pipe politics, contested waters by lisa björkman

8202019 Pipe Politics Contested Waters by Lisa Bjoumlrkman

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullpipe-politics-contested-waters-by-lisa-bjoerkman 131

PIPE POLIT ICS CO NTESTED WATERS

Embedded Infrastructures of Millennial Mumbai Lisa Bjoumlrkman



PIPE POLITICS CONTESTED WATERS





PIPE POLITI CS CONTESTED WATERSEmbedded Inrastructures o Millennial Mumbai

983116983145983155983137 983106983146983286983154983147983149983137983150 Duke University Press Durham and London 2015



copy 2 0 1 5 D U K E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S

All rights reserved

Printed in the United States o America on acid-ree paper infin

Designed by Courtney Leigh Bakerypeset in Minion by Westchester Publishing Services

Library o Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bjoumlrkman Lisa [date]ndashauthor

Pipe politics contested waters embedded inrastructures o millennial Mumbai

Lisa Bjoumlrkman

pages cm

Includes bibliographical reerences and index

983145983155983138983150 978-0-8223-5950-0 (hardcover alk paper)

983145983155983138983150 978-0-8223-5969-2 (pbk alk paper)983145983155983138 983150 978-0-8223-7521-0 (e-book)

1 Water-supplymdashIndiamdashMumbai 2 WaterworksmdashIndiamdashMumbai 3 Inrastructure

(Economics)mdashIndiamdashMumbai 4 Mumbai (India)mdashPolitics and government 983145 itle

9831449831404465983145598313857 2015

363610954792mdashdc23

2015010921

Cover art Photo by Lisa Bjoumlrkman

Duke University Press grateully acknowledges the American Institute o Indian Studies

2014 Joseph W Elder Prize in the Indian Social Sciences which provided unds toward thepublication o this book



F O R C A R O L B R E C K E N R I D G E



Awarded the

J O S E P H W E L D E R P R I Z E

I N T H E I N D I A N S O C I A L S C I E N C E S

by the American Institute o Indian Studies

and published with theInstitutersquos generous support



983107983151983150983156983141983150983156983155

Acknowledgments ix

983113983150983156983154983151983140983157983139983156983145983151983150 Embedded Inrastructures 1

983151983150983141ldquo W E G O T S T U C K I N B E T W E E N rdquo

Unmapping the Distribution Network 21

983156 983159983151

ldquo T H E S L U M A N D B U I L D I N G I N D U S T R Y rdquo

Marketizing Urban Development 62

983156983144983154983141983141ldquo Y O U C A N rsquo T S T O P D E V E L O P M E N T rdquo

Hydraulic Shambles 82

983142983151983157983154

ldquo I T W A S L I K E T H A T F R O M T H E B E G I N N I N G rdquo

Becoming a Slum 98



983142983145983158983141

ldquo N O H Y D R A U L I C S A R E P O S S I B L E rdquo

Brokering Water Knowledge 128

983155983145983160ldquo G O O D D O E S N rsquo T M E A N Y O U rsquo R E H O N E S T rdquo

Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150

ldquo I F W A T E R C O M E S I T rsquo S B E C A U S E O F P O L I T I C S rdquo

Power Authority and Hydraulic Spectacle 198

983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227

983105983152983152983141983150983140983145983160 Department o Hydraulic Engineering 235

Notes 237 Reerences 267 Index 277



983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

Te idea or this book emerged in 2004 during a graduate seminar with Pro-

essor Carol Breckenridge an early mentor whose deep affection and curiosity

or the city o Mumbai was contagious Over the ollowing years the pro ject

came to lie under the guidance o my advisors and mentors at the New School

or Social Research especially that o Vyjayanthi Rao imothy Pachirat San-

jay Ruparelia Michael Cohen Arjun Appadurai and Victoria Hattam each o

whom in1047298uenced the pro ject in distinct and important ways

I owe tremendous thanks to the American Institute o Indian Studies (983137983145983145983155)

or their consistent support or my research over the years Fieldwork in Mum-

bai between 2008 and 2011 was made possible by an American Institute o

Indian Studies Junior Research Fellowship and Hindi training in Jaipur was

supported by language ellowships in 2004 and in 2007ndash8 I would like to thank

Elise Auerbach Philip Lutgendor Purnima Mehta the 983137983145983145983155 trustees as well

as the extraordinary aculty at the 983137983145983145983155 Hindi Language Program in Jaipur

Early support or this pro ject was provided by a New School India China In-

stitute Fellowship in 2006 and a New School or Social Research Dissertation

Fellowship in 2007ndash8 I am grateul to the ata Institute o Social Sciences in

Mumbai or providing affi liation during the period o my 1047297eldwork and to the

Institute o Advanced Studies in Lucca or providing a warm and welcoming

work environment in 2011 Much o the writing o this book took place while I

was a postdoctoral ellow at the Max Planck Institute or the Study o Religious

and Ethnic Diversity in Goumlttingen which offered an intellectually invigoratingand exceedingly pleasant atmosphere in which to read think and write



x Acknowledgments

At Duke University Press I owe particular thanks to Miriam Angress and

Susan Albury who have worked with me on this book since 2012 Te three

external reviewers that Miriam recruited to read the manuscript provided tre-

mendously valuable eedback I would like to extend my gratitude as well to

Brian A Hatcher and to two anonymous reviewers rom the American Insti-tute o Indian Studiesrsquo Elder Prize selection committee or their very insightul

comments and suggestions Tank you as well to Bill Nelson or his help with

the diagrams and to Dave Prout who prepared the index

Tis book bene1047297ted tremendously rom the insights o an extraordinary

community o interlocutors in Goumlttingen at the Max Planck Institute and at

the Center or Modern Indian Studies I am especially grateul to Nathaniel

Roberts and Uday Chandra each o whom read the manuscript in its entirety

and whose critical engagements have been an extremely enjoyable sourceo provocation and insightmdashthank you I would also like to thank Ritajyoti

Bandyopadhyay Anderson Blanton Devika Bordia Jayeel Cornelio Ajay

Gandhi Radhika Gupta Weishan Huang Annelies Kusters Sumeet Mhaskar

Srirupa Roy Roschanack Shaery Shaheed ayob Sahana Udupa Lalit Vachani

Peter van der Veer Rupa Vishwanath and Jeremy Walton or their encourage-

ment eedback and suggestions

Te book has bene1047297ted as well rom the generosity o riends and colleagues

over the years who have offered their thoughts on various ideas and chap-

ter drafs I am especially grateul to Jonathan Shapiro Anjaria Amita Bhide

Noelle Brigden Patton Burchett Michele Friedner Andrew Harris Giam-

mario Impullitti Devesh Kapur William Mazzarella Colin McFarlane Sav-

itri Medhatul Lisa Mitchell Philip Oldenburg Anastasia Piliavsky Anupama

Rao Mark Schneider Simpreet Singh Neelanjan Sircar Rahul Srivastava

Natascha van der Zwan and Leilah Vevinah Many o the ideas and ormu-

lations presented here were tested out during the marvelous series o Water

Workshops between 2006 and 2014 at Harvard Universityrsquos Center or Middle

Eastern Studies graciously hosted by Steve Caton Among the many partic-

ipants and interlocutors who offered provocative and insightul eedback I

wish to extend particular thanks to Jessica Barnes Namita Dharia Gareth

Doherty essa Farmer oby Jones Martha Kaplan Mandana Limbert Benja-

min Orlove Catarina Scaramelli Anand Vaidya and above all to Steve Caton

Te research or this book was made both possible and pleasurable by the

tremendous generosity and open-mindedness o a great many people in Mum-

bai For their advice guidance and assistance during my 1047297eldwork in Mumbai

I wish to extend thanks to Amita Bhide Anita Patil-Deshmukh Medha DixitLeena Joshi and Deepak Dhopat My deep and heartelt appreciation goes to



Acknowledgments xi

the Municipal Corporation o Greater Mumbairsquos Department o Hydraulic

Engineering (particularly those o the M-East Ward) whose engineers and

staff not only made this book possible but whose extraordinary graciousness

patience and unshakable good humor made the research immensely enjoyable

as well I am especially grateul to S R Argade S R Bidi R B Bambale D PJoshi A N Kadam N H Kusnur V R Pednekar S M Shah and V Shah

who provided invaluable eedback and critical comments on various chapters

and ideas presented here Countless interlocutors and research participants in

Mumbai will remain anonymous the thanks I express here can only hint at the

debts I incurred and at the depth o my gratitude



In 1991 in conjunction with Indiarsquos liberalizing economic reorms that year

the chie minister o Maharashtra announced a plan to transorm the city o

Bombay into a global 1047297nancial ser vice center modeled on Singaporemdashand

to let the market do much o the work Animated by an international policy

discourse recommending market solutions to all manner o political social

and material con1047298ict a coalition o Bombayrsquos planners politicians landown-

ers and business elites put markets to work in arbitrating long-standing politi-

cal con1047298icts over access to urban land and resourcesmdashcon1047298icts on which a

generation o urban development planning had altered Institutionalizing a

new set o regulatory instruments and market mechanisms liberalization-era

policymakers enlisted private-sector participation in the cityrsquos transormation

Te years since have seen Mumbai gripped by a ever o construction demoli-

tion and redevelopment working-class neighborhoods and older built orms

are making way or shiny new malls offi ce towers mega-inrastructure proj-

ects and luxurious residential compounds while sprawling townships o low-

income housing sprout up along the urban periphery

Yet the dazzling decades o urban development and roaring economic

growth have not been without cost Mumbairsquos transormation has presided

over the steady deteriorationmdashand sometimes spectacular breakdownmdasho thecityrsquos water inrastructures983089 Water troubles plague not only the more than

983113983150983156983154983151983140983157983139983156983145983151983150Embedded Inrastructures



2 Introduction

60 percent o city residents now reported to live in slums (where basic in-

rastructural ser vices like municipal water supply are ofen both legally tenu-

ous and practically unreliable)983090 but city elites too have seen their taps grow

increasingly erratic and prone to drying up Well-heeled Mumbai residents

increasingly supplement spotty taps with piecemeal purchases and deliverieswhile private-sector actors resort to inrastructural sel-provisioning hiring

transport companies digging wells and investing in enormous on-site water

recycling plants and 1047297ltration systems Every day hundreds o water tanker

trucks drip their way along Mumbairsquos traffi c-clogged streets delivering water

to slums and up-market hotels alike For their part the cityrsquos major political

partiesmdashin high-pro1047297le displays o antimigrant one-upmanshipmdashhave taken

to blaming erratic pipes on the cityrsquos poorest residents themselves (accusing

them o overburdening the cityrsquos inrastructures with their very presence) aswell as on one another (or supposedly allowing the poor to plunder the pipes

in a clientelistic exchange or votes) Te tanker trucks parched pipes and po-

litical theatrics uel the imaginations o Mumbairsquos legions o news reporters

who respond with a steady stream o ofen anciul stories about ldquowater ma1047297asrdquo

ldquothieving plumbersrdquo ldquopatron-politiciansrdquo and ldquocorrupt engineersrdquo

Mumbairsquos dry taps are puzzling Te city is Indiarsquos 1047297nancial and commercial

capital accounting or some six percent o 983143983140983152 40 percent o oreign trade

and over a third o the countryrsquos income tax revenue983091 With a per capita income

almost three times the national average Mumbai boasts real estate values that

can rival those o Manhattan Te city in other words suffers no dearth o 1047297-

nancial resources with which it might redress inrastructural shortalls indeed

municipal records suggest that a signi1047297cant proportion o the cityrsquos water and

sewage budget regularly goes unspent As or water city engineers explain that

there is no aggregate water shortage in Mumbai where per capita availability

(as well as estimated levels o leakage) is on par with that o London (i not

quite that o New York)983092 With no shortage o resources how might Mumbairsquos

1047297tul taps be made sense o

Tis book is about the encounter in Mumbai between liberalizing market

reorms and the materially and symbolically dense politics o urban inrastruc-

ture While above-ground landscapes have been rapidly recon1047297gured by ldquoworld

classrdquo city-building efforts983093 market reorms to acilitate the transormation

have wreaked havoc on the cityrsquos water pipes Te just-in-time arbitrage tem-

porality o market exchange has resulted in geographies o built spacemdashand

thereby o water demandmdashthat deviate wildly rom what is projected (and per-

mitted) by the cityrsquos development plan and control rules Te city o Mumbai isthus characterized by a growing incongruence between its above-ground orm



Embedded Inrastructures 3

and its below-ground 1047298ows with the result that its water pipes have become

increasingly volatile As engineers explain there is no aggregate water shortage

in the city o Mumbai the challenge rather is how to make water 1047298ow to the

unpredictable (and constantly changing) location o demand Te result has

been an improvised constantly 1047298uctuating ofen unreliable and little under-stood con1047297guration o water 1047298ow in the city In contemporary Mumbai water is

made to 1047298ow by means o intimate orms o knowledge and ongoing interven-

tion in the cityrsquos complex and dynamic social political and hydraulic land-

scape Te everyday work o getting water animates and inhabits a penum-

bra o inrastructural activitymdasho business brokerage secondary markets and

sociopolitical networksmdashwhose workings are transorming lives and recon1047297g-

uring and rescaling political authority in the city Indeed Mumbairsquos illegible and

volatile hydrologies are lending inrastructures increasing political salience justas actual control over pipes and 1047298ows becomes contingent upon dispersed and

intimate assemblages o knowledge power and material authority ldquoPipe poli-

ticsrdquo reers to the new arenas o contestation that Mumbairsquos water inrastruc-

tures animatemdashcontestations that reveal the illusory and precarious nature o

the pro ject to remake Mumbai as a world-class city and gesture instead toward

the highly contested utures o the actually existing city o Mumbai

World-Class City

Te pro ject to transorm Mumbai into a global 1047297nancial ser vice center mod-

eled on Singapore must be considered in light o broader macroeconomic

ideological and intellectual trends o recent decades ldquoTe period o urban

revolutions has begunrdquo wrote Henri Leebvre (2003 43) a hal-century ago

turning Marxist orthodoxy about the reorganization o industrial production

in cities on its head983094 insisting instead that the production o urban space was

itself becoming the primary means by which capitalist accumulation was ad-

vancing Leebvrersquos insight was itsel revolutionary inspiring a generation o

thinking on the relationship between global processes o urbanization and the

universal movement o capital Neo-Leebvrian urban geographers have thus

theorized how structural inequalities and macro-level capitalist power geom-

etries have underpinned the historical production o highly uneven patterns o

ldquoplanetary urbanizationrdquo (Brenner 2013 Merri1047297eld 2013) as well as inequitable

distributions o resources (Harvey 2001 Swyngedouw 2004)983095

While neo-Leebvrian thinkers have drawn attention to planetary patterns

o urbanism as global capitalrsquos ldquospatial 1047297xrdquo (Harvey 2001) political economistso ldquoglobal citiesrdquo have emphasized the renewed importance o cities to new orms



4 Introduction

o global economy with cities said to play a crucial role as ldquocommand postsrdquo

(Sassen 1991) in spatially dispersed but economically integrated international

economic systems983096 While large-scale industrial production is moving out o

urban centers global cities theorists argue producer servicesmdashbanking 1047297nance

education high-tech entertainment real estatemdashare moving in Tese kindso extremely pro1047297table ser vice industries cluster in urban areas where they

bene1047297t rom among other things the extremely dense material networks o

inrastructural connectivity (electricity 1047297ber optics airports water pipes) that

cities have to offer Te idea that national economic ortunes lie in the extent to

which a countryrsquos economy is linkedmdashthrough its citiesmdashto global networks o

1047297nance and commerce has inspired planners policymakers business interests

and unding agencies the world over to ormulate strategies or making cities

attractive to transnational service-sector 1047297rms and competitive in the globalmarketplace or investment Recent decades have thus witnessed the alignment

o state- and private-sector actors in a bid to build ldquoentrepreneurialrdquo internation-

ally competitive global cities either (as in Dubai or Pudong) by creating cities

rom scratch or (as in Mumbai) by transorming existing urban landscapes in

such a way that global 1047297rms might be inclined to set up shop there983097

Te globally mobile development discourse and policymaking ramework

exhorting countries to recon1047297gure cities to attract international investment

capitalmdashand to use market mechanisms in doing somdashhas met with both schol-

arly and popular critiques pointing to the negative distributional effects and

democratic de1047297cit seen to inhere in the global city pro ject983089983088 Te imperative

to attract global investment capital it is argued renders urban inrastructures

and built spaces more responsive to the imperatives o global 1047297nance and

business than to the needs o resident citizenry In this way macroeconomic

shifs become inscribed in the abric o the city itsel leading to sociospatial

segregation and deepening inequality Liberalization and globalization is thus

charged with undermining the material and ideological basis o a ldquomodern

inrastructural idealrdquo (Graham and Marvin 2001 35) by unbundling the rela-

tionship between citizens and cities While global city inrastructures might

provide connectivity among spaces that are relevant to the new economy (the

983145983156 parks gated communities airports and call centers) it is argued that they

do so to the exclusion o people and places that liberalization and globaliza-

tion has rendered economically obsolete the deunct actories the working

classes and their housing and the hazy world o urban inormality and illegal-

ity commonly known as the ldquoslumrdquo

Tese kinds o metanarratives about what liberal capitalism does to urbanspace seems to 1047297t well with much o what we see in Mumbai It is precisely




through these kinds o large-scale efforts to recon1047297gure urban environments

with massive investments in urban inrastructure Harvey (2001) tells us that

surplus capital 1047297nds its ldquospatial 1047297xrdquo983089983089 Te inrastructurally mediated devalua-

tion o economically unproductive urban spaces like slums is precisely what

allows or their pro1047297table demolition and redevelopment Dry taps in poorneighborhoods can apparently be explained by the logic o capital whose work-

ings will likely soon see such neighborhoods razed and recon1047297gured or some

higher- value use this is all part o capitalrsquos creative-destructive tendency983089983090 In-

deed Sassen (2010 85) notes that economic deregulation to attract investment

is o a piece with inormalization in the lower echelons o the economy and

societymdashpart o the same global movement o capital983089983091 Capitalism is in1047297nitely

adaptive Marxists might say relations o production have simply been recon-

1047297gured and reworked in Mumbai in this particular way All these inormalinrastructural arrangementsmdashthese ldquoma1047297asrdquo o tankers and plumbersmdashare

all just doing their part to advance the universalizing impetus o capital983089983092

Marxist political economy accounts have been critiqued by scholars partic-

ularly postcolonial theorists who note that inrastructures cannot be described

as splintering in cities like Mumbai since such cities never approximated any

modern networked ideal in the 1047297rst place Contemporary inrastructural and

spatial disjunctures are better explained it is suggested by looking at how pat-

terns o rule and relations o governance with roots in a colonial past continue

to inorm contemporary patterns o citizenship Teorists have described how

colonial administrative divisions o populations into ldquocitizensrdquo and ldquosubjectsrdquo

have contemporary maniestations in the ways that postcolonial societies

have been governed since independence (Chatterjee 2004 Mamdani 1996)

In contemporary Calcutta or instance Chatterjee details how ldquopopulation

groupsrdquo constituting the urban poor are not treated on par with ldquoproperrdquo citi-

zens whose claims to inrastructure and urban amenities are made in a lan-

guage o democratic citizenship right Chatterjee (2004 2013) suggests that

because the lives and livelihoods o the urban poor hinge on ldquoillegalrdquo occupa-

tions o land and ldquoinormalrdquo commercial and productive activities the preser-

vation o a ormal legal structure has precluded the extension o ormal rights

to things like shelter and water to the slum-dwelling poor whomdashunable to

make legal rights-based claimsmdashresort to negotiation or substantive goods

and entitlements rom the state

While Chatterjee explicitly positions his ormulation as a response to Bene-

dict Andersonrsquos (2006) theorization o a universal ideal o civic nationalism

(Andersonrsquos ldquoimagined communityrdquo) his argument joins those o Scott (1998)Ferguson (1990) Escobar (1995) and Simone (2004) in offering a critique o



6 Introduction

the Eurocentric and universalizing assumptions o generations o urban plan-

ners and development proessionals more generally Te imperialist designs

o ldquohigh-modernistrdquo social order Scott suggests have repeatedly ailed to ldquoim-

prove the human conditionrdquo because they have neglected to take into account

the various and multiple (non-Cartesian) epistemic orms already operatingwithin the social spaces that development experts and urban planners aim to

ldquoimproverdquo through rational knowledge Te inrastructural ideal o a ully net-

worked city is thus cast as a value-laden ormulation whose claims to moral

and empirical superiority rest on a Eurocentric conception o the ldquogoodrdquo that

is centered around the rights-bearing individual and his or her relation to a

sovereign statemdasha conception that more ofen than not unctions as a plat-

orm or the consolidation o state power and imperial domination

Understandings o ldquoinrastructurerdquo that consider only large-scale state-directed technical and engineering eatsmdashpipes concrete wires and

bulldozersmdashare thus criticized as both limited and misleading Inrastruc-

ture might rather be understood to comprise the multitude o practices and

elements that acilitate access to what Simone calls ldquospaces o economic and

cultural operationrdquo and that unction as ldquoa platorm providing or and repro-

ducing lie in the cityrdquo (2004 407ndash8) Formal state-led efforts to extend or

upgrade urban ser vice provision in other words undermine already existing

informal arrangements and disrupt socially and culturally embedded rame-

works o access and belonging Tis line o antiplan theorizing emphasizes

how the grand designs o capital are interrupted particularly in the postcolo-

nial context by cultural solidarities and lie orms that thrive in the inormal

interstices o markets and states subverting these structures rom within

Universalizing metanarratives are alleged to hit a roadblock in the postcolo-

nial city where communitarian identities and solidarities subvert the grand

designs o capital Tus rather than interpreting the inormal urban econo-

mies spaces and practices as signs o modernityrsquos ailure to ul1047297ll its promises

antiplan theorists celebrate urban inormality reading the disorderly city not

as dystopic but as a possible alternative to the totalizing politics o planned

state-led modernity Urban inormality it is suggested might be understood

to comprise orms o sociality and economy born o traditional modes o lie

and livelihood with roots in non-Western cultural and social orms As the

architect Rem Koolhaas wrote as he soared above Lagosrsquos slums in a helicop-

ter ldquoFrom the air the apparently burning garbage heap turned out to be in

act a villagerdquo (quoted in Gandy 2005 40) Alternative orms o habitation

conviviality and inrastructural connection in other words should not beread as spaces o oppression or exclusion but as urban instantiations o modes




o lie rooted in indigenous cultural practicemdashwhat Koolhaas characterizes as

ldquoingenious alternative systemsrdquo o ldquovery elaborate organizational networksrdquo

(quoted in Gandy 2005 40)mdashnative to the Global South it may simply be the

case in other words that the apparent disorder o Lagos or Mumbai is simply

what urban modernity looks like in the non-Western worldTis attention to the historical political and sociocultural dimensions o

urban orm and ragmentation is a welcome intervention Yet reading inra-

structural inormality as a space o resistance to the totalizing dynamics o

global market orces does not explain the hydraulic puzzles posed by Mum-

bai where the ldquoormalrdquo status o onersquos home does not go ar in predicting

what comes (or does not come) out o onersquos pipes and where water does not

1047298ow readily along class lines For instance in the middle-class housing soci-

ety where I lived during my research between 2008 and 2010 we receivedonly orty liters o municipal water per person per daymdashroughly a third o the

municipal supply norm or residential consumption and a quantity that is on

par with some o the poorest legally precarious and politically and socially

marginalized localities in which I did research Our societyrsquos supplementary

by-the-tanker water purchases Marxists might counter is perectly explicable

within a capitalist logic with purchasing power rather than citizenship right

determining access water has simply been recon1047297gured as an economic good

one that our society was ortunately able to afford 983089983093 Tose unable to pay or

water at the market rate (ie the urban poor) by contrast are orced into in-

ormal inrastructural arrangements By this reading what antiplan celebrates

as opposition to the totalizing orces o the bourgeois-capitalist state becomes

indistinguishable rom dispossession inormalization and criminalization o

the poor what antiplan describes as authentic orms o sociality uncolonized

by capital is in act entirely compatible with the exigencies o capital accu-

mulation and dovetails with pro-market celebrations o entrepreneurial liberal

subjectivity One might even say that what antiplan does is simply redescribe

everyday efforts to live with the effects o capital in rather more celebratory

terms In championing makeshif or inormal inrastructural arrangements

as agentive resistance to the bourgeois state antiplan theory not only lacks

explanatory power but (as we see in chapter 4) takes as a point o analytical

departure the conceptual categories o the very liberal market logic it proesses

to critique

Indeed it may very well be true that capital is perectly happy in Mumbai

that the power o capital is not at all at odds with orms o power and author-

ity operative in and through urban inormalitymdashinrastructural or otherwiseCapital might be said to work much like water itsel channeling and pooling



8 Introduction

making and remaking the landscapes through which it 1047298ows recon1047297guring

the contours o sociomaterial worlds that it inhabits Yet what Marxist eco-

nomic geography does not tell us is why water pipes have become so erratic

in capitalist Mumbai but not in say Shanghai Seoul or Jakarta Mumbairsquos hy-

drologies cannot be deduced nor their uture predicted by a theory o the uni- versalization o capital appeals to capitalrsquos in1047297nitely adaptive workings (which

are by de1047297nition always true) are thereore or our purposes not particularly

illuminating o make sense o the relationship between economic markets

and Mumbairsquos water inrastructures we must push past these conventional cat-

egories o analysismdashclass and community rights and rulesmdashto pay attention

to water inrastructures themselves to the sociopolitical and material land-

scapes through which water 1047298ows are produced and within which inrastruc-

tures are embedded983089983094

Embedded Infrastructures

More than a hal-century ago the economic historian Karl Polanyi (2001 [1944] 3)

described ldquothe idea o a sel-adjusting marketrdquo as ldquoa stark utopiardquo Challenging a

cornerstone o neoclassical economic theorymdashAdam Smithrsquos (2001 [1776] 16)

notion that mankindrsquos natural ldquopropensity to truck barter and exchange one

thing or anotherrdquo results in internally animated sel-regulating markets983089983095mdash

Polanyi used the example o England to show how markets are in act the

highly arti1047297cial creations o an interventionist state Far rom natural Polanyi

(2001 [1944] 3) argued markets are produced through radical institutional

and legal changes that i lef unchecked pose a dire threat to the ldquohuman and

natural substance o societyrdquo His theoretical intervention was twoold it belied

dominant economic thinking 1047297rst by demonstrating that actually existing

markets are ldquoembeddedrdquo (2001 [1944] 130) in society and second in showing

how economic theory itself can affect societally embedded markets in ways

that have dramatic sociopolitical implications Polanyirsquos book demonstrated

the tremendous social disruption that resulted rom this state-directed pro ject

o creating land and labor markets in nineteenth-century England In what he

calls a ldquodouble movementrdquo he shows how these social dislocations animated

a political ldquocountermovementrdquo that curtailed the expansion and operation o

Englandrsquos newly created markets While he shows the operation o a market

economy to be a result o deliberate state action this political response to the

pro ject o disembedding markets rom society and the subsequent restrictions

on the implementation o laissez-aire economic theory is characterized as




spontaneous Te utopian pro ject to mold actual economies in the image o

ree-market theory Polanyi (2001 [1944] 136) argued ldquoattacked the abric o

societyrdquo and thus gave rise to 1047297erce resistance to this impossible pro ject

With a global resurgence o neoclassical economic thought since the 1970s

animating a wave o popular and scholarly interest in the ree marketmdashbothas an ideology and a political pro jectmdashPolanyirsquos lessons are as timely as ever

Scholars have adopted the term neoliberalism to reer (on the one hand) to the

idea that when lef to their own devices markets are effi cient sel-correcting

and air in the way they allocate resources as well as (on the other hand) to the

multiplicity o policies and programs that invoke the effi cient-market idea as

a legitimating rationale O course a theory about how the market mechanism

works is not the same thing as concrete policies that cite these ideas as their

justi1047297cation and motivation983089983096

Te necessary divide between effi cient-marketideas and the various policies and practices animated by these ideas means

as well that there is no necessary correspondence between the two as ar as

ends are concerned Ethnographers have thus shown how effi cient-market logics

have been put to work by politicians and policymakers in trying to address all

manner o social and political problems rom environmental pollution to po-

litical deadlock (eg Collier 2011) In his discussion o inrastructure in post-

Soviet Russia or instance Collier (2011 25ndash26) shows how the market logic

o individual ldquocalculative choicerdquo was deployed by Russian planners ldquoin a way

that could be accommodated to the substantive orientations o universal need

ul1047297llmentrdquo ldquoWe should not move too quicklyrdquo Collier cautions ldquorom the

identi1047297cation o neoliberalism with a microeconomic critique and program-

ming to any assumption about the ormations o government that neoliberal

reorm shapesrdquo983089983097 Indeed the globally ascendant orm o political rationality

that emerged at the end o the twentieth century was less a call to liberate mar-

ket relations ldquorom their social shacklesrdquo (Rose 1999 141) than a call to re-

structure techniques o governance such that social goals are pursued via mar-

ket mechanismsmdashthrough the aggregation o calculated interest-maximizing

choices o individuals and 1047297rms

In liberalization-era Mumbai the effi cient-market idea ound a receptive

audience among an odd-bedellows coalition o urban development planners

international experts populist politicians landowners and real estate develop-

ers who saw in ldquothe marketrdquo a seemingly magical solution to a long-standing

and intractable urban problem how to reconcile sky-high urban land values

with the need to acquire land or social purposes like inrastructure ameni-

ties or public housing While this puzzle had stumped a generation o urban



10 Introduction

planners in the 1990s the problem took on particular salience animating

a broad political coalition o actors united by the imperative to transorm

Mumbai into a ldquoworld-class cityrdquo As a matter o national importance Mumbairsquos

transormation became a cause ceacutelegravebre that would see policy experts private-

sector interests and popular politics join hands to put market logic to work inpursuit o Mumbairsquos makeover A new set o regulatory instruments institution-

alized in conjunction with the country-level liberalizing reorms o 1991 and ex-

panded in a series o amendments over the ollowing two decades (the subject

o chapter 2) attempted to resolve Mumbairsquos perennial land puzzle by creating

a market in urban development rights Te new rules created incentives or

private-sector actors (landowners and developers) to hand over land and build

amenities or social purposes by offering compensation not monetarily but in

kind mdashwith market-responsive rights to develop above and beyond heights anddensities allowed by the cityrsquos development plan While markets or develop-

ment rights o course exist in other cities (eg New York) the way and extent to

which liberalization-era Mumbai has operationalized this market mechanism

may well be globally unprecedented983090983088 in what one centrally involved planner

rueully recalled as ldquoour special innovationrdquo983090983089 Mumbairsquos liberalization-era plan-

ning regime effectively severed the right to build rom land itsel

In order to make sense o how liberalization-era Mumbairsquos marketization

o urban development rights has affected the cityrsquos water inrastructures

we must brie1047298y return to the Polanyian question o what markets do and how

they are made Markets work as a ldquocoordination devicerdquo (Guesnerie 1996

quoted in Callon 1998 3) resolving con1047298icts over terms o exchange o create

a market in something that something must 1047297rst be reconceptualized as an

abstract thingmdasha commoditymdashso that a price or such things can be agreed

upon983090983090 o describe something as a commodity is thus not to identiy any par-

ticular quality o that thing that distinguishes it rom other noncommodity

things but rather to identiy a particular situation o exchangeability983090983091 Creat-

ing this kind o exchange requires measuring some objectrsquos value vis-agrave- vis the

value o other objects

Calculating somethingrsquos exchange value is complicated by the act that ob-

jects o exchange are not really abstract objects but are invariably ldquocaught up in

a network o relations in a 1047298ow o intermediaries which circulate connect

link and reconstitute identitiesrdquo (Callon 1998 17) Te process o reckoning

involved in the creation o a commodity situation thereore involves a pro-

cess o systematically sorting through these dense networks o relations within

which any particular actually existing thing exists While some propertiesattachments and associations will be included within the ambit o calcula-




tion o some objectrsquos exchange value others will not make the cut Te process

o adjudicating which properties and relations will be taken into account in

valuation and which will not is accomplished by means o rules laws and

accounting proceduresmdashacts o measurement that de1047297ne the boundaries o

the commodity situation o any particular thing Te process o conceptualcutting off and inclusionmdasho extricating objects rom the dense networks o

sociocultural political and material relations in which they are in actuality

embeddedmdashallows or the possibility o calculation It is this process o ldquoram-

ingrdquo (18) that sits at the heart o marketized exchange

Te marketization o development rights in world-class-era Mumbai com-

moditized urban development rights by conceptually unbundling rights to build

rom the materialities o the city development rights as one planner put it

were ldquobrought out o thin air not related to land in any 1047297xed proportionrdquo(Phatak 2007 47) Te market-driven rapidly changing orm o Mumbairsquos

built space has thus been unbundled rom the planning trajectories and regu-

lations governing the cityrsquos land-bound water inrastructures

Notwithstanding the conceptual cutting off o marketized things (ie devel-

opment rights) rom the material social and political worlds in which they are

in actuality embedded (ie land and land-based inrastructures) the relational

ties that are ormally excluded rom market raming do not o course simply

disappear Te problem is well understood by mainstream economics where the

aferlives o these relational ties are reerred to as ldquoexternalitiesrdquo A common ex-

