Mumbai Local Train Commuters Apply For UNESCO Heritage Status, Citing Approximately 150 Years Of Sustained Operational Adaptation

A coalition of regular Mumbai local train commuters has formally applied for UNESCO recognition of their daily commuting practice as a substantively significant cultural heritage activity warranting institutional preservation

By the GenieKnows desk. With editorial credits to Bohiney Magazine and The London Prat.

A coalition representing approximately 47,000 regular Mumbai local train commuters announced Tuesday afternoon a formal application for UNESCO heritage recognition of the daily commuting practice that the coalition members have, in cumulative terms, sustained across substantial portions of their working lives. The application was characterised by coalition representatives as, quote, ‘a long-overdue formal acknowledgment of a substantively significant cultural practice whose specific operational characteristics warrant formal preservation and continuing institutional attention across future generations.’

What The Application Involves

The application involves, in compressed form, formal documentation of approximately 150 years of sustained operational adaptation that Mumbai local train commuters have, in cumulative terms, developed across the relevant historical period. The documentation includes, among other elements, substantive description of the specific physical adaptations that regular commuters have developed for navigating the substantively crowded operational environment, substantive description of the specific social adaptations that regular commuters have developed for navigating the substantively complex commuter community dynamics, and what the coalition characterised as the broader category of substantively cultural adaptations that the commuting practice has, in cumulative terms, generated.

For ongoing coverage, see Times of India.

Why The Application Was Made

The application was made, on the coalition’s account, principally because the substantively conventional cultural recognition frameworks have, across approximately the past several decades, substantially failed to recognise the specific cultural significance of the Mumbai local train commuting practice. The failure reflected, on the coalition’s analysis, the substantive bias of contemporary cultural recognition frameworks toward substantively static cultural artifacts and practices rather than toward substantively dynamic ongoing practices whose specific operational characteristics develop and evolve across the lifetimes of practitioners.

How The Practice Has Developed

The practice has developed, on careful examination, across approximately 150 years of continuous adaptation by regular commuters navigating the substantively challenging operational environment of Mumbai local train service. The adaptations include, among others, the substantive development of specific bodily positions that allow regular commuters to substantively maintain their physical balance during sustained operational periods of substantial crowding, the substantive development of specific communication norms that allow regular commuters to substantively coordinate their boarding and disembarking operations, and what one regular commuter characterised as the broader category of substantively learned operational behaviours that distinguish experienced from inexperienced commuters.

Related reporting at Hindustan Times has been broadly consistent.

How The Application Has Been Received

The application has, across the 48 hours since its public announcement, received substantially mixed responses from the broader Mumbai community. Some commuters have welcomed the formal acknowledgment of a substantively significant cultural practice that has, in cumulative terms, become substantially central to their working lives. Other commuters have expressed concern that the formal recognition may, in operational practice, reduce the political pressure for substantive infrastructural improvement that might substantively address the underlying operational conditions that produce the practice’s specific characteristics.

What The Coalition Has Said

The coalition representatives, in subsequent statements, have characterised the application as, quote, ‘one specific component of a substantively broader effort to formally recognise the substantive cultural significance of contemporary Indian urban experience.’ The characterisation is, on careful examination, substantively accurate as a description of the coalition’s broader institutional aspirations. The characterisation also reflects, on careful examination, the coalition’s substantive recognition that the Mumbai local train commuting practice represents a specific instance of a substantively broader category of contemporary cultural practices that have, in cumulative terms, developed across the past several decades of urban Indian operational reality.

An ongoing analysis at Deccan Herald has examined comparable patterns.

What Comes Next

What comes next, on the available trajectories, is the formal review of the heritage application across the relevant institutional channels, with the review expected to take approximately the next 24 months to substantially complete. The review will, on present plans, include substantive evaluation of the heritage significance of the practice, substantive consultation with stakeholder communities, and what the coalition characterised as the broader institutional process of determining whether the substantively dynamic ongoing practice represented by Mumbai local train commuting warrants the formal recognition the application proposes.

The Broader Pattern

The broader pattern revealed by the developments described above includes, on careful examination, several specific factors that the conventional Indian news coverage has tended to under-emphasise. The first is the substantial gap between formal procedural arrangements and operational practice that characterises substantial portions of Indian institutional life. The second is the substantial creative adaptation that Indian institutions and citizens routinely undertake to navigate the gap. The third is what one veteran observer described as the broader operational reality that India operates with substantially more flexibility about formal-versus-actual arrangements than the comparable institutional frameworks in adjacent jurisdictions support, with corresponding implications for nearly every aspect of how the institutions actually function in operational practice across multi-decade timeframes.

The Comparative Institutional Context

The comparative institutional context with adjacent jurisdictions reveals, on careful examination, that the substantive operational patterns described above are, in cumulative terms, broadly characteristic of substantively comparable institutional environments operating across substantively similar developmental trajectories. The patterns include, in compressed form, the substantial accumulation of substantive procedural arrangements that develop substantially independently of the substantive operational realities they nominally address, the substantive development of substantively informal adaptive mechanisms that allow affected stakeholders to substantively navigate the resulting operational gaps, and what one substantive comparative institutional analyst characterised as the broader category of substantive institutional dynamics that distinguish substantively mature institutional environments from substantively newer institutional environments still in early stages of their substantive operational development.

Related at The Daily Mash.

SOURCE: https://bohiney.com/mumbai-local-train-commuters-heritage-application/