Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105

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Geoforum
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum

Urban diaspora space: Rural–urban migration and the production of unequal T

urban spaces
Ditte Brøgger
University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Science, Section for Geography, Oster Voldgade 10, DK-1350 Copenhagen K, Denmark

A R T I C LE I N FO A B S T R A C T

Keywords: Rural–urban migration contributes to urban growth across the world. However, the processes of becoming urban
Diaspora space are not equal for all migrants, nor are their role in producing and transforming urban space. By regarding the
Translocality urban as an ‘urban diaspora space’, this paper provides a new framework for understanding the unequal process
Rural–urban migration of becoming urban by examining how migrant agency and translocal belonging translate into exclusionary
Diaspora
practices in the production of urban diaspora space. The paper draws on empirical research, including a com-
Nepal
bination of quantitative and qualitative methods in Birtamode, an emerging urban centre in Nepal. The paper
opens with an introduction of the ‘urban diaspora space’ as a conceptual framework drawing on existing writings
on diaspora, translocality and transient urban spaces. Following this, the analysis demonstrates how a diasporic
religious community emerges among diasporic subjects and how it translates into social and political commu-
nities that come to define social and political agendas within the urban space. By treating the urban as a dia-
sporic space, the paper demonstrates how diasporic communities form spaces in which migrants can regain the
status and positionality they had in their rural places of origin, thus enabling a discussion of processes of in-
clusion and exclusion in the production of unequal urban spaces. The paper concludes that the urban diaspora
space can unveil how social and political geographies are reproduced in the urban environment by creating
unequal urban spaces.

1. Introduction
Urban transformation is recent in Nepal. Over the last two decades
towns, villages and cities have experienced rapid growth, and new
urban areas have been emerging (Muzzini and Aparicio, 2013; Graner,
2010; Bakrania, 2015; Bajracharya et al., 2015). Rural–urban migration
has become the main contributory factor driving urban growth and the
emergence of urban areas (Chitrakar et al., 2017). The migrants’ tra-
jectories are different, as after moving they settle in urban areas, though
becoming urban on unequal terms and having differential access to
resources and opportunities (see e.g. Tacoli et al., 2015; Parnell and
Robinson, 2012; Watson, 2009; Potts, 2011; Anh et al., 2012). Conse-
quently, they engage in producing urban spaces in different ways
(Friedmann, 2014). Thus, the migrant category in Nepal, as in other
places, needs to be analysed cautiously (Bohra and Massey, 2009;
Sharma et al., 2014). This is also because internal migrants often con-
tinue to belong legally and emotionally to their places of origin in rural
areas due to their strong ties and formal registration there (Agergaard
and Broegger, 2016; Subedi, 2006; Poertner et al., 2011).
To capture the complexity of migrants’ trajectories and pathways
and the duality of their legal and emotional belonging in the urban
process, the paper makes use of debates over diaspora space and dia-
sporic communities (Brah, 2005; Jazeel, 2006; Blunt and Bonnerjee,
2013; Bauböck and Faist, 2010), translocality (Brickell and Datta, 2011;
Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013b; Oakes and Schein, 2005) and the
process of becoming urban (Bork-Hüffer et al. 2016; Massey, 2005;
Etzold, 2016; Anh et al., 2012). By engaging in these conceptual de-
bates, two key questions on the process of urbanization are addressed in
this paper: How do migrants’ translocal practices contribute to the
formation of diaspora spaces? And how does the process of becoming
urban within diasporic communities translate into exclusionary prac-
tices in the production of urban spaces?
In this paper, I present my own empirical research on a particular
diasporic community, the Hindu song groups called Bhajan Kirtan,
formed of mainly rural high-caste Hindus who meet in their new urban
homes to retain a sense of their original identity and thus produce an
urban diaspora space. The importance of home and the struggle to make
a home away from home is a theme for a number of scholars writings on
rural–urban migration in Nepal (Subedi, 2006; Poertner et al., 2011;
Thieme and Wyss, 2005; Valentin, 2012). In the process of becoming
urban, rural–urban migrants strive to reproduce their representation of
the social position and identity they enjoyed at their place of origin (cf

E-mail address: dibr@ign.ku.dk.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2019.04.003
Received 13 July 2018; Received in revised form 28 March 2019; Accepted 2 April 2019
Available online 05 April 2019
0016-7185/ © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
D. Brøgger
Bork-Hüffer 2016; Simone, 2010; Massey, 2005; McFarlane, 2011;
Merrifield, 2013; Anh et al., 2012; Rigg, 2013). Hence, their partici-
pation of rural–urban migrants in producing the urban is a translocal
practice (Petrou, 2018) based on their previous positionality and past
experience (Pierce et al., 2016). Migrants form (diasporic) communities
at their place of destination similar to the communities of origin they
have left behind (Anh et al., 2012; Blunt, 2007; Jazeel, 2006). Trans-
local practices can give migrants the ability to take advantage of new
opportunities and navigate the challenges and opportunities of the city
(Anh et al., 2012; Rigg, 2013).
