Abstract

 This paper looks at the resilience and resistance towards changing modes of political and social belonging in Mohalla’s of Srinagar city in the Kashmir valley. The challenges come from the state and private sectors both and engulf the fragile architecture, infrastructure, ownership, demographic composition and the lived heritage of the city.  As the mode of belonging and identification is challenged constantly by the top-down political designs and an enforced developmental perspective, this paper tries to map how the residents navigate the uncertainties on a day-to-day basis. The paper further looks at how the changes in the spatial formations and spatial formations transformed the social and interpersonal dynamics in the old city. The paper further looks at how the transformations are contested through the memory of the past.