Click here to access the Google Earth Presentation.
This project challenges popular notions that India’s urban centers are free from ‘systemic caste based discrimination’ against Scheduled Castes, Schedules Tribes and other marginalized communities.
Deconstructing notions that casteism is limited to rural areas in India, the project reveals how elite areas (and populations) in this city live ‘above’ populations of marginalized communities in more ways than one.
The presentation combines elements from Census data (2011), Google Earth imagery and topographic maps. Those visual mediums and data taken together reveal longstanding truths of a systemic ‘discrimination by design’ that lowered caste communities endure in Bengaluru.
The hypothesis for this project stems from Sumanto’s observation of the peculiarities surrounding slums and ghettos across the city. These are sections of Bengaluru, where data also indicates that a considerable majority of dwellers belong to those lowered-caste communities. Topographic Data also suggests most of these ghettos are situated within the lowest lying areas and without exception are bounded by the broadest and deepest open sewerage/stormwater drains (all part of the Rajakaluve network).
The presentation will also reveal lapses and acts of erasure within census records. Apart from being a study of socio-economic census data, this is a fly-through of the prime real estate within the city and the ghettos on their peripheries – showing how their layouts interact within and fit a primitive and discriminatory system.