Theses and Dissertations

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3

Open Access
Aasharyathaputhanvidu Migration in Identities
(Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, 2018) Tharian, Roshni; Desai, Binita; Modi, Jaymin
Until the 1950’s, ours was a Syrian Catholic family in Prakanam, Pathanamthitta district of South Kerala. Despite relative widespread education, there was little hope for employment in the state. This propelled a large movement of Malayalees across the country. In the 1950’s, Ahmedabad was running to the siren of the mills. My grandfather became one of the several Malayalees that had given in to the appeal of the textile mill industry. They dominated clerical positions in a state that planned to carve its identity as an industrial haven. Migratory influx from Kerala toward Gujarat was thus sustained. Malayalees were to fill up positions that the locals were not addressing. The prospect of a regular salary was highly desirable to the Malayalee population. But the city offered more than employment. With increase in numbers, communities began to cluster. The sixties saw the coming together of a new community, that shared the common tale of financial responsibility of those back home. The arrival and settlement of migrants revived a dormant church in Ahmedabad that had hitherto held intermittent services for floating populations. The Vatican II council in 1964, in its revised worldview set the church and the migrants on the same footing; to acquire the local ethos. Consequently, with each generation, the migrant population learned to find a sense of belonging in their destination city, having little in common with the identity and struggle of the previous generations. This documentary attempts to record the movement in identities of Malayalee Catholic migrants to the city of Ahmedabad. The church becomes a core aspect, that finds symbiosis in its relationship rearing the migrants that grow up to contribute significantly as able members of the church.
Open Access
In Search of Buddhist Gujarat between Rhetoric and Reality
(Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, 2018) Sheth, Aarsh; Singh, Saurabh; Mazumdar, Madhumita; Pandya, Vishvajit
It is for the last few years that the state of Gujarat is suddenly being promoted internationally as a Buddhist heritage destination. Several Buddhist heritage sites were identified at an international seminar in the year 2010 as tourist and pilgrim destinations. In a high profile promotional blitz that included a revamped Gujarat Tourism website, brochures and a much popular tourism promotional film featuring the celebrity actor Amitabh Bachchan, the Gujarat government under the then Chief Minister Shri Narendra Modi claimed that Buddhism had as much a presence in Gujarat as that in Bihar. This project was inspired by the compelling power of this tourism ad campaign and sought to follow the Buddhist heritage trail in Gujarat and see how these sites were perceived by followers of Buddhism on the one hand and by locals on the other. The objective was to understand how heritage promotion initiatives from the state resonated in actual social contexts and how tourism promotion rhetoric matched up with the reality on the ground. We went on a quest to discover this new dimension of Gujarat. We visited some of the sites only to realize that there is actually no movement in terms of the development of any of the presented sites as tourist destinations since the year 2010. Employing ethnographic methods and together with historical, political and sociological literature, we tried to understand the reality of Buddhist tourism in Gujarat, not as part of a broader religious or historical movement but rather as an “Invented tradition” created and promoted by the imperatives of tourism and politics.
Metadata only
Chalo bajaar jaiye : Ahmedabad through markets
(Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology, 2018) Vardhan, Himanshu; Shah, Shailaja; Pandya, Vishvajit; Mazumdar, Madhumita; Desai, Nikita
The idea of this project was to bring awareness among the tourists who are going to visit the city or the migrants who are going to shift to the city or the locals about a historic city Ahmedabad through a different dimension – the city’s old vibrant markets. During the process of literature review we figured that there were many books written on the historic city Ahmedabad which largely focused on the heritage monuments of the city. After Ahmedabad was declared as World Heritage City in July, 2017 the city’s heritage added much more value to its existence. However, according to the official documents submitted for the nomination of World Heritage City at UNESCO, Ahmedabad has been given this title primarily for its tangible heritage which includes physical artifacts and monuments of the city. But throughout the history of 600 years of the city, there have been certain cultural values and social practices which have been inherited through generations and are nothing but intangible cultural heritage of Ahmedabad. Through initial research we understood that apart from the monuments, there are some old markets of the city having certain social practices and cultural values associated with them which could at large provide a meaning to the existence of the city. Since those old markets of Ahmedabad were then built and developed around a group of people following certain ethnicities or religions or languages and gradually created an environment of people following certain cultural values and performing certain social practices these markets are full of diversities of people, commodities, traditions, languages and communities. Hence, for anyone who wishes to know Ahmedabad and its history, there should a way other than the tangible heritage information which allows him/her to know this different aspect of the city. Thus, to fill in the gap of introducing the city in various ways we came up with a solution to tell a story of the city through different perspective – through its old markets. In order to do so it was important to first understand the different attributes associated to the markets situated in the eastern part of the city Ahmedabad – old Ahmedabad as historically the city was only developed on the eastern side of the River Sabarmati; it was the time during the rule of British Crown when Ahmedabad got expanded on the west too. To known the markets in depth field visits were carried out, which brought out different aspects associated with markets like their histories, commodities, type of selling involved in different markets, types of buyers, market timings, peak hours etc. Since the target audience of our product could be either an outsider or an insider, it was important to have multiple narratives which could help them know the markets and further the city in their own ways. To achieve this, we categorised and prioritised the set of data about each market gathered from the field. The primary classification depending on the targeted audience was done based on their establishment years, commodities, locations of the markets and the types of selling (wholesale / retail / wholesale and retail both) involved in a particular market. In order to tell this story in the best possible way a medium had to be chosen which be the most feasible for such a set of information. Hence, we decided not to move ahead with the idea of designing a book as it becomes very linear for the user to read the information in such a static format. To make the information interactive and easily accessible to maximum number of users in the world, we figured that a website would be the most suitable medium to design this information. The designed product works as an informational website which generates a virtual experience of markets among the users through sounds, visuals and textual content. This website is meant to allow the user to look out for information according to his/her need. The multiple narratives structured to tell the story in different ways are: a) Through the locations of the markets in the city along with the year when they were established at those locations b) Through the categorised set of commodities sold in those markets c) Through the information on nearby markets which could be visited in a day This website can further be developed in mobile view and tablet view which would make it even easier to access for the users from anywhere on the field.

Theses and Dissertations

Browse

Filters

Settings

Sort By

Results per page

Search Results