Retelling the neighbourhood

All cities and towns contain fragments of ecological and historic landscapes that are intimately linked to spaces of human residential and livelihood settlements. When the city or town is explored from the perspective of the people, a more humanistic understanding of the local emerges. The following articles are reflections from two ‘Humanities across Borders (HaB)’-supported projects – ‘Delhi Memory Archive’ and ‘From Forest to Town: Transformation of the Commons’ – both carried out by the Centre for Community Knowledge (CCK) at Ambedkar University Delhi (AUD). Although from two different perspectives, their shared attempt is to explore the various ways in which meanings and identities are associated with the neighbourhoods that make up a city or a town. These have been enriched by exchanges with other HaB projects. We warmly invite other scholars and practitioners to share with us their experience and understanding of ‘neighbourhood’ across all dynamic socio-cultural realities.

{Retelling the neighbourhood comprises of two articles written by Mesha Murali and Kumar Unnayan; and each is posted separately.}

Bwisagu is the New Year festival of the Boro community in Assam (India). It is the most awaited time of the year, which annually begins on 14^th April and lasts for at least a week. It is also celebrated as Baisakh in Punjab and as Bihu by the larger Assamese society that involve lot of merry making by all age groups. But what makes the Bwisagu of Boro community unique is the way it is celebrated.