Ceasefire City

Militarism, Capitalism, and Urbanism in Dimapur

Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra

One of the first books to discuss Nagaland's urban spaces
Captures gender issues in Dimapur and the North east
Ceasefire City aims to capture the dynamics of Dimapur by bringing together the fragmented sensibilities granted and contested in particular spaces in the city and the embodied experiences of the city by its residents. The first part of the book talks about military presence, capitalist growth, and urban expansion in Dimapur through an analysis of its spatial politics, and the second part, through collaborative ethnographic exercises, focuses on the relationship between the lived realities and the meanings that are forged around the city.

Ceasefire City

Militarism, Capitalism, and Urbanism in Dimapur

Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra

Description

For a city in India's northeast that has been embroiled in the everyday militarization and violence of Asia's longest-running separatist conflict, Dimapur remains 'off the map'. With no 'glorious' past or arenas where events of consequence to mainstream India have taken place, Dimapur's essence is experienced in oral histories of events, visual archives of the everyday life, lived reality of military occupation, and anxieties produced in making urban space out of tribal space.
Ceasefire City captures the dynamics of Dimapur. It brings together the fragmented sensibilities granted and contested in particular spaces and illustrates the embodied experiences of the city. The first part explores military presence, capitalist growth, and urban expansion in Dimapur. The second part presents an ethnographic account of lived realities and the meanings that are forged in a frontier city.

Ceasefire City

Militarism, Capitalism, and Urbanism in Dimapur

Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra

Ceasefire City

Militarism, Capitalism, and Urbanism in Dimapur

Dolly Kikon and Duncan McDuie-Ra

Author Information

Dolly Kikon, Senior Lecturer in Anthropology and Development Studies, University of Melbourne, and Duncan McDuie-Ra, Professor of Urban Sociology, University of Newcastle

Dolly Kikon is senior lecturer of anthropology and development studies at the University of Melbourne, Australia.

Duncan McDuie-Ra is professor of urban sociology at the School of Social Sciences and Humanities, the University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia.