Interpreting Varanasi scapes post 2000 a critical study of selected texts

Abstract

This thesis attempts to extract Varanasi from its reductionist documentation, framed by the tropes of eternal and Hindu, to produce a reading of the city that accounts for its fluidity and complexity. Through the lens of Henri Lefebvre s radical spatial paradigm that re-imagines the dialectical process to incorporate three modalities of space, that is, the conceived space, the perceived space, and lived space, this project delivers a microscopic view of Varanasi that is rooted in the minutiae, instead of relying on meta narratives of religion and timelessness. The endeavour here is to prise open the city for a reconsideration of what it stands for, offering alternative perspectives to approach its cadences. newline