The research is set in Birtamode, a new town in the Nepalese low-
lands that has experienced rapid urban growth. Migrants from various
backgrounds have been attracted by the opportunities in Birtamode in
the last two decades. However, Birtamode was only officially classified
as urban in 2014 (The Kathmandu Post, 2014). Bhajan Kirtan in Birta-
mode is an interesting case as it represent a new form of religious
practice in Nepal (Toffin, 2011a, 2011b). Everyday devotion to Hin-
duism in Nepal is traditionally a private activity practised through
personal actions within the family home, rather than in collective ri-
tuals involving large gatherings with people outside the family
(Bennett, 1983). Toffin (2011b) has found examples of emerging col-
lective practices of Hinduism in Nepal that demonstrate new ways of
using religion and the collective practice of religion in public or semi-
public spaces in relation to positionality and identity formation
(Bennett, 1983). While Bhajan Kirtan groups are formed around a re-
ligious identity, they translate into social and political organizations in
charge of delivering important urban services. The Bhajan Kirtan, a type
of diasporic community, provides the empirical lens that enables pro-
cesses of inclusion and exclusion in the production of unequal urban
spaces to be discussed. I argue that translocal and home-bound iden-
tities are important for rural–urban migrants to gain access to the urban
social space. Migrants draw on the norms, practices and identities of
their places of origin to determine their place in the urban (Blunt and
Bonnerjee, 2013; Blunt et al., 2011; Petrou, 2018; Etzold, 2016). The
research on internal migrants in this paper in place of international
migration (King and Skeldon, 2010; Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013b)
re-conceptualizes the migrant category as well as the dichotomous re-
lationship between rural and urban by building a framework that in-
corporates the perspectives of translocality, where migrants are being
identified with more than on location (Oakes and Schein, 2005) and
diaspora space (Brah, 2005) into the migrant’s process of becoming
urban (Anh et al., 2012; Friedmann, 2011; Friedmann, 2014).
2. Urban diaspora space
Becoming urban in a new place is a process full of challenges, re-
gardless of the socioeconomic backgrounds of those doing it (Anh et al.,
2012). By using the term ‘diaspora’ in this research on internal migra-
tion and the production of urban space, I aim to move beyond the
conventional understanding of diaspora as a group of marginalized
migrants forced to live outside their homeland (Cohen, 2008). I stretch
the meaning of ‘diaspora’ as a relevant term for discussions of internal
migration and internal migrant’s translocal practice, as well as in ana-
lysing diasporic practices among resourceful rural–urban migrants who
leave home and settle in urban areas voluntarily. The focus on rur-
al–urban migrants in the process of becoming urban and their en-
gagement in producing and shaping the urban is inspired by Çağlar and
Schiller (2010) and their argument that the impacts of migration on
restructuring urban localities have been overlooked by urban and mi-
gration theorists. They argue that “analysis of the restructuring of urban
social fabrics will be incomplete without considering the impact of migration
and migrants” (Çağlar and Schiller, 2010: 1). However, recent writings
on multi- and translocality (Schmidt-Kallert and Franke, 2012; Greiner,
2012; Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013a; Bastia, 2018; Brickell and
Datta, 2011; Potts, 2011; Steel and Zoomers, 2009; Petrou, 2018) and
on transient urban space (Bork-Hüffer 2016; Bork-Hüffer et al. 2016;
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Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
Etzold, 2016) provide theoretical and empirical insights into the impact
of migration and migrants in the process of producing and restructuring
the urban. In their recent book, Çaglar and Schiller (2018) recognise
that much has happened since their 2010 paper, but they continue to
advocate that “migrants must be approached as social actors who are in-
tegral to city-making as they engage in the daily life of cities through different
and varied forms” (Çaglar and Schiller, 2018: 5). These perspectives
inform the focus in this paper on how rural–urban migrants become
urban, build a new home and simultaneously engage in producing the
urban diaspora space.
This paper focuses on the role of migration and translocal practice
on the making of transient urban spaces. The term “transient urban
space” captures how the continuous urban transformation is caused by
migrant’s translocal connections and their engagement in the process of
becoming urban (Bork-Hüffer et al. 2016). Transient urban spaces
connect the translocal migrant to the construction and transformation
of the urban (Bork-Hüffer 2016; Bork-Hüffer et al. 2016). The concept
captures the mutuality and interdependence of the translocality of
migrants and the constant transformation of the urban (Bork-Hüffer
2016). The transient urban space recognizes the importance of in-
cluding migrants’ translocal agency in analyses of the processes of
‘becoming’ and ‘making’ that characterize new and emerging urban
areas (Bork-Hüffer 2016).
How migrants’ practice at their place of destination continues to
depend on and be influenced by their past and origins has been de-
monstrated by numerous scholars (see Brickell, 2011; Greiner, 2012;
Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013b; Vertovec, 2004b; Vertovec, 2004a;
Thieme, 2012; Thieme, 2008a; Petrou, 2018; Potts, 2011). In different
ways these contributions explain how the making of a home away from
home often is influenced by continues emotional and practical en-
gagement in the past. This mutual engagement and influence from more
than one place is what I term the migrant’s translocal practice. Trans-
local practice occur due to a combination of legal, emotional, social and
practical reasons affecting migrants ability and interests in settling
permanently and integrating fully at their place of destination (Anh
et al., 2012). This means that they remain in a stage of in-betweenness
(Agergaard and Thao, 2011) and living in a rural–urban continuum
(Steel and Zoomers, 2009). Ultimately, this results in migrants’ iden-
tities stretching over multiple places and migrant agency being being
negotiated and produced within a translocal social field (Etzold, 2016;
Levitt and Schiller, 2004; Thieme, 2008b; Brickell and Datta, 2011;
Greiner and Sakdapolrak, 2013b; Anh et al., 2012). Hence, the process
of becoming urban often starts before the migrant’s actually move and
lasts a long time thereafter. By viewing the migration process as un-
defined timewise, with no clear beginnings and ends, the migrant ca-
tegory likewise become fluid (Cresswell, 2014) and inspires the focus
on migrant agency and the reading of the migrants engagement in
making the urban as a translocal practice.
Migrant’s agency and the nature of their translocal practice in
producing urban space can be regarded in relation of their identity and
belonging to a translocal community. When rural–urban migrants are
making a home away from home, they commonly engage in and form
communities resembling the village community they have migrated
from in order to overcome the social barriers they encounter when
settling into new environments in unknown places (Gaetano, 2008).
