When transport becomes a destination: deaf spaces and networks on the Mumbai suburban trains

Annelies Kusters

doi:10.1080/08873631.2017.1305525

Annelies Kusters

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1080/08873631.2017.1305525

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Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article considers dense social interactions in commuter trains and their crucial role within city-wide networks. Literature on social interactions in public transport has focused on how commuters have short interactions with each other, or constitute groups of train friends, but without situating them in wider geographies. The article focuses on deaf people in the Mumbai metropolis who travel in compartments reserved for disabled people, chatting and exchanging news and information. These spatial practices are facilitated by the peninsular geography and train infrastructure of Mumbai. In order to produce deaf spaces, where deaf sociality and sign language use are the organizing principles, deaf people strategically board particular trains and particular compartments, and sometimes remain in the train beyond their original destination. Mobile phones are used to coordinate these meetings. The diversity of people meeting in the train is high, such as with regard to gender, age, religion, caste, class and divisions are either perpetuated or abated. Because these compartments provide a diverse range of deaf people a space for daily meetings on the way to and from their (mostly hearing) work places and families; they are very important spaces to maintain and expand networks in the wider Mumbai deaf community.

Highlights

Ritesh:A hearing person [in the compartment for people with disabilities in the Mumbai trains] told me that he had observed deaf people signing intensively, noticing that they are not chatting with each other like hearing people do, but signing so much, all the way during the train trip and back
Literature on social interactions in public transport has focused on how commuters have short interactions with each other, or constitute groups of train friends, but without situating them in wider geographies
The article focuses on deaf people in the Mumbai metropolis who travel in compartments reserved for disabled people, chatting and exchanging news and information

Summary

Introduction

A difference though, is that deaf spaces in the Mumbai trains are tied into city-wide networks of deaf people, with deaf clubs, schools, courses, organizations and events. The quote above suggests that the attachment to the HC might be age-related: Sujit’s deaf father was in his late 60s and had lived in Mumbai all his life, habitually caught the GC when he was younger and did not have the urgency Sujit felt to the board the HC: instead the father’s preference was to make a pragmatic choice He regularly travels in the HC, just like other people from his generation, but still regards the GC as a feasible option when the train is not crowded.

Conclusion

Notes on contributor