Politics and poetics in India's changing public sphere (completed)
Today, the Rifah-e-Aam Club in Lucknow is a decrepit structure in which the neighbourhood of Wazirganj casts its votes at election times and celebrates its marriages, where political rallies take place and Ifthar dinners are arranged, where he played Badminton with local goons and policemen during 17 months of fieldwork. Earlier, though, it was the very place where nationalist demands began to flourish, where Gandhi and Nehru held fiery speeches, and where the Progressive Writers' Movement conducted its first meeting. Through the prism of this building, its entangled histories and contemporary significance, Raphael wish to unfold the changing social composition of North India's public sphere - changes which link Wazirganj to much wider landscapes.