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Salaam Lahore!
I’m delighted to have joined LUMS as a postdoctoral fellow earlier this month. I’ll be writing up some research as…
Five old maps of Delhi and an illustration
दिल्ली के कुछ पुराने नक्शे और एक चित्रण घड़ी की सूई के अनुसार बाऐं से: खेती का पानी का प्रकार…
Delhi smog – consequence of groundwater regulation?
Arvind Kumar writing in the Sunday Guardian links increased air pollution in Delhi to a shift in the timings of…
Origins of the Sicilian Mafia: The Market for Lemons?
Great paper by Arcangelo Dimico, Alessia Isopi and Ola Olsson in Journal of Economic History, 77(4), 1083-115, Dec 2017. “In…
IDS WATSAN Seminar Series talk
Looking forward to my upcoming talk at IDS, Brighton as part of their Water and Sanitation series next Friday (20th). …
Penn State Asian Studies Institute: Infrastructure
Very useful week (representing Europe!) discussing all things infrastructure at the Penn State Asian Studies Summer Institute earlier in the…
Water collection and storage: the last 100 metres
I’ve been working at Lancaster Environment Centre on a project looking at water quality in informal settlements and working with…
“Water mafia” politics?
I’ll be at Ethnographic perspectives on South Asian politics in Manchester this Friday thinking about ‘water mafias’ and informal infrastructures… …
Shahr Dilhi Shahjahanabad
in which Muslim and Hindu religious buildings are marked… based on 1873 government map Wells can also be seen (double…
the affairs of the Company flowed through a new and unnatural channel
24 March 1766 To the Honble the Court of Directors for Affairs of the Honble United Company of Merchants of…
New work on history of Delhi water -British Library, April23rd
Delhi Waters from Mughal to British Rule Mon 23 Apr 2018, 17:30 – 19:00 Waters of Delhi: Continuity and Change…
Chiragh Dilli – Writing a city
Just seen this great blog by anthropologists of Delhi! Check it out… https://chiraghdilli.wordpress.com/
Vinod Kumar Shukla – ‘Like a city on a dry lake…’ and other poems
दोस्त से मैंने कहा कि सूखी झील पर बसे हुए शहर की तरह था । पालतू बतख का झुंड सड़क…
Vinod Kumar Shukla: शहर से सोचता हूँ – From the city, I think
शहर से सोचता हूँ From the city, I think कि जंगल क्या मेरी सोच से भी कट रहा है is…
Tankers and Urban Water Supply in South Asia
Metameta very kindly asked me to join a webinar on TheWaterChannel about tankers and urban water supply in South Asia. …
Urbanisation-Migration-Construction Nexus
Construction of infrastructure and the urban built environment is one of the fastest growing areas of the Indian economy. Yet…
हौज़ ई शमशी
I’ve been writing on the history of Delhi’s water infrastructures recently and a friend passed me this great article by…
‘vicious lobbying and unscrupulous wire pulling’
Some lovely writing in this 1939 account of the challenges of late colonial planning enforcement. Still feels quite relevant… _…
‘organisation of office’
This comment on the Municipal administration by an incoming Secretary of the Municipal Corporation in 1938 seems to prefigure contemporary…
Rain Gambling and Opium Gambling
I found this rather strange folder in the Delhi archives: 1899/14 Rain Gambling – regarding gambling and opium. A notice…
Uday Prakash – Broken women, Nehru-ji and Astaachal
My translation of Uday Prakash’s story खंडित स्त्रियों, नेहरूजी और अस्ताचल. Udayji writes about this story as his first, ‘written…
On Delhi’s pre-colonial water systems
‘The canal, shortly after entering on and skirting the base of the range of hills west of Delhi (the drainage…
देवता और किसान – क्रश्न चन्दर
I’ve had a shot at translating Krishan Chander’s Devta Aur Kisaan, a short story from 1983. Chander (1914-1977)…
केदारनाथ सिंह – बाज़ार
बाज़ार – केदारनाथ सिंह ‘आओ बाज़ार चलें’ उसने कहा ‘बाज़ार में क्या है’? मैंने पूछा ‘बाज़ार में धूल है’ उसने हंसते…
Kashmir
रजास्थान के दरवाजे…
बाओली और बंदर के लिए नीचे कर दें…
‘Impressed by the possibility of comparison’…
/ We predicate of the thing what lies in the method of representing it. Impressed by the possibility of…
Word Clouds
“The conception of thought as a gaseous medium.” (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 47e) If, like me, you are thinking…
Artistic Water Tanks of Punjab / पुंजब के कलाकारों के टैंकों
Last weeks (?) of thesis but just saw this piece on crazy water tanks in Punjab. Contemporary stepwells? Maybe a…
Old maps!
