While the attractive claims of Platinum and the disappointment of Civil Homes might not appear related at first, the juxtaposition of these two events encourage us to take a second look at the phenomenon of housing colonies and apartments in Kathmandu. Behind the slick brochures, English slogans, and full-page advertisements, what do these new types of residences represent and mean for the growing city? Ten years after the first housing project was completed, it appears that housing, especially in its newest incarnation of apartments, is not only here to stay but here to transform Kathmandu. At present, there are no fewer than 72 housing projects underway in the capital. Based on my ongoing research, in the following, I reference housing advertisements for what they say, imply and just as importantly, for what they omit.
Ten years after the first housing project was completed, it appears that housing, especially in its newest incarnation of apartments, is not only here to stay but here to transform Kathmandu.
‘THE FUTURE HAS ARRIVED’
Almost always in English, housing adverts appeal to a desire for a constellation of references to another space and time – be it modernity, the West, or the future. Or, as residents often explain to me (perhaps because of my US nationality), the pre-made houses of colonies ‘look American’. Importantly, however, housing does not represent an escape from Nepal but rather the insertion of the modern into a Nepali context. At Vinayak Colony, this means ‘minimalist western architecture … attuned to local context’. At Retreat Apartments, it is the ‘best of both worlds: modern amenities for modern living and quiet/mystical scenery throbbing with festivities and spirituality’. But what exactly is it in housing that signifies both worlds: Tulsi plants next to Ionic columns? Exposed brick facades and sloped roofs on pillar system structures? Vastu-inspired interiors with Western-styled ground-floor kitchens and toilets? Although interesting, these specific combinations are neither new nor unique to contemporary Kathmandu houses. Rather, it is the way in which residents interpret and use the ‘planned’ elements of housing –uniform architecture, grid-pattern streets (only found elsewhere in the city’s various ‘town-planning’ projects), numbered units, public spaces and guarded walls – that produces a unique take on Nepali modernity.
‘SECLUDED FROM THE HUSTLE AND BUSTLE OF THE CITY’
The high boundary walls of housing mark a symbolic separation from the city and its ‘urban evils’ – pollution, crime and crowdedness. Even more importantly, housing promises to provide what the state cannot: A consistent supply of water, paved roads, streetlights, security, and for a lucky few, electricity. In the days of load-shedding, severe water shortages, and declining law and order, it is no coincidence that citizens are moving away from a reliance on state-provided ‘public goods’ to private sources of infrastructure and services. However, when the company ‘hands over’ control to the housing’s ‘management committee’, residents are left to their own devices to manage their roads, employees and shared goods. In this sense, these places quickly convert into cooperatives where residents must depend on each other to participate in decision-making processes, pay monthly dues and maintain rules and regulations.
Although never mentioned in advertisements, residents also depend on local communities (that often predate the new housing project by many generations) for sources of labor – drivers, gardeners, domestics, construction laborers and guards. However, the relationship with the outside tends to be one-sided. While some management committees donate to local schools and organizations and invite locals to their events, most residents have little contact with or awareness of the community immediately outside. In fact, housing projects often sell themselves as ‘all-in-one’ worlds that one need never leave complete with department store, swimming pool, temple, playing courts, and in some cases, schools and party palaces. When residents exit the housing gates, they often zoom past the local shops, houses and public spaces of the local community on their way to the city in cars and motorbikes.
‘WE GIVE YOU FRIENDS, BEYOND NEIGHBORS’
In addition to the planned modernity and walled enclosures, housing also represents a social experiment in community structure. Although some admit to moving into a colony or apartment to avoid familial and neighborhood obligations, the far majority seek out the sociality of ‘educated’ and respectful neighbors, something they feel missing from previous residences where people living in the same building might not know each other. Unlike the ‘outside’, children can play in the street and adults can go on morning and evening walks at any hour. Moreover, residents extol the diversity of caste and ethnicity despite the majority belonging to Bahun-Chhetri and upper Newar castes. In what I call the ‘professional sociality’ of middle-class life, residents downplay differences of politics, ethnicity and wealth in favor of promoting community unity. In aims of enhancing the social inclusion of the housing community, the management committees claim to follow transparent and representative democratic practices.
FORTIFIED ENCLAVES
The creation of walled residential settlements invites Kathmandu housing into the global trend of ‘fortified enclaves’, defined by the Brazilian anthropologist Teresa Caldeira as physically-isolated, guarded and enclosed private property that cater to socially homogeneous (often upper class) populations. Rather than contributing to a sense of a unified city, we can add gated residences to the growing list of spaces – shopping malls, expensive restaurants, gardens and exercise/leisure facilities – that symbolize the division between rich and poor in Kathmandu. However, considering the government’s inability to guarantee basic goods and security, the desire for exclusive and privatized residences is hardly unexpected.
(Writer is a PhD candidate in Anthropology at the University of Virginia and a 2008-2009 Fulbright-Hays Scholar in Nepal.)
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