This translocal practice and search to re-establish the sense of a past
community in a new environment is what defines diasporic commu-
nities (Blunt and Bonnerjee, 2013; Blunt, 2007). It is activities centred
on creating a community that bring them together in the first place and
entail the creation of the first bonds and the initial reproduction of
sociability (Blunt, 2007; Bauböck and Faist, 2010). Religion, for ex-
ample, can provide an important sense of community in the beginning,
but it may play a lesser role for the diasporic community after a while
(Wong and Levitt, 2014). What later ties the diasporic group together
and comes to define its engagement and sense of community may be
very different from the practices around which the diaspora emerged in
D. Brøgger
the first place (Vertovec, 2000a; Vertovec, 2000b; Vertovec, 2004c;
Cohen, 2008; Levitt, 2003; Levitt, 2008). Brah (2005) suggests that the
concept of diaspora space illuminates the ways in which the inter-
sectionality and transmigrancy of both people and culture play a role in
creating new identities among migrants. By using the diaspora space as
a frame, I study the process of becoming and the struggles to ‘make a
home away from home’ (Vertovec, 1999: 450).
The concept of a diaspora space, initially introduced by Avtar Brah
(2005), denotes the spatiality of diasporic communities produced by
translocal links that are based on imagined, material, political and
emotional ties (Jazeel, 2006). An urban diaspora space can contain
numerous diasporic communities, their members being referred to as
diasporic subjects are engaged emotionally and pratically in more than
one location and the urban diaspora space are therefor formed of
multiple tranclocal processes. Subjects who do not satisfy the criteria
for being part of the diaspora and who therefore remain outside it can
be divided into two groups. First are the excluded, comprised of those
who would like to be a part of the diasporic community, but who are
not admitted to it (Brah, 2005). The second consists of those who are
voluntarily absent, that is, those who intentionally do not wish to be a
part of the diaspora, for example, because they are local (Brah, 2005).
The urban space consists of several more or less defined diasporic
communities, groups, organizations and individuals, all defining
themselves in contrast to one another (Blunt and Bonnerjee, 2013;
Bauböck and Faist, 2010). In migrant-receiving and emerging urban
areas the urban diaspora space provides a suitable framework for un-
derstandings translocality in relation to the production of the urban.
Brah (2005) offers a textured account of inclusion and exclusion by
arguing that the notion of ‘diaspora space’ provides a framework for
understanding the interplay between diasporic and non-diasporic sub-
jects (Brah, 2005). By regarding the urban as an urban diaspora space,
it is possible to understand diasporic communities not only in respect to
what defines them internally, but also in terms of who and what are left
outside the diasporic community (Jazeel, 2006; Brah, 2005). By
broadening the concept of diaspora from a diasporic community to
include the notion of a diasporic space, it becomes possible to include
the translocal links and view the urban diasporic space as a cultural,
social and politicized field in which social positions are negotiated both
internally in the diaspora and externally in relation to others (Jazeel,
2006). In this way, it becomes possible to create a better understanding
of the mechanisms of reproduction of rural hierarchies in processes of
inclusion and exclusion in the creation of the urban space (Brah, 2005).
3. Nepal’s unequal geographies
Given the importance placed on translocal belonging in shaping
migrants’ positions and practices in their new communities, this section
focuses on the local social geography and representational practices
within Nepalese villages that emerge through junctures of these hier-
archies with caste discrimination and social segregation. Later in the
analysis this is used to understand the social positions of migrants’
translocal ties that constitute their engagement in the diaspora space.
The Nepali terms thulo manchhe, afno manchhe and ijjat introduced in
the following are used to illustrate the rural socio-spatial geographies
and power geometries in Nepalese society.
Thulo manchhe is a term that defines the rural elite, that is, those
who have influence, are respected and have the power to get things
done in their community (Lind, 2010). People who are thulo manchhe
enjoyed high social status in their rural communities, being positioned
high partly on the basis of their inherited resources and privileges
(Adhikari and Gellner, 2016; Pariyar and Lovett, 2016; Nepali, 2013;
Sugden, 2009). Afno manchhe translates as ‘own people' and is com-
monly used by thulo manchhe to identify those at the same social level as
themselves, who are also the only people they should interact with
(Subedi, 2014). This comprehensive no-mixing culture was in-
stitutionalized in the now abolished National Code or Muluki Ain of
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Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
1854, which merged different religious groups, castes and ethnic groups
into a hierarchy of social classification (Höfer, 1979). In Nepalese vil-
lages, despite being officially illegal, caste divisions are generally re-
cognized and result in social segregation (Stone, 1989; Tamang, 2009;
Gray, 2015).
This social segregation is also reflected in spatial segregation in
rural Nepal, where the thulo manchhe occupy the best land, often
overlooking people living on smaller marginal plots down the hill
slopes and resulting in rural hamlets being separated according to caste,
ethnicity and social status (Tamang, 2009; Gray, 2009). Geographically
this has resulted in socially segregated hamlets in which those of the
same family and same caste backgrounds live separately in individual
hamlets (Caplan, 1970). This means that everyone knows their neigh-
bours and has close ties and social relations among their afno manchhe,
who are defined by intimate caste and family ties. This translates into a
local community of mutual cultural and social understanding and in-
tegration, and results in embedded and inherited structures for helping
each other within the community with everyday household tasks
(Messerschmidt, 1981). One example of this is the collective systems for
harvesting together called parma, but it is also implicit that neighbours
help each other in extraordinary situations such as marriages, illness,
death and financial problems (Pigg, 1992; Stone, 1989; Messerschmidt,
1981). These local communities of afno manchhe often have a more
formal and institutional part called samaj, that is, the local vehicle for
community change and development administered by a board of thulo
manchhe who also are responsible for collecting and using collective
funds (Messerschmidt, 1981).
