Producer and Host: Sneha Visakha
Intro Music: Wehrmut by Godmode
Outro Music: Opheliea’s Blues by Audionautix
In the ninth epsiode of the Feminist City, Sneha Visakha is in conversation with Dr. Mohsin Alam Bhat, Associate Professor, Jindal Global Law School. He is the principal investigator of the Housing Discrimination Project (HDP), a three-year empirical research project on urban rental housing discrimination in India. In this episode, they discuss the housing discrimination project and the nature of rental housing discrimination against Muslims in Indian cities such as Delhi and Mumbai. Dr. Bhat explains the modalities and narratives that underpin discriminatory practices against Muslims in the city and how ‘access’ to housing networks differs for different groups in the city. He also highlights the need to understand the cost and impact of discrimination, not merely in terms of outcomes, but as an ongoing, affective process, that results in the construction of exclusionary cities. They also discuss the role of law in addressing discrimination and the importance of multidisciplinary engagements with the law.
You can read more about Dr. Mohsin Alam Bhatt, here and find more information on the Housing Discrimination Project, here.
Readings
Cities Divided: How Exclusion Of Muslims Sharpens Inequality, Mohsin Alam Bhat & Asaf Ali Lone, Article14
Bigotry At Home: How Delhi, Mumbai Keep Muslim Tenants Out, Mohsin Alam Bhat, Article14
Urban Rental Housing Market: Caste and Religion Matters in Access, Sukhdeo Thorat, Anuradha Banerjee, Vinod K. Mishra, Firdaus Rizvi, EPW (2015)
For whom does the phone (not) ring? Discrimination in the rental housing market in Delhi, India, Saugato Datta, Vikram Pathania, WIDER Working Paper (2016)
Muslims in Indian Cities: Trajectories of Marginalisation, eds. Laurent Gayer, Christophe Jaffrelot, Hurst Publishers (2012)
In Search of Fraternity: Constitutional Law and the Context of Housing Discrimination in India, Rowena Robinson, EPW
The Capitalist Logic of Spatial Segregation: A Study of Muslims in Delhi, Ghazala Jamil, EPW
The Right Time to Speak of Housing Rights in India is Right Now, Sushmita Pati, TheWire
