<i>Ghar ki tension</i>: domesticity and distress in India's aspiring middle class

Tension is a polysemic term used across South Asia to describe the strains and scrapes of life, like ‘worry’ or ‘stress’ in Euro-American discourse. Yet formerly agro-pastoralist upwardly mobile Gaddi community Himalayan India, it by women with qualifying ghar ki – ‘household’ indicate deeper disruption bodily humours, intimate relations, household materiality. This article takes tension, particular focus on layered qualifier ghar, as window into precarity middle-class domestic life experienced bodies who pursue it. Rather than focusing communicative functions women's distress within household, this looks relational, affective, material ways which see their houses mutually constituted disrupted. approach reveals how labour both source dignity burden. burden symptoms overheating, visits from supernatural beings. suggests that tension might offer novel way looking at psychic embodied cost upward social mobility beyond context. Ghar : vie domestique et détresse dans la classe moyenne ambitieuse indienne Résumé est un terme polysémique, utilisé toute l'Asie du Sud pour décrire les contraintes cahots de vie, comme « soucis » ou stress le discours euro-américain. Chez Gaddis l'Himalaya indien, anciens agriculteurs éleveurs en pleine ascension sociale, femmes lui adjoignent qualificatif ki, foyer », indiquer une perturbation profonde des humeurs physiques, relations intimes matérialité domestique. Cet déploie cette foyer, insistant sur fenêtre précarité moyenne, telle qu'elle vécue corps ces femmes. Plutôt que considérer notion moyen elles communiquer éprouvée au sein maisonnée, l'article l'analyse reflétant conceptions qu'ont leurs maisons se constituant mais aussi perturbant mutuellement, point vue relationnel, affectif matériel. Cette approche révèle façon dont travail à fois dignité fardeau, fardeau qui ressenti symptômes physiques bouffées chaleur visites d’êtres surnaturels. L'article suggère pourrait être nouveau d'envisager coût psychique corporel l'ascension au-delà contexte spécifique Gaddis. When he did job we made house, then joke around. The problem my husband can't work [of earning making decisions] has come me. Now pressure I have tension. There always tension2 when try go sleep, think wheat if outside will get wet? Because all decisions are mine. space was laden It once feeling Seema expressed, but also an state atmospheric mood. felt her body, especially its overheating. She had recently ‘heart going tuk tuk’. one gets been cursed black magic, she explained. ‘When so much tension’, said, ‘I feel just eating something dying’. laughed nervously before continuing, ‘but picture children there and, think, look after them?’ life. In broadest form, ubiquitous idiom, discourse (T. Roberts al. 2020; Shidhaye & Patel 2010). For Seema, many encountered, associated frustrated striving towards respectability. last century, people Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, transitioned away agro-pastoralism begun accumulate wealth through land waged market economy, ushering them onto lower rungs India's middle class. women, obtaining status involved withdrawing work, being able depend secure income loving husband, occupying oneself material, spiritual, relational well-being house those project crucial collective aspiration respectability involving re-signification tribal caste subjectivities, previously Shaivite animistic sought inclusion Hindu nation. However, not families benefit equally economic opportunities. Those formal employ such military government jobs (naukri) smoother trajectories informal tourism, hydropower, slate mining sectors. Women whose husbands cannot earn, faced contradiction between circumstances cultivate article, contribute rich literature class constantly evolving cultural (Liechty 2003) generated, historically, inequalities gender, race, sexuality, caste, ethnicity, kinship (Bear, Ho, Tsing Yanagisako 2015; Heiman, Liechty Freman 2012). inherently lacking clearly defined markers (Baviskar Ray 2011) taken different historical forms, involve orientation home private secluded sphere (Donner 2011; Qayum where responsible for cultivation ideals domesticity sexual propriety (Bear 2007; Donner 2017; Maqsood 2017). Scholars charted origins colonial legal regimes collect taxation discrete units, arbitrate marriage inheritance processes patriarchal descent lines, discipline female sexuality (Chowdhry 1994; Kapila 2004). dovetailed nationalist aims Independence 1947, inviting national imaginary role mothers housewives 2008; Sarkar 2001). These reworked reified post-Nehruvian liberalization, encouraged expansion drive growth 2011). Neoliberal governance further site consumption self-sufficiency (Appadurai Breckenridge 1995; Fernandes 2006), underpinned permanent conjugal bond care absorbed primarily women. global realities wage stagnation, unstable livelihoods, climate change, systemic racism, erosion welfare mean deeply precarious India beyond. Anthropologists affect draw attention experience mobility, while most often framed lens 2004), shot rage, frustration, ennui, exhaustion, anxiety, dread (Moodie 2015: 18; Berlant Murphy Ngai 2005; Povinelli location these negative feelings ‘often keeps silent, weary too numb really notice sources unhappiness’ (Cvetcovich 2012: 12). bar number important exceptions (see Chua 2014; Jeffrey 2010; Parry 2012), less given affective pressures project. margins castes groups must shed reputations savageness promiscuity fraught Heyer Kapadia Moodie N. 2016; Still 2014). Gaddi, they negotiate complex nexus class, aspirations, case struggle obtain maintain keep bay. examines minds, houses, condition signalled overheating unidentifiable aches, ‘high BP’ (blood pressure), insomnia, rumination. could be concentrated heart chest, panic (ghavrat, dil ghavrat) suffocation. Sufferers would menstrual problems abdominal pain. Unlike scholars posit psychologizing idiom replaces belief (Halliburton 2005), found malign forces witchcraft (jadu), magic (opara), evil eye (nazar) entering body. occurred boundaries woman's body became vulnerable envious gaze kin neighbours, causing serious illness. times atmosphere tense because scarcity conflict. They attributed constant housework carework ungrateful children, violent husbands, demanding in-laws Atal Forster Das 2015, Snell-Rood 2015). Where accounts amongst focused function Nichter 1981, Qureshi 2019; Weaver 2017), co-substantially house. Investigating required methodological paid politico-economic shaped experiences began conducting archival research changing shape British Library SOAS Library, studying gazetteers settlement reports. arrived rented room low-caste family, mapped flows goods, people, substances households hamlet, surrounding villages. girls village drop unburden themselves Simpson 2019). My residency there, long-term participant observation other households, allowed me become culture patterns scaled health survey networks, maps, oral history interviews order understand local cosmology illness implications femininities. conducted, recorded, transcribed narrative (Groleau, Young Kirmayer 2006) participatory workshops elicit symptomatology parts qualities held symbolic meanings. combination methods distributed community, ran along lines inequality. consists two parts. first part charts genealogy context growing what stake against politics. second investigates shows minds seek concludes suggesting general, particular, analytics understanding mobility. agro-pastoralist, live mountainous districts Chamba Kangra Pradesh. ‘Gaddi’ vexed identity category variably tribal, livelihood, linguistic (Christopher 2008). speak gaddi bolle. group included Rajputs Thakurs reference group, Bhatt Brahmins, five castes: Sipi, Badi, Rihare, Dhogri, Hali 2020: 5). caste-stratified pastoral Brahmins officiated rituals; transhumant flock owners, butchers, traders; worked adjacent professions (working wool clippers ritual healers dealing animal carcasses). whom conducted fieldwork, rapid shift livelihood over past century employment service, ‘entrepreneurial’ mining, construction sectors (Axelby Wagner 2013). driven infeasibility shepherding pastures properties enclosed, smelly, sweaty hardship nomadic becomes appealing young men. watched urban sprawl plains creeps hills, upper Delhi Chandigarh buy up escape city cleaner air. profited Buddhist tourists lodging, food, tour guides visit sacred temples dot valley. New forms inequality income, education, deepened brother another runs small corner shop, neighbour sells his hotelier remains petty labourer hotel's site. sometimes run existing divides depart them, allowing lower-caste appeal higher-class leaving higher-caste struggling status. 2002, Rajputs, Thakurs, Ranas were granted Scheduled Tribe based ‘unique lifestyle’ supposed separation system (a enjoyed since Independence), giving access educational benefits (Kapila Lower-caste excluded already classified Caste reservations. sum, hierarchies make claims prestige plastically shared language, wealth, purity, aesthetics, ownership, access. salient cultivating ideal middle-class, domesticity. historically privileged articulation Gaddiness, men established connection landscape labour, transmission emplaced kul devis clan-based goddesses reside substance line 2022). understood building whole place, said married man, ‘such place’, take place (Wagner traditionally mud, displaying unique form craftsmanship (Newell 1952): bricks earth, dug squat storeys, low hanging doorways wooden shutters carved intricate designs Fig. 1). interior mud musty damp flowering mould plagues new concrete earthy smell dung paint plaster floor walls, routinely reapplied Elderly described ‘keepers’ lifestyle: move, tended multiple grazing route considered equal contributors income: engaging subsistence agriculture owned summer; supporting route; labouring fields landowners exchange lodging board winter. Men long periods, manage gods. Respectability maintaining chastity, extra-marital affairs divorce stigmatized. As agro-pastoral economy broken down fixity boundedness domesticity, rather fluidity transhumance. pastoralism pooling resources, requires division productive reproductive labour. generating monetary small-scale increasingly (ghar ka kaam). gendered codified (izzat) (Phillimore 1982; 1991). buttressed postcolonial marriage, inheritance, registry shored specified make-up, prevented ‘improper’ practices polygamy, divorce, remarriage