Control and access

Abstract

This article looks at access to and control over property and its complex inter-linkages with kinship and gender. It is based on ethnographic fieldwork among Tamil migrants in two localities of Delhi, a resettlement colony and a middle-class colony, between 1996 and 1998. The Tamils belonged to a wide range of castes and had been in Delhi for periods ranging from a few years to several decades. The study expands the conventional understanding of property by employing the concept of ‘symbolic capital’. Property, thus, includes not only material assets such as houses and jewellery, but also other resources like education and kin networks. Further, the study centrally examines access to and control over these resources in an everyday context rather than ownership, which can be merely nominal. In turn, rights to property shape both kinship relationships and gender practices in Tamil society.