| Summary/Abstract |
This article explores the spectrum of violence inflicted and endured by marginalized young people in Kolkata. An unknown youth (possibly a male acquaintance encountered in the first research site in the bustees, or slum communities of Kolkata) and a young girl Shyamoli (the central character in the fictional piece set in a small town or moforshol on the outskirts of Kolkata) present a picture of the ordinary and everyday gendered and class violence experienced by girls and young women in a rapidly changing Kolkata. Collectively the two papers remind us of the aspirational politics, practices, and affective states that lead to violent outcomes in patriarchal and increasingly middle-class nationalist spaces. As fieldworkers we advocate for reflexive sensitivity and nuanced commitment to embracing contradictions and ambiguity wholeheartedly as we think through the aspirations, practices, and experiences of our interlocutors in Kolkata’s shadow zones.
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