seen dominance property cemented codification single male primary inheritance. right maintenance acquired diminish, unless linked ancestral line. Increased animated more hierarchical, caste-bound marital structure, consolidating divisions tribe. Over Phillimore (1982) (2004) decline (atta satta) rise hypergamous (dan pan). Kapila's during late 1990s, recorded evidence only dowry dan pan marriages, ‘thought modern keeping requirements precepts’ (2004: 391). legal, marital, meant nuclear, blood care. sustained rigid man breadwinner woman housewife. By time fieldwork 2017, reshaped don't globalized Indian others detailed very seldom employed white-collar jobs. But neither do impoverished own land, unlike migrant workers Jharkhand Chhattisgarh lands, gareeb (poor). Herein employment. While some still joint arrangements separate hearths, couples aspire independent nuclear Although present cantonments labourers aesthetic responsibility sign establishment gathered moving well-off landlord prided himself palatial home. He distinguished road, three brothers lived families. expressed shame about having poverty ill fortune. Concrete provided displayed enduring strength lineage, improvements offered opportunity assert visibility Elinoff 2016). wholly partly effusive cleaning populated interiors appliances decorative objects Wealthier appliances, ornate velvet furnishing, plush blankets, bride's dowry. poorer hand-embroidered cushions laid out plastic chairs. struck immense drew objects. largely same each place: cream doilies, flowers, studio family photos keen objects, arranging showing drank tea 2023). ability stay invest aesthetics poetics homemaking ‘collective aspiration’. historians analysed, post-Independence sexually objectified ascribed ‘sexual freedom’ improper non-tribal Skaria 1997). association persists today, embrace lifelong conjugality inherent aspirational pursuit indigenous 79). clear encounter elderly Parminder Uncle. playfully called him ‘Mucho Uncle’ mutton chop moustache sagged jowls. spent illustrious career army, posted Sikkim Pakistan border, wife raised four high hills west Dharamsala. One day, dropped specifically pulled photographs breast pocket (Fig. 2). background stark hillside, above treeline, typical Chamba. foreground, pasted top, showed lush green grass herd goats. layer photograph cut-out wife. dressed suit pants clean pale blue shirt, head wrapped red turban. His full dress wore silver wedding jewellery. ‘The our culture, too’, ‘is behave’. purdah, veil front husband's brothers. know daughter daughter-in-law. want you write this. About presented photo, sister wearing traditional jewellery 3). Parminder's salary course lifetime without retired, set business family's wealth. Like stable incomes, built gradually partitioned sons married. Part project, however, contested due Parminder, embodying traits Gaddiness: singing songs; hat; framing goats even though never herd. More importantly this, control behaviour, dress, wife, daughters, daughters-in-law. personal imaginaries subjectivity, spoke lower- upper-caste imaginary. Such story resonates Asian relationship norms 2014: 5-7). model caste-based follows thesis ‘Sanskritization’, wherein depends husbands’ protect wives advances Therein, mobile, mimic values women: adopting restricting retreating agricultural work. highlights inverse liberation, feminist argued intensification capitalism structures honour stronger flexible Mies 1982). value housewifery seems refuse capitalist devaluation drudgery. exemplified encounters successfully managed build respectable households. Let us turn example Sapna, sister-in-law met beginning article. Seema's hotel cook, Sapna's salaried man. beautiful cottage sat amidst road. crumble chip every monsoon, painted peach. Its floors cold moulding concrete, tiled shiny. Their toilet connected ceilings fitted elaborate cornices. Sapna herself stocky, broad, well-made-up face hair anointed vermillion. Her natal popular tourist spot. told proudly, shooting knowing glance ‘This different, “backward”’. asked normal revolved mainly around caring kids. sends school, makes tiffin. sweeps floors, meals, does beds, cleans cooking utensils. day’, smiled. ‘And watch TV’, son chimed in. laughed. favourite Hindi serials. preferred didn't goings-on family. acutely concerned cleanliness Cleaning allows perform certain classed religious femininities manipulation sensory experiences, (Pink managing vital materiality it, potent immateriality mood (Allerton 2013; Gammeltoft 2018). ideology involves performance daily rituals establish exclude dangerous gazes, fluids, influences ‘polluting’ (Dickey 2000). castes, classes unchaste. Cleanliness management humours tempers, bathing, nutrition hygiene promote physical metaphysical (Alter 1999). Henrike (2011) recounts Bengali housewives, management, feeding, critical aspects Donner's interlocutors, check anoint kajal (black eyeliner), conduct protective prayers ward off eye. disallow entering, sharing food in, gazing home, castes; travelling salesmen; children; adolescent promiscuous; believed jealous bodies: veiling, appropriate clothing, marking hairline vermilion. People streets. opportunity. here. Soon overtake West. won't reproduce themselves. Megan puts