Abstract:
The pola, a locally built and operated market and social institution in Sri
Lanka,has survived over a century. From the 1970s,politicians, planners and policymakershave
attempted to modernize it; the peak is the national government pledging
LKR3,000millionsin 2014. Enormous resources have been wasted due to the gap between
the perception among formal actors and the lived pola. This study aimed to understand
thepolafrom the pola-people’svantage points. I became a member of Kottawa-Polaand
the circuit. I learned that the polais notits physicality or a thing –as the state and planners
do— but ajourney and has a lived self that needs to be acknowledged. Even when the
government restructures, thepola-people use the provisionsas raw material to defy and
overcome the intervention. Thepola isan ingenuous institution produced by people to
navigate and construct contemporary urban environments.