ample o market externality is industrial pollution when toxic waste discharged

by a manuacturing plant into a local river affects the health o local residents

these health costsmdashwhich were not taken into account when setting the price

o the industrial goodmdashwould be considered market externalities Similarly

in cities the marketization o built space can have all sorts o inrastructural

externalities that are well understood by urban planners the world over the con-

struction o a tall residential tower on a narrow road in a prime neighborhood

or instance might lead to many hours wasted by third-party actors in traffi c

snarlsmdashcosts that were not actored into the market price o a new 1047298at in the

big building983090983092 Te marketization o development rights means that logics ani-

mating the production o Mumbairsquos built space have been severed rom those

governing its water inrastructures Te market in development rights in other

words is remaking the ace o Mumbai without consulting the pipes

Lie in the city is o course not possible without water notwithstanding the

institutional unbundling o the cityrsquos built space (where people live and work)

rom its water pipes the political and bodily exigencies o lie in the city meanthat Mumbairsquos businesses residents and industries do get watermdashin some way



12 Introduction

or anothermdashevery single day In this context the interesting question becomes

that o access How does the growing and globalizing city o Mumbai meet

its daily water needs What is at stake and who are the stakeholders in vari-

ous con1047297gurations o 1047298ow and access What kinds o politics power relations

modes o governance and practices o citizenship are produced animated orconstrained by these con1047297gurations In this book I show that what 1047298ows or

does not 1047298ow out o this or that pipe depends on highly dynamic intersections

among the multiple regimes o knowledge and authority that water inhabits as

well as the ways 1047298ows are con1047297gured and recon1047297gured across space and over

time Making water 1047298ow requires continuous and ofen contentious efforts to

direct and redirect 1047298ows across the rapidly changing built space o the city

As one astute observer quipped when I asked why her tap had gone dry ldquoLook

when water comes itrsquos because o politics and when water doesnrsquot come itrsquosbecause o politicsrdquo

Pipe Politics

What can we learn rom studying inrastructure What analytical leverage

does an inrastructural perspective allow Inrastructures are dualistic Lar-

kin (2013) notes they are not only things in themselves but are also relations

among things When doing their relational work the properties o inrastruc-

tures as things in themselves can become invisible hiding behind the associa-

tions that they mediate in a disappearing act that social scientists sometimes

call ldquoblack boxingrdquo (Latour 1999 183) For instance the relationship between

people and water in Mumbai might be said to be mediated by material things

(pipes trucks valves pumps) and orms o knowledge (maps work tenders

hydraulic models news reports) as well as less tangible larger-scale orces

(1047297nancial instruments or interest rates) Such things appear signi1047297cant only

insoar as they enable or impede a relationship between people and water and

so they tend to be overlooked until moments o breakdown or blockage It is

when water stops 1047298owing that the pipes themselves come into ocus At these

moments attention is pulled upstream and underground toward maps and

models and toward power and politics It is at such times that relationships

that might have been taken or granted naturalized are revealed instead to be

rather ldquoprecarious achievementsrdquo (Graham 2009 10) Moments or locations o

interruption work as a methodological entryway to the sociopolitical and ma-

terial orces underpinning otherwise taken-or-granted urban processes and

geographiesmdasha means by which to explore the technologies materialities andpolitics that inuse everyday lie in the city




While promising insight into these multiple layers o interaction and

mediation thinking about inrastructure relationally can also be mystiying

as it blurs the boundaries o what might ldquocountrdquo as inrastructure For instance

while pipes pumps and valves are o course part o the assemblage that con-

nects people and water983090983093 water itsel is what allows pipes pumps and valves towork in this particular way a pipe will not convey just any water or instance

but requires water o a certain pressure in order to perorm its transporting job

Here a particular property o watermdashpressuremdashbecomes part o waterrsquos inra-

structure A machine to produce water pressure a suction pump or instance

might or this purpose be introduced into waterrsquos inrastructural ambit but

then o course without water to prime it a suction pump will not coax water

rom the end o a pipe at all but might instead blow upmdasha situation that need-

less to say might require water to remedy Certain properties o water thusbecome part o waterrsquos inrastructure

Indeed inrastructures are not only relational but are also things with lives

o their own Te materiality o inrastructural objects can have affective di-

mensions producing ldquosensorial and political experiencerdquo (Larkin 2013 12)

Inrastructural things can be highly symbolic the construction o airports

bridges and even water pipes can be animated by logics that intersect only tan-

gentially with offi cial stated purposes In contemporary Mumbai large-scale

inrastructural projects (both highly visible ones like bridges and airports and

less charismatic ones like water pipes) are ofen conceived (and indeed admit-

tedly so) 1047297rst and oremost as a way to signal and perorm the cityrsquos world-class

character to potential investors Similarly (as we see in chapter 7) a water dis-

tribution main laid with much pomp and show by a politician in the run-up to

an election might work as much to demonstrate a political aspirantrsquos capacity

to mobilize the apparatus o the state as it does to improve water supply to a

neighborhood Moreover while the symbolic and material lives o inrastruc-

tures as things in themselves might be indifferent to inrastructurersquos mediating

role (ie to connect water with people) activity related to inrastructurersquos affec-

tive register will invariably have hydraulic implications impacting (ofen inad-

vertently) the relationship between people and water An account o how water

is made to 1047298ow through Mumbai will thus need to consider not only (on the

one hand) the networks o material technological and ideological interactions

that mediate relations between people and water or (on the other) the affective

dimensions o inrastructures but also how these material and symbolic lives

interact in sometimes complementary and sometimes contradictory ways

Tese multiple dimensions make water inrastructures unwieldy and ex-tremely porous their meanings and operations constantly exceeding the



14 Introduction

designs and hopes o any particular author Mumbairsquos water inrastructures

animate and inhabit maniold and layered regimes o knowledge and authority

that are put to work in producing 1047298ows Tese networks operate within three

registers 1047297rst the abstract logics o planning modeling regulation 1047297nance

and management second the real-time material processes and activities thatconstitute the everyday work o making (or trying to make) water 1047298ow and

third a semeiotic register in which water and its inrastructures are perorma-

tive o power knowledge and authority983090983094 Te ineluctable materiality o water

inrastructures means that the various registers old in on one another hy-

draulic spectacles are or example necessarily underwritten by the very real and

material work o making water actually appear By the same token the material

exigencies o bodily hydration or o hydraulic spectacle destabilize and chal-

lenge abstract ideological domains o planning and regulationTis book ocuses on water with attention to the speci1047297cities o the material

itsel983090983095 Water is a medium with which to explore material and symbolic di-

mensions o political contestation at the intersection o large-scale inrastruc-

tural dynamics (1047298ows o 1047297nance technological expertise global management

discourses) and intimate orms o knowledge power and authority Water is

extremely heavy and unwieldy extraordinarily time consuming and expensive

to move once it has reached a resting pointmdashonce gravity has done its workmdash

