Gated community living and modern castism

Growing up in an urban city like Bangalore was very different from how my kids experience it. The concept of apartments and gated communities was unheard or seen. My memory of the same can be visualized by a lot of us kids from diverse backgrounds playing on the streets. Sometimes together ,sometimes in groups that now appears segregated based on socio cultural background.  The illusion that it gave some of us was that we coexisted wonderfully despite our diverse backgrounds. Sometimes I felt this could be true especially when we celebrated all festivals, even if not together but, often , in the sharing of the festive food. I still remember gobbling up the hot biriyani from Ahmed uncle's home on Eid, licking my fingers that were covered in christmas cake cream from Rini Aunty's home and carrying trays of home made sweet to all in the neighbourhood during diwali.  Velliamma who worked at our home as a domestic worker, lived within a few streets from us. We often met her and her family when we went grocery shopping or accessed the local playground. I still remember going to her home to enquire why she didn't come to work and seeing the bust of Dr Ambedkar at the corner of the street. A 7 year old made no connect to why this was so and why the street looked starkly different from the street I was in. Houses seemed smaller and so closeby and the lanes narrower with open drains. I was yet to confront caste because it didn't matter to me. Such was my priviledge. Upward mobility in those days was a larger home.  However, that's not what it was. I now realize that it meant having a home in the area marked 'upward ' and ' progressive ' which was inhabited by the upper caste and class demography...even though we spoke different languages and came from different districts / states. Somehow  the caste structure was kept intact and has cleverly masked itself into the popular culture of apartment and gated community living of today's Bangalore.

Bengaluru, as Bangalore is offically called today, is seeing ever increasing apartment complexes and gated communities which includes independent housing called villas.  The IT boom has not just increased the size of this sleepy retirement paradise but has converted it to a husling and bustling pub city with its sporadic and eratic development projects that includes roads, flyover and the recent metro. What Bangalore(sorry, will continue to refer to my birth city with this name ) has also seen is the volume of migrant daily wage workers who seem to settle in spaces that are often owned by real estate developers or the state and live in ghettos which are either socially, economically, culturally or religiously homogenised. However, these spaces are invisibilised by the high rising apartment complexes and the sparkling city lights that dawn the streets of the silicon valley of the Indian Nation State, making the socio economic divde visibly clear and seperate. 

Its interesting to see how this homogenisation has spread to the elite areas and has taken a very modernistic turn and developed into apartment communities and gated community spaces. What is baffling is how, in the name of modernity ,these residential spaces are doing a great job of upholding the caste system and is now taking it to a more refined filteration of religion too .  One must observe the print and media sales pitches of such apartment complexes to understand who the target audiences are. Words like "luxurious", "distinctive", "finest" and such similies that mark the exclusivity of this kind of living experience...something that is marked so clearly as to who can aspire and afford to live there. Many of these community residential spaces have been known to be built on lake land and more recently, farm land. It is stated that Bangalore has lost  79% of its lakes to real estate, in the last four decades. The increasing demand to convert farm land to real estate is now being encouraged through a law ammendment which promises to speeden the process.  Its ironic how these very spaces, that are eating away the eco system, promise and deliver on providing lush green environments by employing a dedicated network of people who ensure the premise takes care of their 'envionment' through eco friendly gabage disposal, composting, recycling options, plantation of trees , rainwater harvesting and such activities.

 The land and water that was accessible to the local residents now become exclusive to those who can afford to live within these confines , making this environment look exactly like what the caste sytem looked like; homogeneously exclusive .From having a security who scrutinizes and approves who enters the community premises ,to seperate entrances for support staff, the list is endles. One must take note of the fact that the construction workers who built the spacs and the staff that ensures its regular upkeep are systematically deprived of using the common spaces for leisure and recreation. In many spaces, exclusive washrooms are built while in others no provision for the same is provided.  All this is done under the garb of security, safety and providing a globalised neoliberal sanitised and pristeen life . Common spaces in some of these communities like the play area, pool and other  amenities have boards like " help /maids not allowed" which is blantantly castist and classist but whose protesting! Nobody is complaining about the disaapearing public playgrounds and the online shopping along with big supermarkets ensure who accesses these spaces. Refashioned and modernised untouchability is not just legitimised but here to 'stay'( pun intended) !

The ads that market these homes also talk about community living that unifies the people in these closed spaces. However, the  unification is all about ensuring homogenising the consumers of these spaces. I guess this is also a way to ensure the inhabitants are 'matched' perfectly to their neighbours which will eventually lead to a common caste and class  demography. This homogenisation is sometimes imposed to such an extent that people who own apartments are restricted from making changes to the exterior of their homes to mark their distinctiveness. One wonders if the demand for such homogeneity is what makes for the creation of such spaces. Cultural festivals celebrated in these spaces tells us a lot about the inhabitants of these spaces. If its not the capitalistic globalised celebrations like 'women's day', 'mother's day', 'fathers day' and halloween ( dont know why one celebrates this in the first place), then it is festivals that are celebrated by upper caste in true Brammanical style! From Holi to Durga Puja / Dusshera and ofcourse Diwali which involves a lot of 'traditional dressing up', 'pujas spearheaded by the learned brahmins' and culminated with authentic vegetarian food. The only exception to this festivities is the celebration of Christmas which seems to conveniently fit in the IT and globalised agenda. The mainstream narrative is all about inclusive celebration where Christian, Muslim and  members following other religions( the few who are there) are 'invited' to partake in the eating and are expected to 'observe' the ritualistic celebrations as flies on a wall. I am yet to hear of community spaces that celebrates festivals like Eid in as  elaborate manner a as those festivals mentioned above.  The lavish street stalls and food festivals in the month of ramazan that happen is still seen only in gettoized spaces . What is quite noteworthy is how these homes come with an in-built 'puja room'. One can connect this to a very brahmanical requirement to keep the placement of the worshipping idol in a  sanctum sanctorum to ensure its purity.  This is quite telling as to who the expected or target consumer of these homes are.

This community living begins to dictate what defines their collective cultural identiy.   It has a huge influence on which school the children go to, to what kind of clothing one wears, to the vehicle one possesses, to the  role a woman plays in all of this. Motherhood and related responsibilities are celebrated . Stepping away from work, taking a sabbatical and complete focus on child and elderly care seems to gain utmost admiration and legitimacy.  The latest in this list of apartment living is the surveilance cameras and the apps that 'mark' every person who walks through the main gate of this community; as though violence and danger comes announced and National Crime Records Burueu data, about the home being the most unsafe space made by the very inhabitants of these spaces, is a figment of our imagination. Yet these spaces are seen as aspirational and a sign of upward mobility and success. 

Its striking how culture appropritates itself to allow for existance of structures that are marked oppressive. What it also does is it makes these spaces that much more harder to protest and agitate. What it also conveniently masks is the boundaryy of the private and the public. One wonders if the space that is accessed publically, by the community, public enough or is the space beyond the gates the true public. 

Four decades later when I travelled past the street that Veliamma stayed, I recognise that nothing much has changed. The street is still as narrow and still has the same struggles. The only difference is how accessible it is now , to the main streeet that has been replaced by the large flyover that pushes such spaces further below , not just invisibilizng it , but making it appear as though they dont exist at all.