(above) A Topographical Survey of a Portion of Dihlee District Showing the Principle Basins of Drainage and the Positions of…
Political geography of development
I’m preparing for teaching a new course, Economy Society and Space, and I found these old materials from Political Geography of…
तितली, गांधीजी, दुआ – तीन उदय प्रकाश से
उदय प्रकाश, अबूतर कबूतर, २००५, स्वर्ण जयंती, दिल्ली तितली सरकार एक तितली पकड़ना चाहती है, उसे चाहिए एक फूल बैजयन्ती…
Delhi waters: Unequal, unreliable, and running out
Although Delhi has more water per person, on average, than London or New York, many still endure a daily…
महाजनो येन गतः – उदय प्रकाश
महाजनो येन गतः – उदय प्रकाश The way of great ones* – Uday Prakash इसी पथ से गये हैं महाजन…
Water: New Short Fiction From Africa
Water: New Short Fiction From Africa, edited by Nick Mulgrew and Karina Szczurek, Short Story Day Africa / New…
Water Regimes Questioned from the South
Oooh – exciting!!! Water Regimes Conference Proceedings featuring the lovely: Remi de Bercegol, Jochen Monstadt, Marie-Hélène Zérah, Philippie Cullet, Karen…
Things going on…
Few bits of writing in progress while I’m here in Cape Town… and couple of new books I’m getting into:…
तू नही आया – Amrita Pritam
Sad one 😦 (english below as usual) चैत ने करवट ली, रंगों के मेले के लिए फूलों ने रेशम…
US tour dates confirmed! #AAG2016
Like the Beatles and Skepta, I’ll be making the trip to the States. I’m speaking in San Francisco on the…
South African City Studies Conference
Exhilarating few days last week at the SACC hosted by Durban University of Technology. Here are some links to learn…
پاکستان کی تصاویر – Pictures of Pakistan
Politics, informal infra and urban governance
Delighted to see this in EPW’s Review of Urban Affairs! Politics, information technology and informal infrastructures in urban governance (pdf)…
कुछ बन जाते हैं – उदय प्रकाश / become something – Uday Prakash
कुछ बन जाते हैं – उदय प्रकाश (scroll down for translation) तुम मिसरी की डली बन जाअो मैं दूध बन…
CGWB Groundwater Consultation Ends 16 Dec
The Central Ground Water Board has issued new guidelines on ground water extraction. The guidelines are open for public consultation…
Water Regimes Workshop
Excited to be taking part in this upcoming workshop… WATER REGIMES QUESTIONED FROM THE “GLOBAL SOUTH”: AGENTS, PRACTICES AND KNOWLEDGE Centre…
Urbanisation-construction-migration
Early output from a research project I’ve been involved with. 5 country study of the links between urbanisation, construction and…
Infrastructure as divination tool
Today’s infra / water reading… Infrastructure as a divination tool: Whispers from the grids in a Nigerian city – U…
Publics@IIHS Bangalore
PUBLIC TALK Underground Water: Techno-Political Ecology in ‘Unauthorised’ Delhi Thursday | 5 November 2015 | 6:30 PM – 7:30 PM Abstract: India…
Glass half-full? Readings on Public Private Partnerships…
Many interesting references to follow-up in this recent Bretton Woods Project editorial on Public Private Partnerships… Big infrastructure projects are seen as an…
कुफ्र – अमृता प्रीतम
कुफ्र आज हमने एक दुनिया बेची और एक दीन ख़रीद लिया हमने कुफ्र की बात की सपनों का एक थान…
cfp AAG2016: Infrastructural engagements and urban re-imaginations in the global South
Call for papers for American Association of Geographers 2016 Annual Meeting, San Francisco, California March 29 – April 2, 2016…
Free Download! ‘Underground water’ PPT
You lucky lucky people! I’ve uploaded the slides from my presentation at the RGS. For full effect you need me…
UK Tour 2015! One Date Only – September 2nd Exeter University
Catch me for one date only in an exclusive appearance for RGS-IBG at Exeter University. September 2nd, 14.40 Forum Seminar…
Politics of Fire – Kerry Chance
“Where there is fire, there is politics”: Ungovernability and Material Life in Urban South Africa. Great new article by Kerry…
“Water Mafias” of Delhi?
Two recent pieces on Delhi’s ‘water mafias’. A very nice piece by Aman Sethi, who I met a couple of…
Cutting, Altaf Tyrewala
Cutting, they call it That far-from-tea bubbling away on footpaths all day and night The over cooked narcotic of a…
Muddy waters in Delhi’s Dusty South
I was asked to write something on water for a series at SouthAsia@LSE. This is mainly about discretion in urban…
घर – उदय प्रकाश / Home – Udhay Prakash
घर वह बहुत देर से नकशे को देख रहा था | फिर उसने वह नदी खोज निकाली जो उसके घर…
PDFs
Too busy to write here recently – sorry about that! Here are some nice books you could read instead though……
Tilak Bridge
Tilak Bridge, near Pragati Maiden – one of Delhi’s many modernist masterpieces.