In these rural Nepalese communities, everyone knows everyone else
and, most importantly, everyone knows everyone else’s place and status
within the local hierarchy. For this the Nepali term ijjat is useful, as it
defines the social representation of identity in Nepalese society. It also
determines villagers’ own ideas about their own and others’ agency,
how they identify the constraints on manoeuvring in the local com-
munity and how they view themselves as individuals and members of
social groupings (Ahearn, 2001). Traditionally ijjat means honour, but
contemporary understandings are more complex and intricate because
they bring together new and old forms of logic that compete and are
mutually contradictory (Liechty, 2003). A common contemporary un-
derstanding of ijjat is that it is a way of defining proper behavior that
consists of the cultural values of respectability, idioms of being dis-
ciplined and civilized (not drinking, being clean etc.) and being re-
cognized in public for doing good works that benefit the local com-
munity (Petersen, 2011). Symbolic positioning in public spaces has
commonly been used to mark Hindus off from others in public spaces
and to show proper devotion and ijjat: the red tikka that women wear
on their foreheads and the traditional Dhaka topi hat are examples of
this (Liechty, 2003). What is common to these local structures is that
they are tied to specific localities; positionality and representation exist
within the local community. When people move, they do not bring their
status as thulo manchhe and their ijjat with them (Subedi, 2006; Subedi,
1991).
4. Empirical context and methodology
This paper draws on empirical work in Birtamode, an emerging
town in the lowlands of the Terai. Birtamode is developing fast through
private investments in land without a master plan or the requirements
of urban infrastructural development being observed (Nepali, 2013). In
the last official census in Birtamode, for 2001, the population count was
almost 28,000 (CBS, 2001), while an unofficial estimate put the po-
pulation in 2018 at above 80,000. The explosive growth of Birtamode is
not unique, but represents a widespread trend in the rapid urbanization
of the lowland Terai belt in southern Nepal (Muzzini and Aparicio,
2013). Birtamode started to grow in the late 1990s, and the best way to
describe it is as a place in progress. Birtamode is therefore an inter-
esting town for studying the becoming of urban identities and the
D. Brøgger
creation of new urban spaces.
My empirical entry point into this study is the Hindu song groups
called Bhajan Kirtan. I first started noticing the importance of Bhajan
Kirtan for social relations in Birtamode while I was doing ethnographic
research there in 2015. In semi-structured interviews, twenty migrants
and non-migrants were asked to consider what they found important in
their social lives, being free to talk about friends, family, neighbours,
organizations, places etc. The semi-structured interviews found the
empirical core that this paper is based on. However, the twenty
households were randomly selected from among the respondents in a
larger survey conducted in Birtamode covering 489 people in 119
households. The geocoded survey responses have likewise been im-
portant for the analysis as they include detailed household data, in-
cluding household composition, education, occupation, socio-economic
status, migration history and much more. Since the twenty informants
in the semi-structured interviews were selected from among the 489
survey respondents, the semi-structured interviews build on informa-
tion provided by the chosen respondents in the survey. This means that
the narratives presented in this paper combine the findings from the
survey and the semi-structured interviews. In order to triangulate some
of the findings from the semi-structured interviews Bhajan Kirtan
members (eight out of twenty) were asked to participate in a follow-up
in-depth interview. Five informants participated (the remaining three
were either unavailable or unwilling to participate). All the interviews
were conducted in Nepali assisted by a Nepalese research assistant and
were all transcribed and translated into English. The quantitative
findings from the survey were analysed using SPSS, while the qualita-
tive material from the research was coded using Nvivo. Illustrative
quotations from the respondents have been selected to support the
analysis and the argument in this paper.
5. Urban diaspora space: The case of the Bhajan Kirtan
In the present analysis, by using the previous conceptualization I
will argue that the Bhajan Kirtan in Birtamode is a diasporic community
forming a diaporic space in which migrants’ translocal practice come to
define their engagement in producing the urban space. The analysis is
divided into two sections: the first will by using the Bhajan Kirtan as an
example of an urban diaspora spaces adress how migrant’s translocal
practices influence their engagement in producing the urban influenced
by values and practices from their origin. The second addresses how
diaspora spaces translate into exclusionary practices that reproduce
rural structures in the process of migrants becoming urban.
5.1. Translocal practice and the formation of a diaspora space
None of our relatives is living in this area, and none of the people from
our village in Ilam is living in this area (…) Social life is better in Ilam
than here. (…) People here come from different places and different
communities, but in Ilam, families have been living next to each other for
generations, and that’s why social life in Ilam is way better than social
life here. (female, aged 29, interview 04-10-2015)
The opening quote in this analysis is central to the understanding of
the process of becoming urban and illustrates how alienated rur-
al–migrants may feel after leaving their rural homes. The present ana-
lysis demonstrates aspects of the process of becoming urban and shows
examples of translocal practices illustrating how rural–urban migrants
engage in making a home away from home based on identities and
ideals from their origin.
The migrants in this study are from geographically dispersed but
similar villages in the rural areas in the eastern hills (survey conducted
by the author, 2015). After leaving their rural homes and settling in
Birtamode, they experience no longer being surrounded by people they
have lived with for generations. A rural–urban migrant has previously
lived next to people he did not know, but after moving to Birtamode he
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Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
does not want to be in the same situation and he manages to settle
together with his or her relatives in a small enclave: “Here we have a
better relationship with our neighbours because most of us are relatives”
(male, aged 52 – interview 14-10-2018). For this individual, as for
many others, it is preferable to live next to family members, as they did
in the rural village. Living next to family, relatives and people to whom
they have ties of kinship provides a social safety net. However, this is
not possible for everyone. Most rural–urban migrants have to find other
way of refining the same social environment they had with relatives in
the rural village and remaking a home in the urban. The Bhajan Kirtan
groups act as a substitute for the ties of family and kinship that char-
acterize hamlets in rural Nepal. These groups are especially interesting
as everyday Hinduism in rural Nepal traditionally has been based on
private activity practised through personal actions within the family
home (Bennett, 1983), and not as in these groups in collective rituals
that involves large gatherings of people.
