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 of the Rain Gambling bill was circulated by a J. […]
Uday Prakash – Broken women, Nehru-ji and Astaachal
New translation of Uday Prakash’s story खंडित स्त्रियों, नेहरूजी और अस्ताचल. Udayji writes about this story as his first, ‘written in memory of 27 May 1964’. It will take too […]
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 from which crosses over the canal by ancient aqueducts), is […]
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) was described by Dawn as ‘one of the great pillars of […]
केदारनाथ सिंह – बाज़ार
बाज़ार – केदारनाथ सिंह ‘आओ बाज़ार चलें’ उसने कहा ‘बाज़ार में क्या है’? मैंने पूछा ‘बाज़ार में धूल है’ उसने हंसते हुए कहा| एक अजीब-शी मिट्टी की चमक उसके हँसने में […]
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 comparison, we think we are perceiving a state of affairs of […]
Word Clouds
“The conception of thought as a gaseous medium.” (Wittgenstein, Philosophical Investigations, 47e) If, like me, you are thinking about titles, I would recommend this, before word clouds. […]
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 bit less sustainable. Between 2004 and 2009 Punjab went from […]
Old maps!
A Topographical Survey of a Portion of Dihlee District Showing the Principle Basins of Drainage and the Positions of the Old Bunds, also the Situations of the Ancient Cities and […]
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 Development. They made me smile 🙂 Civil_Society Human Rights […]
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 का | सरकार को एक टमटम चाहिए वह हवा खाने […]
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 fight for access. Short piece from me for GIZ’s Digital Development […]
महाजनो येन गतः – उदय प्रकाश
महाजनो येन गतः – उदय प्रकाश The way of great ones* – Uday Prakash इसी पथ से गये हैं महाजन On this path the great one [/moneylender] went यही पथ […]
Water: New Short Fiction From Africa
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie story Water: New Short Fiction From Africa, edited by Nick Mulgrew and Karina Szczurek, Short Story Day Africa / New Internationalist / cassavarepublic, fiction, £8.99, 2015 Fan […]
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 Coelho, Sachin Warghade, Shubhagato Dasgupta, yours truly, and many more… […]
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: Space, Planning and Everyday Contestations in Delhi, new book from […]
तू नही आया – Amrita Pritam
Sad one 😦 (english below as usual) चैत ने करवट ली, रंगों के मेले के लिए फूलों ने रेशम बटोरा – तू नही आया दोपहरें लम्बी हो गयीं, दाखों को […]
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 1st April with a bunch of other (more talented) people […]
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 more about some of the things going on… http://www.dut.ac.za/sacsc/ http://www.dut.ac.za/faculty/engineering/urban_futures/ […]
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) Matt Birkinshaw, Geography & Environment London School of Economics and […]
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 जाता हूँ तुम मुझमें घुल जाअो । तुम ढाई साल […]
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 until December 16th. Shortly after their release, The Pioneer noted […]
Water Regimes Workshop
Excited to be taking part in this upcoming workshop… WATER REGIMES QUESTIONED FROM THE “GLOBAL SOUTH”: AGENTS, PRACTICES AND KNOWLEDGE Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi, India, 14-16 January 2016 Programme […]
Urbanisation-construction-migration
Early output from a research project I’ve been involved with. 5 country study of the links between urbanisation, construction and migration in South Asia (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan). Briefing […]
Infrastructure as divination tool
Today’s infra / water reading… Infrastructure as a divination tool: Whispers from the grids in a Nigerian city – U & E Trovalla 2015 The Politics and Poetics of Infrastructure […]
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 is the world’s largest user of groundwater, and North Indian […]
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 essential booster for the global economy – as well as […]
कुफ्र – अमृता प्रीतम
कुफ्र आज हमने एक दुनिया बेची और एक दीन ख़रीद लिया हमने कुफ्र की बात की सपनों का एक थान बुना था एक गज़ कपड़ा फाड़ लिया और उम्र की […]
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 Infrastructural engagements and urban re-imaginations in the global South 1 […]
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 standing next to them talking but nevermind. Enjoy! BIRKINSHAW_RGS15_6es Here’s […]
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 Room 2. I’ll be talking about this: Underground water: techno-political […]
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 Chance on the histories and meanings of fire and politics […]
“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 times during the writing, which highlights the groundwater, governance and […]
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 toothless people Sweet and cheap, drunk and forgotten A meaningless […]
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 services and the blurring of public and personal power in […]
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 के पास से बहती थी | फिर उसने वह पहाड़ […]
PDFs
Too busy to write here recently – sorry about that! Here are some nice books you could read instead though… Ahmad, Marx on India Harvey, Limits to Capital
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 political campaigns and communications!
