Design Ethnography | Theories of Design | CEPT University | Taral Patel

RELIGION AS DIMENSION OF CULTURE

AN ELEMENT OF COMMUNALITY AT JAMALPUR FLOWER MARKET

Ahmedabad as a city has a complex social and cultural fabric. The city offers many sites where one can experience the coexistence among communities. The built and intangible heritage of the city is indicative of the common symbol system demarcating of different religions coexisting together, performing the same business. Jamalpur market is an example of such cultural dynamics that has been constantly producing and reproducing, where individual diversity exists along with communality. Started by a single Muslim community during the time of Ahmed Shah, the phool (flower) bazaar at Bhadra fort commercialised to ‘Flower market’ at Jamalpur area in Ahmedabad. The 27-year-old Jamalpur market started in 1989 and thereafter continues the same trade over generations. Communal harmony seems to exist in this Muslim-dominated business, where Hindus and Muslims belonging to different religions come together and make business under the same shelter.

The market consists of an old building by APMC, with 32 shops having a central courtyard. Outside the building, there is also a market area that sells local flowers formed by the ‘Vaghari’ community. They make their business by buying flowers from the whole sellers inside the building and selling them at higher prices by adding on to their labour work of making malas (flower garlands). There exist hierarchy in terms of work culture within the market inside the building. The ‘Sheth’ is the one who owns the business, whereas ‘karigarhs’ are the temporary workers and performs the labouring task of getting in the flowers from the main gate and segregating them.

There exist a sense of community to a place within the traders due to social bonding and behaviour rootedness. Social bonding exists wherein they identify their neighbours and develop a feeling of a part of a neighbourhood. This can be rationalised by the idea that they exchange flower stock between each other when one of the neighbour traders is in demand by the customer. This shows the mutual understanding and trading ethics set by the traders and hence proves as a member of a formed association.

Understanding Gusfield (1975) definition of the word community, it can be defined in two different contexts. The first is the territorial and geographical notion of community, wherein neighbourhood, town or city defines the idea of community. In reference to this, the territorial communalism exists as the traders within the flower market are native of Ahmedabad and live in an area like Shahpur, Vatva, etc. whereas few of them comes from the rural areas outside Ahmedabad. This brings a character of locality between them.

The second is the relational, concerned with the quality of character of human relationship, without reference of location. This bring in the idea of belonging or sharing a sense of personal relatedness. They integrate with each other to obtain smooth functioning and brings order to the management. The flower market association forms a community in itself. They unite and elect members, wherein elected 4 shop traders out of 32 shops to decide the tentative range of the prices for various commodities each day and thus the price varies within that particular range in the market. This creates a sense of emotional safety and trust.

“Sense of community is a feeling that members have of belonging, a feeling that members matter to one another and to the group, and a shared faith that member’s needs will be met through their commitment to be together“ (McMillan, 1976).

Hindu community shops Muslim community shops Formal Organized

plinth

Informal Unorganized

‘Vaghri’ community vendors on the road

people as street vendors

One can recognise an element of membership, defining boundaries of people who belong and who doesn’t. This authorises that only the owner of the shop has the right to either sell or rent the shop to someone from outside with the affirmation of the community. Many of the shop businessmen are of the second to the third generation, approving the general understanding that there is no ease of entry for another community. This religious harmony is the resultant of many behavioural characteristics and life experiences influenced by social expectations and norms. They found that in order to obtain smooth functioning and integration in the social life, especially when there is the heterogeneity, a community must provide a common symbol system and unite for social conventions. The religious harmony between Hindus and Muslims, overall form a community as traders. This tranquility proves to exist even out of business relations when they celebrate festivals together such as Diwali along with Id. A common symbol of a system can be analysed by the name of the shop, wherein the shop name reads as ‘Fazalbhai R. Sheikh Flowers'. The shop here is owned by a Muslim ‘Sheikh’, who doesn't come to do business by himself, the head person Sheth is a Hindu and karigarh (supportive worker) is a Muslim, suggesting different caste and religion inhabiting together the same place. The inside of market place is dominated by males as the idea of women doing business doesn't exist within the community of these traders.

While identifying the formation of a community due to religious harmony inside the marketplace, there exists another kind of community which is like street vendors outside the building. Here the business is taken in hand by women of the house.

These women of the ‘Vaghari’ community of Jamalpur have since generations known only one thing and that is the art of selling flowers. They live in a slum aside from a garbage dump right behind the market and it's been 20 years that they have started with this business of retailing. Unlike the inside of the building where one can find a variety of flowers, they sell only the local flowers like rose, mogra, lotus, galled, rajnigandha (phool chadi), jharmara etc. Through the years they have identified the user needs and therefore add labour work of making ‘malas’ (flower garlands) and other accessories out of flowers and selling at higher prices from the wholesalers. This whole street market is dominated by the only single community and does not work anything else other than selling flowers. These people are as perceived as belonging to the SC (scheduled tribe) category of social caste by the community that trades inside the building and thus there exists great inequality in the same territoriality of the marketplace. As in the entire marketplace, there is an intricate link between the formal and informal, or more organised and unorganised economies. Since a large segment of the vendors are in this activity for a long time, they have established long-term forward and backward linkages.

Thus, it can be identified as religious harmony brings a communality within the people of the same caste (trading inside the building) which leads to the formation of communal inequality with the people of lower caste (trading on the streets). If a design intervention has to be made, it can be based on the inherent values created within the community that has been carried out through these several years.

above: mind mapping process based on field notes and site visit and a conceptual design proposal *The images of the shop indicates the common symbol system demarcating of different religions through the signage of the shop coexisting together, performing the same business.

Reference: McMillan D. (1986) Sense of a Community: A Definition and Theory Keesing R. (1974) Theories of Culture Course: Theories of Design: Design Ethnography | Semester 9 | CEPT University Author: Taral Patel