water tends not to go very ar without signi1047297cant 1047297nancial technological and

political investment By the same token waterrsquos materiality means that actually

getting it has necessarily spatial and temporal dimensions Attending to waterrsquos

materiality thus invites a broader conceptualization o power and politics than

suggested by neo-Marxian ormulations (where power is a structurally given

resource wielded in the interests o capitalist elites) attending instead to how

power and identity are materially produced contested drawn and redrawn

through space and across time

While all inrastructures mediate and interact with spatiotemporal rela-

tionships and divides water has physical properties that make it particularly

good to think with water has a tendency to 1047298ow downhill thereby inorming

relationships not only among localities at higher and lower elevations but be-

tween upstream and downstream points o access on particular pipes water

has a propensity to be siphoned off and to disappear without a trace giving rise

to rumor and speculation over the paths along which water may or may not

1047298ow water has a capacity to distribute pathogens and reuses to respect social

boundaries meaning that water not only produces social divides but bleeds

across them in complex ways water requires bulky high-cost labor-intensivetransport inrastructure and as a result network extensions are ofen raught




with enormously time-consuming processes resulting in material con1047297gura-

tions that can prove somewhat ldquoobduraterdquo (Bijker 2007 122) once in place

waterrsquos weighty inrastructures provide a lens into the importance o time and

space as pipes sink deep into swampy ground (thereby challenging gravity-

ed 1047298ows as we see in chapters 4 and 5) while remaining buoyant as they passthrough bedrock-supported neighborhoods (chapter 6) relatedly since water

is a necessary and time-sensitive substance (no one survives long without

it) access practices are inormed not only by exigencies o hydraulics 1047297nance

or practicality but by strategies and socialities o risk mitigation (chapter 6)

1047297nally networks o water pipes and below-ground 1047298ows (as opposed to say

transport inrastructures) are ofen hidden rom view buried under the epi-

dermis o the city illegible and opaque and thereby pregnant with possibility

(chapters 6 and 7)A pipe-political approach to urban water is 1047297rst and oremost a matter o

method one that requires us to both ollow the water (Deleuze and Guattari

2004) across space and through time and to ollow the inquiries o the actors

we encounter along the way (Farias 2011)983090983096 Te material place-speci1047297c and

meaning-laden qualities o water and its inrastructures invite (even require)

a holistic ethnographically grounded research approach (Orlove and Caton

2010) Te research or this book was carried out over eighteen months ocus-

ing on a geographically contiguous region o Mumbaimdashthe M-East Wardmdash

which is simultaneously an administrative electoral983090983097 and a hydraulic unit the

neighborhoods businesses and industries o M-East are supplied water rom a

single local reservoir Working with this unit o analysis allows or an explora-

tion o hydraulic relations between different locations who or what is upstream

or downstream rom whom or instance on a particular distribution main

Accounts and insights emerged rom myriad social political and geographic

positions within the water distribution network each location unctioning

as a particular lens through which broader political and social processes are

explored Te narrative builds on insights gathered at the neighborhood level

(ethnographic research and oral histories with individual amilies and busi-

nesses local plumbers and water vendors neighborhood leaders and political

aspirants) at a sociotechnical level (involving rounds with water department

engineering staff municipal valve operators tanker drivers licensed plumb-

ers and meter readers) at an institutional and more explicitly political level

(interviews with senior-level water engineers state ministers and legislators

technical experts and international consultants and lenders) as well as rom

textual analysis (o current and archival policy documents development planspro ject reports and maps) Working with such a broad range o sources allows



16 Introduction

or an account o the city that is both ethnographically rich (in both thickness

and duration) while also historically groundedmdashnot only attending to con-

temporary politics o water but also providing insight into how the pipes came

to be so unpredictable in the 1047297rst place

Or ganization

Te book begins with the arrival in India o an internationally mobile dis-

course extolling ldquothe marketrdquo as the best and most effi cient allocator o re-

sources and provider o urban ser vices Te opening chapter traces the career

o this idea in Mumbai revealing a surprising history o how the water de-

partmentrsquos century-old system o careul mapmaking and record keeping was

abandonedmdasha decline in which the debates over privatization are shown to

have themselves been deeply implicated Having undermined the water de-

partmentrsquos ability to do its job this ideologically driven reorm agenda (pushedby Mumbairsquos world-class-city boosters) then sought to render the distribution

F I G U R E I 1 Mumbairsquos M-East Ward Google Earth Data 98315510 983150983151983137983137 US Navy 983150983143983137

983143983141983138983139983151 Image copy2014 erraMetrics Image copy 2014 DigitalGlobe Image Landsat




network knowablemdashits market risks calculablemdashas per the exigencies o a

privatization contract In an effort to produce these kinds o data a series o

high-tech (and labor-saving) calculative tools were introduced into Mumbairsquos

inrastructural ambit Tis knowledge-production pro ject however was un-

damentally incoherent the new measurement tools were simply incommen-surable with the material and technological speci1047297cities o Mumbairsquos actually

existing historically inscribed water inrastructures New mechanized devices

thus produced a steady stream o discordant (even meaningless) data while the

departmentrsquos long-established human-centered systems o mapping monitor-

ing and recording ell into decline Te privatization debates thus presided

over the decimation o the departmentrsquos inormational inrastructuresmdasha dy-

namic that in an ironic twist would derail a privatization initiative when it 1047297-

nally arrived While the two-decade arc o debate over the bene1047297ts and pitallso privatization would conclude with Mumbairsquos water inrastructures squarely

in the public domain the chapter shows how market logic unmapped Mum-

bairsquos water distribution network983091983088

Chapter 2 turns to the political pro ject to transorm Mumbai into an

investment-riendly world-class city by using market mechanisms to recon-

1047297gure the built spaces and upgrade its inrastructures Te market presented

a utopian solution to long-standing and intractable political struggles over

landmdashstruggles in which the cityrsquos landowners policymakers and popular

politicians had locked horns at least since independence Animated by the idea

that these deeply political con1047298icts could simply (and indeed quite pro1047297tably)

be adjudicated by the market Mumbairsquos liberalization-era policymakers ap-

proved a set o new regulatory tools thereby creating a market in urban devel-

opment rights Te chapter analyzes how this market actually worksmdashhow it

has unmoored the geographies and economies o the cityrsquos built space rom its

material inrastructures both theoretically (in order to create the market) and

in practice (as the market-ueled built space o the city is rapidly recon1047297gured)

Animated by the high-risk volatilities and high-return possibilities o real es-

tate Mumbairsquos marketization o urban development resulted in a temporal and

material mismatch between its above-ground built space and its below-ground

pipes 1047298ows and pressures

While the disjuncture between the cityrsquos built orm and its water pipes

seems to suggest that the world-class city would also be a dry city this is not the

case the new malls gated communities shimmering offi ce towers and glittering

hotels do generally speaking get water Te imperative to make water avail-

able to the world-class citymdashnotwithstanding the linear constraints o time andthe material constraints o pipesmdashhas in the words o department engineers