Subalternity and crisis – Sharad Chari
New from Sharad Chari: Not this freedom, insists Lindela Figlan, security guard and office-holder of Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM), the shack-dweller’s movement that has challenged many facets of suffering in South […]
Israil Camp demolitions
400 houses recently demolished at Israil Camp in Vasant Kunj leaving around 2000 people homeless. Detailed and disturbing article below. Israil Camp is in Vasant Kunj, where South Delhi meets […]
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 (RTTC) Date: 1st December, 2014 – Monday Venue: Deputy Chairman Hall, […]
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 piped supply. But, what, if anything, can we learn from […]
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 problems are real and profound. With some exceptions, these urban […]
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, Maqbool (2003) and Omkara (2006), Haider is the darkest of […]
Hawk vs Mongoose
Mongoose, ferret, ‘land squirrel’ – probably not. I don’t know what they are but they look like a squirrel that has been ironed (/pressed). They walk in a line with […]
असली हिसाब
कबीर तम्बुओं में लगे एक स्कूल के पास से ग़ुजर रहा था| एक ख़स्ता हाल तम्बु के नीचे बैठे बच्चें को एक मास्टर ने हिसाब पढ़ाते हुए सवाल किया- “अगर […]
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 can these issues be dealt with later? Can we compare […]
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 is already well-thumbed and annotated. In the chapter ‘Genealogy of […]
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 wanted to see what it was like… While roaming about […]
Gyms in parks! (लोधी बाग़)
Sure you can go jogging in a park – but what if you want to broaden your exercise routine? Well, Lodhi Gardens is not only beautiful (see pic) and 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 of development[2]. Information and communications technology (ICT) has been embraced […]
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 of North India and Pakistan. http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/dust-storm-leaves-14-dead-in-capital-west-delhi-reels-under-power-cuts/article1-1224820.aspx
India’s Urban Direction…
Venkaiah Naidu announced on taking office that there would be a new approach to urban policy learning from and replacing the UPA’s JNNURM. 100 smart cities, cheaper lending for home […]
Individualism
This is Foucault in Society Must Be Defended: “The discourse of race struggle—which, when it first appeared and began to function in the seventeenth century, was essentially an instrument used […]
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 in Bambai is a feature-length documentary film that attempts to make […]
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 रह जाता है Spring Train is coming […]
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 I’d have a shot at arguing it’s relevance… http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/mar/22/water-decide-indian-elections-aam-admi I’m […]
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, a new book from MIT sets out to answer the question, […]
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 basic services) in ‘bankable’, ‘investor-friendly’ cities. The JNNURM is also […]
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 and Development in Emerging Economies” recently published with Oxford University Press. […]
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 and Bronwen Morgan’s collection of case studies and thinking on […]
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 South African Shack Dwellers’ movement Abahlali baseMjondolo. Abahlali baseMjondolo is 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 livelihoods are damaged by the mega-projects in the Narmada Valley. […]
Just what is JNNURM?!
The Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (“JnNURM” / “the Mission”) is described as the UPA Government’s ‘flagship urban policy’ and ‘by far the single largest initiative of the central […]
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 cash prizes. I went to find out what was going […]
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 certain critical points” (Brenner and Eldon (eds) 2009). He gives […]
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 and governance. Corruption, Anti-Corruption and Governance. Dan Hough. Palgrave Macmillan. […]
Fluid Uncertainty
Lots of brilliant ideas at the LSE Cities Fluid Uncertainty workshop last month. These brief notes are mainly designed to point in the direction of further reading. They’ll most likely […]
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 areas of life in India… The cheap mobile phone is […]
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 bibliography! * Strongly recommend moonchasing.wordpress.com/ for excellent reporting and photography […]
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 at the moment. Both are urban ethnographies produced in collaboration […]
People, plants, performance…
Great paper responding to criticisms of ANT within geography. Beautifully explored through work on the relations between plants and their gardeners in north London. People, plants and performance: On actor […]
City Visions and Evictions in Mumbai
THE RIGHT TO THE “WORLD CLASS CITY”? CITY VISIONS AND EVICTIONS IN MUMBAI Matt Birkinshaw and Victoria Harris The Urban Reinventors Paper Series (© 2005-2009 The Urban Reinventors) www.urbanreinventors.net The process of […]
‘Be a visitor, not a spy’ – QQ Section, Site B, Khayelitsha
Account of time spent with South African Shack Dwellers’ Movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo in Cape Town in 2008. Update: In November 2008 my host was robbed in his home by a […]