AAP campaigns
AAP 2015 election campaign materials from south Delhi; banners, posters, auto-rickshaw quiz. Really only of interest to people studying…
Subalternity and crisis
New from Sharad Chari: Not this freedom, insists Lindela Figlan, security guard and office-holder of Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM), the shack-dweller’s…
Israil Camp demolitions
400 houses recently demolished at Israil Camp in Vasant Kunj leaving around 2000 people homeless. Detailed and disturbing article below. …
Right to the City India
Right to the City Campaign Promoting just and inclusive cities Invitation for Launch Event of Right To The City Campaign…
Water supply innovations from Delhi
Nearly a quarter of India’s capital city still depend on the city’s water tankers – being unserved by the cities…
Water and Sanitation Roundtable
“The broad and ongoing critique of India’s urban infrastructure tends to focus on problems of governance, regulation and finance. These…
है या है नही? (Haider 2014)
Vishal Bhardwaj’s Haider, released last week, is the third in his series of Shakespeare adaptations. Building on his earlier films,…
Hawk vs Mongoose
Mongoose, ferret, ‘land squirrel’ – probably not. I don’t know what they are but they look like a squirrel that…
असली हिसाब
कबीर तम्बुओं में लगे एक स्कूल के पास से ग़ुजर रहा था| एक ख़स्ता हाल तम्बु के नीचे बैठे बच्चें…
Delhi, the fields beneath… Narayani Gupta
How exactly does ‘urbanisation’ happen? What happens to what was there before? If planning is haphazard and infrastructure lags how…
Some thoughts about ants…
Strengths: numbers, stealthy, inquisitive, biting. Weaknesses: limited intelligence, small, slow moving, sugar. .
Foucault, Governmentality and Critique
It’s only been out a couple of years, but the copy of Thomas Lemke’s 2012 book in the JNU library…
JNU! (Jawaharlal Nehru University)
Some pics of the murals at JNU… You can see more images and learn about the university’s mural tradition here.
E-Sub Registrar Office, Mehrauli
I’d seen Mehrauli on the map so many times I…
Gyms in parks! (लोधी बाग़)
Sure you can go jogging in a park – but what if you want to broaden your exercise routine? Well,…
ताज महल और सिखरी घूम रहे थे
Information and informality
The concept of an information society[1] has broad appeal for policy-makers as a powerful way of imagining the future direction…
लू Haze
The Loo (Hindi: लू, Urdu: لو, Punjabi: ਲੂ) is a strong, hot and dry summer afternoonwind from the west which blows over the western Indo-Gangetic Plain region…
India’s Urban Direction…
Venkaiah Naidu announced on taking office that there would be a new approach to urban policy learning from and replacing…
Individualism
This is Foucault in Society Must Be Defended: “The discourse of race struggle—which, when it first appeared and began to…
Bidesia in Bambai
Bidesia is Bhojpuri for ‘the one who leaves home’. Bambai is their name for Bombay, where 1/4 immigrants are from the northern states. Bidesia…
Three pictures
Two poems by Uday Prakash
वसंत रेल गाड़ी आती है और बिना रुके चली जाती है जंगल में पलाश का एक गार्ड लाल झाड़िया दिखाता…
Water in India’s 2014 elections?
Something I wrote for Guardian’s Comment is Free. Ok, so water’s maybe not _the_ key issue – but I thought…
Partnerships and accountability in development aid
How do funders know their money is being well spent? Or spent at all? Monitoring Movements in Development Aid,…
JNNURM Conditionalities
Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission is India’s consolidated urban policy programme in a ‘Mission mode’. It aims to boost infrastructure (and…
Rise of the Regulatory State of the South
Navroz Dubash and Bronwen Morgan have a great new edited collection “Rise of the Regulatory State of the South: Infrastructure…
Infra reading – work in progress…
There are a bundle of exciting new books on infrastructure that I’m looking forward to reading, starting with Navroz Dubash…
Dear Mandela: Film and discussion with S’bu Zikode
Screening of the award-winning film Dear Mandela (short version) followed by a discussion led by S’bu Zikode, founder of the…
Notes from the Struggle in the Narmada Valley
Some writing and images from the ongoing mass movement for social and environmental justice by people whose lives, lands and…
Just what is JNNURM?!
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (“JnNURM” / “the Mission”) is described as the UPA Government’s ‘flagship urban policy’…
Hacking policy in Bangalore
IIM Bangalore hosts a public policy redesign competition that gives teams 24 hours to mash-up datasets and existing frameworks for…
the State binds itself to space through a complex and changing relation
Lefebvre’s De L’Etat suggests that “the State binds itself to space through a complex and changing relation that has passed through…
Corruption, Anti-Corruption and Governance
To celebrate Transparency International’s latest report I made a book review of this recently published ambitious cross-country study of corruption…
Fluid Uncertainty
Lots of brilliant ideas at the LSE Cities Fluid Uncertainty workshop last month. These brief notes are mainly designed to…
Great Indian Mobile Phone Book
Great dual author study combining history and ethnography to take a broad view of the influence of mobile phones across…
The battle for Golibar: urban splintering in Mumbai
Wrote this quickly for OpenDemocracy to try and raise profile of struggle. * Best thing about this version is full…
Visible Cities
I’m reading Latour and Hermant’s Paris: Invisible City (2006) & De Boeck and Plissart’s Kinshasa: Tales of the Invisible City (2004) in parallel…
