Description
Book SynopsisThe Moving City is a rich and intimate account of urban transformation told through the story of Delhi's Metro, a massive infrastructure project that is reshaping the city's social and urban landscapes. Ethnographic vignettes introduce the feel and form of the Metro and let readers experience the city, scene by scene, stop by stop, as if they, too, have come along for the ride. Laying bare the radical possibilities and concretized inequalities of the Metro, andhow people live with and through its built environment, this is a story of women and men on the move, the nature of Indian aspiration, and what it takes morally and materially to sustain urban life. Through exquisite prose, Rashmi Sadana transports the reader to a city shaped by both its Metro and those who depend on it, revealing a perspective on Delhi unlike any other.
Trade Review"
The Moving City is an important contribution to the growing literature on urban infrastructure. It is evocative and shows us the variegated ways in which mobility is mediated by aspirations, fears, exclusions and political negotiations." * Contributions to Indian Sociology *
"The vignettes captured by the author, constituting in effect a collection of ukiyo-e, ‘pictures of the floating world,’ is a delightful and interesting twist on ethnographic writing and representation. . . Sadana’s book offers a very special approach to the study of urban infrastructure and demonstrates how these little floating scenes of everyday life can tell us something about big and complex social issues." * Asian Anthropology *
"The strength of this book lies in what it has to offer as a method of encountering urban spaces. . . .This ethnography would be a welcome addition to courses in urban anthropology, anthropologies of gender, class, South Asia, and ethnographic method." * Anthropological Quarterly *
"Vivid and rich with detail. . . .Sadana…emphasizes the uniqueness of the Delhi Metro by centering the voices of the many people who make up its daily life." * Metropolitics *
"[A] beautifully crafted account of how life in Delhi becomes narrated through the Metro as it joins and cuts across disparate urban spaces." * Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute *
"A radical work that throws open established modes of Indian anthropological writing." * Biblio: A Review of Books *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
Part I Crowded
The Train to Dwarka
Mandi House
Vanita
The Image of the City
Metro Bhawan
Space and Matter
Red Line
Resident Welfare
Okhla Station
Naipaul on the Metro
Nukkad Natak
Mumbai
Urban Hazards
Ramlila Maidan
From Badarpur
Yellow Line
Drishti
A Developed Country
Social Space
Seelampur Station
Pressure Cooker
Blue Line
Delhi-6
Bus Rapid Transit
The Bicycle Fixer
Part II Expanding
A Road's Geography
The Gangway
Spontaneous Urbanism
Nehru Place
Rupali
Chief Minister
City of Malls
Violet Line
Metal and Plastic
Appropriate Architecture
Chawri Bazar
Ajay and Gita
Ring Road
Grievance and Governance
Morning Commute
Orange Line
The Play about the Metro
Aspirational Planning
Renu and Shiv
Layers and Sediment
Green Line
Cycle Rickshaw-wala
Metro Mob
The Techno-cosmopolitan
The Politics of Speed
Part III Visible
World Class
Strike
Bus
Infrastructure by Example
Magenta Line
Radhika
Posture
Integration
The Photo That Went Viral
Voids and Solids
Beauty Salon
Suicide
Multiple Choice
Jahnavi
Café Coffee Day
Looks
Street Survey
Aasif
E-rickshaws
Love Marriage and a Head Injury
Fare Hike
At Home in Dakshinpuri
Dilli Haat
Pink Line
City Park
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index
