Pooja Kalita speaking at the conference. Photo courtesy of the speaker.

Pooja Kalita presented her paper Heritagization Vs History(s): Gender in the ‘Neo-Global’ Urban Heritage of Lumbini at the Global Urban History Conference.

Her paper is based on her fieldwork in Lumbini (Nepal). It attempts to answer questions, such as – What happens when the process of heritagization overshadows historical accounts of the ‘heritage’ site by women? In other words, how do the labelling of an urban space as ‘heritage’ impacts women’s relations with that space?

Dr. Kalita’s paper argues that the process of heritagization that results from a western-white gaze of international organizations ignores the lesser-known historical narratives by women who have been associated with these sites as residents. The consequent transformation of these urban spaces as tourist destinations serves a privileged clientele that the state machineries in conjunction with the profit-oriented market are exclusively interested in. An ‘invention’ of a heritage tradition comes to force. This leads to the emergence of ‘Neo-Global’ Urban Heritage spaces that ignores and erases any historical narrative by women that are not considered appropriate enough for ‘doing heritage’ (Smith: 2020) by the patriarchal state and the market. For instance, narratives by women of marginalized communities.

Further, this paper argues that heritagization is a much-needed framework to understand urban spaces in the global south.