Making‐Home From Below: Domesticating Footpath and Resisting “Homelessness” in Mumbai

What is it about?

In this paper I have shown how people experience home on the street. Drawing from my ethnography conducted in Mumbai, I provide several examples, such as use of footwear, preparation of meals and relationship with pets, to show that people consider the footpath as their homes. This challenges several assumptions and popular perceptions around home which is considered to be a safe place existing within four walls. It also challenges assumptions about homelessness, where it is considered that those who live on the street are homeless and have no agency in their day to day lives. I highlight the immense hardships people endure on an everyday basis to retain their homes on the footpath, thereby establishing that ‘home’ is not necessarily a safe place but one that is necessary to survive the brutal city. My paper also challenges notions of modernity around urban India where public spaces are imagined to be sanitised and devoid of any such obstructions. My paper shows how squatting has been an accepted practice in Indian cities sometimes evident in the way state authorities tolerate these practices.

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