Understanding the Everyday Identity Formation Through Anti-Caste Popular Prints within the Urban Spaces of Mumbai

Abstract

In the age of digital media, popular posters of political or religious icons have continued to maintain a solid presence in South Asian landscapes. This research project seeks to examine the extent to which popular prints are intertwined with caste associations in the metropolis of Mumbai, considering the visual realm as a significant avenue for social identification. It aims to gain insights into the everyday performative aspects of anti-caste thought through popular prints, of mainly anti-caste iconography, by asking questions such as: What images are present in Buddhist homes? Why do these prints occupy their specific spatial contexts? How do individuals interact with them? By asking this, this study would seek to deepen our understandings of the social meaning of these prints and the ways in which identity of different communities is formed, as revealed through examining the everyday engagements with the anti-caste iconography at its core. Additionally, the study aims to explore the complex relationship between affect, anti-caste popular prints and upper caste identity formation as a means to better understand the embodied nature of caste and ‘otherness’ that is reflected through them. In doing so I aim to gain an understanding of how visual references of the anti-caste movement shape the everyday lives of people, their politics and cultural identity in relation to Mumbai’s distinctive urbanity.