villages. Save a few studies and cursory references, gramastha mandals have received limited academic attention, especially in today’s climate of economic liberalization following the widespread closure of Mumbai’s cotton mills. Through an examination of gramastha mandal living arrangements, working patterns and social activities, I answer three broad questions. Firstly, how have the gramastha mandals been impacted by the closure of the mills that once provided a major source of employment? Secondly how does living in a gramastha mandal room impact migrants’ relationships with the city around them and, thirdly, how does this arrangement perpetuate societal divisions from the village? I suggest that most gramastha mandal residents remain more part of their villages than of Mumbai’s social structures, and that this alienation has increased since the mills closed and opportunities for forging a working-class urban solidarity correspondingly declined. Moreover, through strict eligibility criteria, gramastha mandals replicate, rather than erode, village fault-lines between caste Hindu and Dalit Buddhist communities, a phenomenon that shows only limited signs of changing.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The SOAS Journal of Postgraduate Research, 2018

Colonialism, and hence decolonisation, is usually associated with European expansion ove... more Colonialism, and hence decolonisation, is usually associated with European expansion overseas. This paper is premised on the possibility of an internal colonisation within India, a country famously colonised by Britain. My argument is rooted in ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mumbai among a community of Mahars, a Dalit (formerly “untouchable”) caste that converted to Buddhism en masse in 1956. As a cornerstone of its self-respect, this community embraces an “alternative history” in which its members cast themselves as the original inhabitants of an ancient Buddhist India, subjugated through the imposition of caste Hinduism by Aryan invaders from an unclearly-defined West.

Another strand of this history is the 1818 Battle of Koregaon, in which a Mahar battalion, fighting on behalf of the British, defeated the forces of the local high-caste Hindu rulers. Through an annual commemoration, Dalits frame these rulers as oppressors, while portraying the British as liberators. I ask whether, counterintuitively, this alternative history can be read as “decolonisation in praxis” vis-à-vis Hindu caste oppression. By examining the multiple ways in which this history, and associated scholarship, is intertwined with British colonial knowledge-making I conclude that this is a fruitful but problematic position to adopt.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

The city is often regarded as a site where social proximity softens divisions between communities... more The city is often regarded as a site where social proximity softens divisions between communities. Nevertheless, cases of often violent social fragmentation can be found in cities across the globe. Social histories of Mumbai typical align with either or both of these narratives and frequently focus on regional or religious divides.

Less studied are the deep relationships many Mumbaikars maintain with their ancestral villages. This paper draws on a year’s ethnographic fieldwork (till Jan 2018) in the BDD Chawls of Lower Parel to ask how villages are represented and recreated in a contemporary urban context. In particular, I examine the phenomenon of gramastha mandals, village-run committees that buy and rent chawl rooms to single male migrants from their own villages. Originally established in the heyday of the city’s cotton mill industry, many rooms now house a third generation of migrants working or studying, while some earlier inhabitants have returned to a life of farming in the village.

These rooms perpetuate a sense of belonging and nostalgia among migrants. Constant flows of people, money and ideas between village and chawl mean that the village is recreated in Mumbai through festivals and food practices, while Mumbai is simultaneously expressed in the village in built forms and social capital. However, while residents claim the rooms promote an urbane egalitarianism, they are by definition exclusive spaces and some also reinforce internal village divisions through religious segregation. Meanwhile, new conflicts in the city can spill over into village social life.

Approximately 25 recorded interviews (in progress) and long-term interactions with seven gramastha mandals are the core material from which conclusions are drawn.

Paper presented at: European Conference on South Asian Studies, EHESS, Paris, 24 -27 July 2018

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

Struggles for autonomy are often perceived in terms of a quest for separateness: a separate state... more Struggles for autonomy are often perceived in terms of a quest for separateness: a separate state, a separate nation or perhaps separate rights. Dalit movements in India are frequently framed around the latter, a notable example being reformer Dr B. R. Ambedkar’s campaign for separate electorates for the Depressed Classes in the early 1930s.

In this paper, however, I draw on a year’s ethnographic fieldwork in a Mumbai housing colony to examine how an ongoing quest for dignity and autonomy among a Dalit Buddhist community is rooted in a claim to being a part of, not distinct from, the Indian national project. Through a series of vignettes, I explore the ways in which members of the community position themselves as the “true nationalists of India”.

Firstly, I reflect on the myriad ways in which Ambedkar, often elevated by the community to an almost godlike status, is presented as the father of the nation and hence forms the focal point of Republic Day celebrations. In doing so, I consider how “We are Indians, firstly and lastly” (an epigram popularly attributed to Ambedkar) is used by Dalits to differentiate their rational, egalitarian commitment to a socially progressive India from what they consider the superstitious blind faith of Hindu nationalism.

Secondly, I discuss how the Dalit community stakes a claim to autonomy from the prevailing Hindu discourse through an alternative reading of history in which Buddhism is the primordial faith of India. In this narrative Hinduism is cast as a weapon of domination imposed by invading outsiders that has been used to enslave the minds and bodies of Indians for thousands of years. In a sense, therefore, my informants argue that India is still colonised, and that Indians will not achieve autonomy until the Hindu caste system is eradicated.

Finally, I describe the ways in which Chhatrapati Shivaji, seventeenth century ruler of the Maratha Empire and familiar as an icon of the Maharashtrian Hindu right wing, is also an object of reverence for many Dalits. Framing him as a just, egalitarian leader and a spiritual antecedent to Ambedkar, Dalit pride in Shivaji can be viewed as claiming a stake in Maharashtrian history and identity and, by extension, that of India itself.

At a time when minorities’ national loyalty is increasingly called into question, I contend that alternative and sometimes counterintuitive strains of nationalism demand academic attention alongside the more familiar narratives of separatism.

Paper discussed at: “Struggles for autonomy” South Asia Anthropologists Group (SAAG), St John’s College, University of Oxford 5-6 September 2018.

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact

UCL Press, 2023

In an age where history is a global battleground and fake news proliferates, culture wars are bei... more In an age where history is a global battleground and fake news proliferates, culture wars are being waged across India over its future – majoritarian or inclusive, neoliberal or socialist, religious or secular?

Fake Gods and False History takes us to the BDD Chawls, a central Mumbai neighbourhood of tenement blocks (chawls) on the brink of a controversial redevelopment. It reveals how contested narratives of Indian history play out in the daily life of this divided neighbourhood and how the legacies of certain godlike but very human historical figures, such as Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar and Chhatrapati Shivaji, are invoked by different communities. Jonathan Galton draws on research conducted among the formerly untouchable Dalit Buddhist community, who are staunchly opposed to the redevelopment plans and deeply critical of the religious nationalism they perceive in their Hindu neighbours. We also meet young male migrants living in village-linked dormitory rooms called Gramastha Mandals, trapped in a liminal space between urban and rural.

Throughout the book, which is woven through with candid reflections on methodology and research ethics, readers are challenged into drawing connections with their own experiences of history impinging on their lives. A story that might initially seem parochial will thus resonate with a diverse global audience.

ISBN: 9781800085787

Bookmarks Related papers MentionsView impact