The Realm of Inbetweenness : Migration and Identity Formation in Pandu, Guwahati

The question of belonging to a ‘place’ is often recognised as being associated with the idea of ‘home’. But it is necessary to understand which lens we are using to form ideas of ‘home’ and belongingness. ‘Place’ has elements of physical boundaries as well as spatial aspect to it, but it is not solely circumscribed by territorial dimensions; the ‘sense’ of the place is also important (Tuan 2001). Michel de Certeau states that ‘space’ is embedded within a realm of meanings which are given by the individuals utilising the ‘place’ (Leach 2005). Thus, the experience or sense of belonging to a ‘place’ can be termed as ‘space’. The idea of ‘experience’ is important here, as the notion of identity and belongingness arises from the knowledge imparted via experience of the surrounding world (Sarukkai 2012). The realm of ‘experience’ and the debates around its ‘authenticity’ are vast. In my paper, I agree with Guru and Sarukkai’s approach on ‘experience’. They borrow certain aspects of phenomenology about how an individual experiences the surrounding as an ‘embodied self’ via her senses and consciousness in the form of thoughts and memories; these lived experiences cannot be dismissed on the premise of being subjective in nature (Guru and Sarukkai 2012). I, thus, examine how ‘place’, which is defined in terms of a physical territorial aspect, can be distinguished from ‘space’ which involves the realm of experience to form meanings to comprehend the world around us. But are they indeed distinguishable and mutually exclusive?