Ameliorating the socio spatial contestation in a sacred city: the case of Vrindavan India

Abstract

India is currently experiencing a rapid fiscal, conscious, and spatial transition. In its current condition, the layout of national infrastructure is occurring at a rate that cannot be governed, putting India's historical and natural assets under threat. One such important asset possessed by Indian cities is sacredness. A city is made up of many layers, one of which is sacredness. With the accelerated transition of Indian cities, the religious facets of temples and the old cores of towns that house them find themselves at a crossroads of historical importance they store and transformations they embrace. The city itself is growing economically but at the price of its prized ancient heritage. Vrindavan grew as a sacred city located on the banks of river Yamuna In northern part of India. Due to the formation of newer precincts around sacred core, its cultural specificity is under threat. Occupational, economic and social and spatial patterns in these sacred cores have changed over time due to overuse of certain zones. The transformation in Vrindavan are a part of larger change and Modernization which is imparting a Homogeneous character to the city and leading to socio spatial contestation for spaces. Due to the scarcity of space in the city, the space has become a subject of contestation between different user groups such as the pilgrims, the locals and the tourists and each of these affecting the town in their own way. Temples in Vrindavan now style themselves as theme parks, and the world’s tallest religious building is under construction. Gentrification and real estate boom have transformed the cultural specificity and uniqueness of the town. The pilgrimage to Vrindavan has evolved from its original meaning from being a journey to the gods abode to a place of vacation which is oriented more towards pleasure and recreation, thus contributing to the development of the secondary and tertiary sector. Therefore, the thesis intend to find ways to integrate the traditional pilgrim city as a place of sacred character and a tourist attraction.