Time Travel to a Possible Self: Searching for the Alternative Cosmopolitanism of Cochin

Abstract

Cochin or Kochi is one of the few cities in India where the precolonial traditions of cultural pluralism refuse to die. It is one of the largest natural harbours in India and has also become, during the last fifty years, a major centre of the Indian Navy. With the growing security consciousness in official India, it has recently become less accessible to non-Indians, particularly if they happen to be from one of the countries with which India''s relationship is tense. Few mind that, for the city no longer means much to the outside world. To Indians, too, except probably for the more historically conscious Malayalis, Cochin is no longer the ‘epitome of adventure’ it was to Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or a crucible of cultures, as it is to its former mayor, K. J. Sohan. For most, it is now one of those regional cities not quite up to the standard of India's major metropolitan centres.