The Bhajan Kirtan groups in Birtamode are many and are established
whenever new neighbourhoods emerge. The Bhajan Kirtan holds weekly
or biweekly events for its members, normally inside a member’s home
or sometimes in a local temple. However, the local temples (if they
exist) are normally too small to host many people. The host provides
(holy) food and tea for all the participants. The Bhajan Kirtan chair is
often a man, but both men and women participate in these events. The
membership includes all members of a household, and at least one will
represent the household at the meetings. The participants at a Bhajan
Kirtan meeting sit on the floor and sing traditional Hindu hymns ac-
companied by music played by religious instruments blasted out of
rundown speakers.
The respondents were all asked to explain why the groups were
started initially. The answers are related, revealing four reasons overall
that were outlined by the respondents. First, the need for a physical
place for religious practice came out very clearly in the answers: “The
purpose to start the group was to build a temple” (male, aged 60 - inter-
view14-10-2018). The desire to have a physical place representing their
own religious community was a driver for people to form groups and
collect money. The second reason was a desire to preserve their Hindu
identity: “The purpose was to preserve our culture (…) for the liberation of
our dead ancestor’s soul” (male, aged 52 – interview 14-10-2018).
Retaining one’s religion was another important driver for members, but
also, and thirdly, it was important to pass their religious and cultural
practice on to new generations: “We started this group targeting the young
kids so they can continue the culture, traditions and learn good things and
sing religious songs” (male, aged 52 – interview 14-10-2018). A fourth
reason was the social network: “The purpose of the group is to meet and
enjoy religiousness, and it is a way to meet each other” (male aged 53 –
interview 14-10-2018). A fifth was the goal of knowing one’s neigh-
bours with the same religious identity: “The Pandit (Hindu priest) sug-
gested us that ‘you live in a new place, and you do not know each other; why
don’t you start a Bhajan Kirtan, in this way you can visit everyone and meet
an get to know each other?’” (male, aged 38 – interview 14-10-2018).
The initiative, as described in the previous statement, normally came
from the locals or local religious leaders and priests. The reason was
normally a combination of the reasons mentioned above. However, for
every group the most important aspect was related to the possibility of
creating a social network with one’s neighbours. The following quote
explains in detail how the members of the Bhajan Kirtan felt it brought
them closer together:
This is a new settled community – earlier there was only empty land.
People here came from different places, so when we moved here we did
not know each other properly. Life in the city does not have intimacy as
in the village. All the people in our neighbourhood come from villages, so
for that reason we have a village lifestyle where we live. To live in a
society, we have to be involved in some kinds of activities. We need a
reason to visit other people’s houses. (…)Before we just greeted each
other from a distance, but now I visit each house in our community to
D. Brøgger
have a cup of tea and a talk. This is how our relationship has changed.
(…) Now we have very good cooperation here (among the group mem-
bers): if we need any kind of help, we get it from our neighbours. If I need
some money or if someone is ill, people are willingly to help each other.
When there is a death in someone’s house, we as a group go there and
provide condolences, fruit and other necessary support. (male, aged 38 -
interview 14-10-2018)
Three important aspects should be highlighted in this statement.
First, there is a feeling of alienation in the opening quote, which also
mentions the lack of intimacy known from rural areas in the urban
space. Secondly, the respondent states that a reason is needed to visit
other people’s homes. In this respect it is important to mention that the
home has a special religious meaning; the home is sacred, as it is where
the religious rituals are held (Gray, 2009). However, home is also the
most important arena for social interaction and social life in Nepal
(Subedi, 2006). Participation in Bhajan Kirtan opens the doors to this
important social space. Thirdly, Bhajan Kirtan has changed the social
relations of those who have settled on empty land without knowing
anyone else by reproducing the intimacy known from the rural village
of origin. The members of the Bhajan Kirtan are a substitute for the
intimate relationships on which family relations within the village are
built, as Bhajan Kirtan members support each other in different ways.
The quotes demonstrate that Bhajan Kirtan groups are diasporic com-
munities initially based on a common Hindu identity and religious
practice, but it also shows how the groups become much more than a
vehicle for religious observance. Although a common religious identity
and community form the basis of Bhajan Kirtan groups and their ac-
tivities, members attach more importance to the social relations formed
among their members. Members try to build a home away from home
and draw on familiar identities and practices to form new social spaces.
The members were proud to talk about their participation in Bhajan
Kirtan and the ijjat they gained from being members. The meetings had
much to do with positionality, and it was clear that through Bhajan
Kirtan events they acquired a sense of the trusted relationships they had
left behind in their places of origin.
Apart from the religious and social aspects, Bhajan Kirtan groups
were involved in local development work and evolved into local poli-
tical institutions. The following quote demonstrates this tendency and
its associated complexity:
All the people of this tole (neighbourhood) have collected money to build
a temple, and we are also building a road. A part of the budget for the
work is covered by the VDC (local-level government) and a part is cov-
ered by people of our Tole Sudhar Samiti, called Hanuman Satsang
Samaj. It’s a new group, and apart from building the temple…we get
together and sing religious songs (…) and we collect money and ask for
donations from other people. (male, aged 53 - interview 02-10-2015)
This group has built a temple, as well as a road, normally the re-
sponsibility of the road authority. Funding for these development pro-
jects has been raised from a combination of money collected locally and
money allocated to them by the government. The local group receives
the money allocated to it by the government, but it works as a Bhajan
Kirtan. The quote illustrates the complex merging of religious, social
and political interests. In reality, this means that these religious orga-
nizations are responsible for raising the local budgets for infrastructural
improvements and thereby acquire extensive influence within the local
community. The overlap occurs due to a combination of unclear prac-
tices related to local administration and local politics, as well as to
overlaps between those involved in the different local community
groups and organizations. However, while some of the people who were
interviewed in the neighbourhood were involved in a variety of local
organizations, others were not engaged in any local organization, and
some were even unaware of their existence. Several respondents had
never heard of the Tole Sudhar Samiti, resulting in their de facto ex-
clusion from participating in it and from acquiring information about
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Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
important decisions regarding local developments and local budgetary
expenditure.