18 Introduction

thrown ldquothe entire inrastructure in a shamblesrdquo Chapter 3 is concerned with

ldquothe shamblesrdquo the technologies hydrologies and imaginaries that work to

make (or attempt to make) water available to the rapidly changing space o the

city notwithstanding the materialities o the pipes

Chapter 4 shows how the market in development rightsmdashwhat Mumbairsquoswater engineers disdainully reer to as ldquothe slum and building industryrdquomdashis

tied up with the historically layered and materially inscribed political land-

scapes within which the cityrsquos working classes have made claims to urban land

and resources Te narrative ollows the material ideological and legal trans-

ormation o a municipal housing colony a neighborhood called Shivajinagar-

Bainganwadi into a ldquoslumrdquo that could be surveyed or redevelopment983091983089 Te

reimagining o Shivajinagar-Bainganwadi as a slum was itsel the result o the

politically mediated deterioration and criminalization o its water inrastruc-ture in the context o liberalization-era policy shifs which position the un-

planned illegal or inormal slum as the sel-evident conceptual counterpoint

to the planned ormal world-class city Shivajinagar-Bainganwadirsquos story re-

veals the deeply political and highly unstable nature o the world-classslum

binary and demonstrates the shifing political and economic stakes imbued in

these categories

Te second hal o the book turns ethnographic attention to the everyday

work o making water 1047298ow and to the sociopolitical and material landscapes

that 1047298ows o water both produce and inhabit Chapter 5 describes the everyday

inrastructural practices devoted to making water 1047298ow and hedging the ever-

present risk o breakdown Tese practices in turn give rise to whole landscapes

o rumor speculation and stealthmdashon pipe locations on water pressures and

on the timings and operations o valves as well as on the networks o power

and in1047298uence that underpin these volatile 1047298ows appearances and disappear-

ances o water Various kinds o knowledge about water are attained or hid-

den leveraged or blocked through elaborate and power-laden activities o

knowledge exchange Te opacities that inuse the distribution system animate

constantly shifing sociopolitical and relational networks and uel practices o

ldquoknowledge brokeringrdquo Given the inexorable necessity o watermdasheveryday ac-

cess being quite literally a matter o survivalmdashwater knowledge is power And

controlling the dispersed networks by which that knowledge is accessed and

mobilized become the stakes over which thus empowered political players

battle

Despite water engineersrsquo best attempts to explain water trouble as the result

o technical diffi culties (such as airlock) natural disasters (such as insuffi cientrains) or shortages (increasing demand rom population growth) dry taps are




overwhelmingly describedmdashin private conversations in popular discourse

and in media narrativesmdashas the result o an all-knowing all-powerul state

that is riddled with corruption Notwithstanding the ragmentation o knowl-

edge and hazy legalities that department engineers themselves must navigate

in providing water to the rapidly changing city Mumbai residents remainconvinced that the water department possesses complete knowledge o and

exercises precise control over the water distribution system Dry taps are thus

assumed to be the deliberate designs o wayward offi cials Chapter 6 demon-

strates how everyday experiences o the ever more erratic distribution system

are effectively rendered comprehensible largely through these ever more an-

tastic ideas about corruption

Chapter 7 outlines the relationship between water inrastructure and politi-

cal authority in Mumbai Te chapter begins with a cholera outbreak in theslum neighborhood o Ra1047297que Nagar in the run-up to the 2009 parliamen-

tary elections ocusing on the response o the arearsquos elected councilor a man

named Patil983091983090 Politicians like Patil ace a dilemma whatever 1047298ows or does not

1047298ow out o his arearsquos pipes will be interpreted as a sign o power and authority

over the omniscient and corrupt state apparatusmdasheither his own authority or

someone elsersquos Yet given the intractability o the distribution system the vola-

tile discourses o legality that permeate water supply especially to slums as well

as the very real hydraulic challenges o actually convincing pipes to produce

water evidencing this kind o material authority is exceedingly complex and

politically risky Given that no one is quite sure who or what makes the water

come but everyone knows that it comes ldquobecause o politicsrdquo much effort was

made by local-level knowledge brokers (who tend to become party workers

at election times) to provide concrete (or rather aqueous) evidence o this or

that political partyrsquos material sovereignty over the pipes As elections are ought

and won or lost largely on the strength o local knowledge networks those

who can demonstrate command o hydraulic knowledge becomemdashthrough

the electoral processmdashpolitically powerul players in the city While the proj-

ect to transorm Mumbai into a world-class city has thus presided over what

the water department describes as hydraulic ldquochaosrdquo the disembedding and re-

con1047297guring o inrastructural knowledge has rescaled political authority in the

city Pipe politics is producing urban orms and opening up possible utures

that as we see in the conclusion diverge quite starkly rom those envisioned

by a world-class urban imaginary



PIPE POLITICS CONTESTED WATERS










All rights reserved






Lisa Bjoumlrkman

pages cm






9831449831404465983145598313857 2015

363610954792mdashdc23

2015010921









Awarded the







983107983151983150983156983141983150983156983155

Acknowledgments ix




983156 983159983151





983142983151983157983154


Becoming a Slum 98



983142983145983158983141




Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150



983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227





983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































All rights reserved






Lisa Bjoumlrkman

pages cm






9831449831404465983145598313857 2015

363610954792mdashdc23

2015010921









Awarded the







983107983151983150983156983141983150983156983155

Acknowledgments ix




983156 983159983151





983142983151983157983154


Becoming a Slum 98



983142983145983158983141




Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150



983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227





983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle













































Awarded the







983107983151983150983156983141983150983156983155

Acknowledgments ix




983156 983159983151





983142983151983157983154


Becoming a Slum 98



983142983145983158983141




Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150



983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227





983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































983107983151983150983156983141983150983156983155

Acknowledgments ix




983156 983159983151





983142983151983157983154


Becoming a Slum 98



983142983145983158983141




Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150



983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227





983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































983142983145983158983141




Corruption 165

983155983141983158983141983150



983107983151983150983139983148983157983155983145983151983150 Pipe Politics 227





983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































983105983139983147983150983151983159983148983141983140983143983149983141983150983156983155

























x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































x Acknowledgments







































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































Acknowledgments xi


































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle
































































2 Introduction

























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle




























































World-Class City



















4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































4 Introduction














































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































































6 Introduction








































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle











































































to critique






8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle










































8 Introduction














































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle


















































































10 Introduction














































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































































12 Introduction













Pipe Politics































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































































14 Introduction














































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































































16 Introduction





Or ganization




















































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle

















































































18 Introduction

















these categories

















battle








































pipe politics, contested waters by lisa björkman

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