Project overview
In recent years India has seen a series of urban redevelopments in sacred pilgrim sites initiated by National Heritage City Development and Augmentation Yojana (HRIDAY). Meanwhile, India’s sacred shrines are being recreated in the UK. Previous studies treat the imprints of sacred urbanism and the transnational practices of diaspora communities as distinct topics. Combining our interdisciplinary expertise across urban history, cultural and development geography, we bring these two debates together through three angles:
1) the historical spatial claims, conflicts and negotiations around religious heritage in pilgrim cities 2) the mobilisation of sacred narratives in the contemporary redevelopment of pilgrim cities
3) the connections between the UK Indian diaspora’s faith-based practices in the UK and their material contributions to local sacred sites in India.
Our contribution is to analyse how the historic past mediated by contemporary religious urban politics in the present casts itself on the practices of the dual diasporic self.
1) the historical spatial claims, conflicts and negotiations around religious heritage in pilgrim cities 2) the mobilisation of sacred narratives in the contemporary redevelopment of pilgrim cities
3) the connections between the UK Indian diaspora’s faith-based practices in the UK and their material contributions to local sacred sites in India.
Our contribution is to analyse how the historic past mediated by contemporary religious urban politics in the present casts itself on the practices of the dual diasporic self.