5.2. The diaspora space and the exclusionary process of becoming urban
…Here, people are talking with their neighbours and go to each other’s
houses, and everyone gets together, so I think the relationships between
them are good… However, I don’t go to other people’s houses so much
(…) I had a hard time mixing with people when I moved here… I realized
that it’s hard for renters (…) Renters like us, no matter what, cannot be
equal to the home-owners. (female, aged 35 –Interview 03-10-2015)
The woman being quoted here observes how people visit each
other’s homes, though as she is not invited she feels excluded. In the
previous section it was established that Bhajan Kirtan are diasporic
communities created to make a home away from home. The members
draw on their religious communities and translocal community ideals of
their rural homes in order to engage in diasporic communities. In this
section the focus is on how the diaspora space formed by translocal
practices translates into exclusionary practices that reproduce rural
structures in the process of becoming urban. The woman in the opening
quote has not joined the Bhajan Kirtans as she does not know about it,
even though it exists in her area, nor is she aware of any other social or
political organisations. Examination of Bhajan Kirtans members’ back-
grounds (based on a previous survey conducted by the author in 2015)
(see Table 1). indicated a great deal of homogeneity. In nine of the
twenty interviews, respondents mentioned Bhajan Kirtan as important
for the social life of the local community. The survey was used to
analyse members’ backgrounds, which revealed a large degree of
homogeneity among the nine Bhajan Kirtan members. Four parameters
are outlined in Table 1 showing that, of nine respondents who men-
tioned that Bhajan Kirtan was important for the local community, all are
rural–urban hill migrants, seven are home-owners, six are high-caste
Hindus, and seven are over 35 years old (survey conducted by the au-
thor, 2015).
In addition the Bhajan Kirtan’s members were asked to describe who
could become members and whether there was any kind of dis-
crimination. The members described the Bhajan Kirtan as open and
inclusive groups:
We do not discriminate against anyone; people of different castes and
faith can join us. We have people from indigenous groups, but we do not
have any Dalits because there is no Dalit household (low caste) in our
area. But if they exist, we will accept them too (…) Nearby there is
another neighborhood where is another Bhajan group, and in the other
direction there are empty fields with no household on the other side of
this. They may have their own group, but I am not sure of that. (male,
aged 38 - interview 14-10-2018)
However, triangulation with data from the survey where all re-
sponses have been georeferenced shows that, fewer than 150 m from
this respondent’s home is a so-called sukumbasi area or squatter area
(Shrestha and Aranya, 2015). The ‘our area’ that the respondent re-
ferred to is likely to be a very small neighbourhood, and it is also likely
Table 1
Participants in Bhajan Kirtans and non-participants and their backgrounds. Data
for twenty informants interviewed in Birtamode in 2015 based on survey
conducted by the author.
(N: 20) Yes No
Participate in Kirtan 9 12
yes no yes no
Hill migrants 8 0 9 3
Own their own house 7 1 6 6
High caste Hindus 6 2 7 5
Above 35 years old 7 1 4 8
D. Brøgger
that physically and conceptually the squatter area is outside what he
refers to as his neighbourhood. In addition, it can be difficult to win
acceptance into an already existing group:
I immediately joined the group when I moved here. But the members did
not treat me and my family as equals. They behaved as if they were
superior and asked us to sit at the side or in a corner (…) some of my
family members left the group again, as they did not feel welcome. (male,
aged 60, - interview 01-10-2015)
This demonstrates the hierarchy that exists within these groups,
since the respondent and his family experienced being told to sit on one
side and feeling excluded when they want to join the local Bhajan Kirtan
group. The respondent continued to be in the group but explained how
he had several similar experiences of internal discrimination.
Respondents were also asked about the criteria members had to comply
with. While no formal criteria are invoked in accepting particular in-
dividuals as the members of a Bhajan Kirtan, implicit practices and
expectations revealed that there are in fact barriers to the inclusion of
some:
‘All caste people can come (…) if they are not drunk’ (male, aged 60 -
interview, 01-10-2015).
‘It’s not compulsory that people from every house have to be there, but
people who are free and available and want to be there are there’ (fe-
male, aged 44 – interview 04-10-2015).
‘(…) the venue changes each time: if today it’s in my home, then next
week it will be in someone else’s home, and so on (…) Every one donates
100 rupees every month’ (male, aged 38 – interview 01-10-2015).
‘We perform religious songs (…), and after singing everyone has prasad
(religious food) and everyone donates 100 to 500 rupees, and that is a
source of savings for the group’ (female, aged 69 -interview, 01-10-
2015).
These four quotes suggest a list of implicit practices and expecta-
tions, and although the list is by no means exhaustive, it illustrates what
members are expected to comply with and how this may cause dis-
crimination. First, attitudes to alcohol distinguish castes from one an-
other, as alcohol consumption is culturally restricted for high-caste
Hindus, while being a cultural aspect of the social lives of other groups.
