PUKAR
presents a talk
by
Filippo Osella

'I am Gulf': The Production of Cosmopolitanism in Calicut, Kerala

Date: Tuesday, 13 December 2005
Time 6.30 pm
Venue: PUKAR Office
Address: 2nd Floor, Kamanwala Chambers, Opposite Strand Book Stall,
Sir. P M Road, Fort, Mumbai 400001. Tel: 5574-8152

Abstract

This paper explores the production of cosmopolitan identities in
Calicut, Kerala. We find that the diverse experiences of the past - when
commerce brought to Calicut traders from far and wide - and the present - when
Calicut migrants travel to the Gulf to work and live alongside people from all
over the world - are brought together in popular discourse to highlight the
'cosmopolitanism' of the city and its inhabitants.

Filippo Osella studied at the London School of Economics and has
published on social mobility, migration, agrarian relations, masculinities and
sexuality, popular religion and the body. He is currently working on
contemporary consumption practices and ways in which they impact upon identities
in the contexts of economic liberalisation, high migration and Islamic
reformism, with fieldwork
in Kerala and the Persian Gulf.