Viewing Bombay as a tent: A study of the city in texts (original) (raw)
Bombay is both a part and a product of the culture industry in India. From the spectacle of the great Indian Bollywood cinema to its international appeal of the poverty-stricken Dharavi slums — it has come to represent the paradoxes that co-exist in the Indian mind. The city carries its migration of rich histories, scattered geographies, pidgin languages, and misfit inhabitants with an aura of pride, prejudice, and purpose. The research highlights through texts — fiction, non-fiction, films, and music, the various thematic strands that are woven in the fabric of the city. It also focuses on specific and recurring cultural artifacts and motifs in Bombay’s fictional representation. Largely addressing the questions of ‘city-ness’, cultural composition, philosophical discourses, and ‘being and becoming’, its transformation from Bombay to Mumbai is also traced. The paper probes questions of belongingness, alienation, marginalization and location — elements that comprise the identities of communities and individuals of the city. It explores the idea of an interlinked collective consciousness of Bombay which is deeply etched with the lived experiences of the people.
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