The phrases ‘they drink’ or ‘they serve alcohol’ are commonly used to
demean people and places one should avoid. The distinction between
alcohol-drinkers and non-alcohol-drinkers has long been a popular class
distinction in Nepal (see: Lecomte-Tilouine, 2009; Pariyar and Lovett,
2016). Being ‘drunk’ is used not only to determine the actual condition
of particular individuals while they participate, it is also a way of ex-
cluding people who generally or occasionally consume alcohol. Sec-
ondly, while members are not obliged to join every week, everyone
expects them to show up unless there is a good explanation for their not
doing so. This excludes some working-class people who work long
hours each day. Thirdly, it is not mandatory to own a house to be a
member, but it is expected that members can host the weekly Bhajan
Kirtan meetings in turn. This excludes renters, as they lack a suitable
place to do this. One respondent who has taken the initiative to start a
Bhajan Kirtan in his area explains the different statuses of being a renter
and owning a house:
Before I started building my own house here I was seen as a renter (…)
the relationship with people never got close. That changed when I started
building my house (…) then the relationship and interaction with people
became close and intimate. (male, aged 38- interview 01-10-2015)
This illustrates the implicit importance of owning a house to be able
to host the Bhajan Kirtan, and indeed the ability to host it is a pre-
requisite for becoming a member. Fourth, although members do not
have to pay a fixed membership fee, they are expected to donate
money: as the quote states, donations go as high as 500 rupees to
covering the cost of the priest and maybe musicians, and as a saving for
common building projects. The minimum daily wage for a government
102
Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
employee on a tea estate is Rs 385 (Labor Act and Contribution Based
Social Security Act 2017), but many earn far less. This excludes those
with low incomes, who are already struggling to earn enough to make a
living. One non-participating respondent stated:
Here we have more rich people and they get on well with each other,
whereas we are lower middle-class and lower income class people, and so
we don’t interact with the home-owners of this area so much, and we
don’t have any link with them. (female aged 35 - interview 03-10-2015)
Lastly, the Bhajan Kirtan is theoretically open to all regardless of
religious background. However, the groups and all their activities are
centred on Hinduism, and Hindu hymns, Hindu prayers and Hindu holy
food are sung and served at meetings. This is obviously not attractive
for the many groups of people with different beliefs. To sum up, these
five implicit perspectives on the practice of these groups come together
in defining Bhajan Kirtan as groups for those who do not consume al-
cohol, which traditionally means high-caste Hindus who have sufficient
spare time, live in a house, have sufficient stable earnings and are de-
voted to Hinduism.
6. Urban diaspora space and the production of unequal urban
spaces
This study has set out to understand the role of migrant agency in
the production of unequal urban spaces through the perspective of
rural–urban migrants who are in the process of becoming urban re-
sidents. Inspired by Brah (2005), migrants’ processes of becoming
urban and their contribution to the production of unequal urban spaces
has been examined by analysing migrants’ translocal practices and by
regarding them as part of an urban diaspora space. The use of the
concept of a diaspora in this paper differs from the traditional use of the
word ‘diaspora’, which usually defines a migrant or refugee group as
one that finds itself marginalized in an alien environment. In this paper,
the concept has been used to understand how religious identity shapes
migrants’ translocal practice in defining themselves in contrast to others
within diasporic organizations and through this rebuild their position-
ality and regain the same dominant positions they had before moving.
The diaspora concept has been stretched by using the diaspora space as
a lens through which to view aspects of inclusion and exclusion by
looking at both diasporic subjects and other, non-diasporic subjects
within an urban diaspora space (Brah, 2005). The migrants’ translocal
practices (Petrou, 2018) have been shown to be a central element in the
way they become urban and engage in producing the urban and hence
provide new perspectives to urban studies. The concept of a transient
urban space (Bork-Hüffer 2016) has guided the focus on how migrants’
origins and pasts shape their agency in producing and transforming the
urban space. By using these perspectives, it has been possible to identify
aspects of the unequal production of urban space discussed below.
The migrants are attracted by the opportunities of urban areas, in-
cluding services, jobs and a life that is believed to be easier and modern.
However, when they arrive in urban areas they find themselves feeling
out of place, surrounded by neighbours they don’t know and without a
natural place and status within the local hierarchy (Subedi, 2006). In
Bhajan Kirtan, migrants rediscover their postions and places in the new
enviroment, by building on a communal religious sense and a common
religious identity they rebuild a community based on structures they
recognize and know how to navigate. Religion provides access to an
intimate community where members can meet and establish important
social relations. Bhajan Kirtan is a social platform in the local commu-
nity and an entry point for social engagement with neighbours, but at
the same time it is an example of exclusionary sociability, as the plat-
form it provides for social relations is not accessible to everyone. The
search to establish communities resembling that in the migrants’ rural
village communities is an example of how rural–urban translocal
practices influence their process of becoming urban and how they
produce the urban while adjusting themselves to living in new mixed
D. Brøgger
communities (Subedi, 2006). Hence, Bhajan Kirtan is a relevant case for
examining the production of unequal space. These diasporic subjects
establish forms of sociability within the diasporic community that
transform their lives but at the same time exclude others, namely non-
diasporic subjects (Schiller and Çağlar, 2016). Social relations are
fundamental to the production of the urban space, and the exclusion of
groups and individuals from social arenas can result in the production
of unequal spaces.
The religious practice that initially forms these diasporic groups
subsequently develops into a social formation within the diasporic
communities. The formation of diasporic communities based on com-
monality and identity is a common diasporic practice that has been
documented extensively in the literature on diasporas (see e.g:
Vertovec, 2000a; Vertovec, 2000b; Vertovec, 2004c; Cohen, 2008;
Levitt, 2003; Levitt, 2008). Through the religious practices performed
in Bhajan Kirtan, diasporic subjects establish relations with neighbours,
and religious practice becomes a common social endeavour in estab-
lishing ijjat at which members meet and create a social community
around their Hindu identity and thus regain ijjat. This confirms Toffin’s
(2011a) argument that religion and the Hindu identity acquire different
positions in everyday urban life. Communal religious practice of this
sort is not a common everyday phenomenon in Nepal, indicating that in
this case religion serves a mediating role in attracting the ‘right’ people
to the formation of diasporic communities. The study shows that re-
ligion recedes into the background in favour of the social aspect and the
prospect of political influence in producing the urban space.
The Nepali terms thulo manchhe and afno manchhe were introduced
here as an illustration of the social segregation that is inherent in rural
Nepal. In this section, these words are used to outline what the migrants
come from and to emphasize their translocal practice (Petrou, 2018), to
discuss why they engage in diasporic communities, and to show how
this results in rural structures being reproduced in the production of the
urban space. In the spatially segregated geography of rural Nepal, the
thulo manchhe never had to relate to neighbours who were not their afno
manchhe. Because of this legacy, urban communities with a funda-
mentally different spatial geography can be a challenge. Urban areas
are rather mixed communities, and home-owners have been compelled
to rent out parts of their homes to cover the high costs of urban living.
Consequently, their nearest neighbours come from different classes, and
the spatial geography is fundamentally different from that in their areas
of origin. In the process of becoming urban, thulo manchhe strives to
regain the positions they had in their original village communities,
where their position and ijjat, being inherited down the generations,
gave them several privileges. The analysis demonstrates that Bhajan
Kirtan members are thulo manchhe, migrants who have acquired land
and who have substantial funds to pay the weekly contributions ex-
pected of them. Due to these implicit practices, Bhajan Kirtan becomes
an exclusionary space for the thulo manchhe to meet and create re-
lationships with their afno manchhe in order to build their relations and
identity and to re-position themselves in a different environment.
The homogeneity of Bhajan Kirtan members is an indication of the
exclusionary practices that form these diasporic communities. The
feeling of exclusion is evident in the quote from the respondent who
described observing her neighbours visiting each other’s homes without
giving her an invitation. There are no formal rules defining Bhajan
Kirtan membership, but the analysis shows that this process of exclusion
stems from the implicit practices of Bhajan Kirtan and means that the
thulo manchhe can continue to possess privileges by being in control of
political decisions regarding local development and politics. If the
principle of no admittance to those who are ‘drunk’ is seen from a
cultural perspective, it can be translated into a general ban on alcohol-
drinkers at Bhajan Kirtan. This is this typically a deft way of making
distinctions of class and ethnicity and thus excluding such individuals
from participation. Another exclusionary mechanism is the expectation
of a monetary donation, as those with low or variable incomes cannot
donate money regularly. Similarly, the rotating hosting of the Bhajan
103
Geoforum 102 (2019) 97–105
Kirtan functions as another barrier by excluding non-home-owners. In
other words, lacking access to a suitable property and sufficient fi-
nancial resources forms a barrier to inclusion in such diasporic com-
munities.
The exclusion of certain people from Bhajan Kirtan and the weekly
song events do not initially sound problematic. However, the analysis
demonstrates how exclusion from Bhajan Kirtan is a proxy for exclusion
from the community more generally for a number of reasons. First, no
comparable social alternative was found during research, despite the
extensive focus on social organization and informal social relations.
Respondents mentioned other organizations, groups and informal
meeting places that played a role in their social lives, such as savings
groups, cooperatives, women's groups and caste groups, though none of
them had a significant effect on social relations. Secondly, in Nepal the
important social arena is the home, which is where important re-
lationships are made, but not everyone is invited. The song groups
provide an open door to an important local institution – a diasporic
community – in which religious practice translates into social relations
and political power. Thirdly, the fact that Bhajan Kirtan groups influ-
ence local political agendas by providing access to local sources of fi-
nance demonstrates their significance in producing the urban space.
Participating in important social institutions involving political re-
sponsibility and influence is not for everyone, and these implicit prac-
tices also exclude people from participating in the production of urban
space based on ethnicity and class.
In conclusion, this research demonstrates how Bhajan Kirtan con-
stitutes an urban diasporic community through which social relations
are established between afno manchhe. This translocal practice is evi-
dent in the analysis of how rural–urban migrants become urban by (re)
positioning and (re)building their past, rural identities. This is why they
participate in the song groups in this study, which is seen as a diasporic
practice. Despite the claims of its members that Bhajan Kirtan is in-
clusive of all local groups, its implicit practice creates barriers pre-
venting many people from joining. Exclusion from the weekly singing
events is not only a matter of being socially excluded: the undefined
link between the religious, social and political aspects of these activities
makes it a question of exclusion on multiple scales. Ultimately, re-
sulting in preferences for those with certain privileges, the thulo man-
chhe’s translocal practice defines the social structure and allegedly also
important parts of the political agenda. This supports the argument
stressing the importance of examining how integral rural–urban mi-
grants and namely their translocal practice are to the urban process as
they engage in the daily life and produce urban social fabrics they draw
on and search to establish a past identity and practices (Çağlar and
Schiller, 2010). Regarding the urban as an urban diaspora space in line
with the influential work of Brah (2005) has made it possible to outline
this aspect of the production of unequal urban spaces. Hence, this re-
search offers a useful discussion of the translocal practice of rur-
al–urban migrants in the process of becoming urban and an improved
understanding of the production of transient urban spaces in Nepal and
elsewhere, especially in places undergoing rapid spatial transformation
and experiencing large-scale rural–urban migration.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to all the people in Nepal who generously gave their
time to participate in my research and opened their homes to me. I
would like to thank Jytte Agergaard, Cecilie Friis and the anonymous
reviewers for useful advice and feedback on earlier versions of this
paper. A special thanks to Basanta Adhikari and Pranav Adhikari for
research assistance in the field.
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