Amita Baviskar

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Papers by Amita Baviskar

What the Eye Does Not See: The Yamuna in the Imagination of Delhi

The SAGE Handbook of the 21st Century City

This article was originally presented at a conference on "Urban Ecologies in Asia" organised by t... more This article was originally presented at a conference on "Urban Ecologies in Asia" organised by the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences and Yale University. I am grateful to K Sivaramakrishnan and Anne Rademacher, the organisers, for their encouragement and support. Special thanks to Vinay Gidwani for his critical and insightful comments.

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Farmers’ protests in India: introduction to the JPS Forum

The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2021

Since the summer of 2020, Indian farmers have been protesting three laws that aim to liberalize a... more Since the summer of 2020, Indian farmers have been protesting three laws that aim to liberalize agricultural markets and encourage contract farming. In doing so, they have also mounted the largest challenge to an authoritarian Hindu nationalist government to date. The contributions to this JPS Forum provide deep and diverse insights into these farmer protests, including their social composition and political character, as well as their roots in long-term transformations in markets, ecology, and agrarian—and non-agrarian—political economy. In this introduction, we put these contributions into dialogue with older debates in JPS over India’s ‘new farmers’ movements,’ which reached their zenith in the 1980s, in order to throw into relief what has changed in rural India and in agrarian studies over the subsequent decades. We argue that the polarized terms of the earlier debates—between Marxists and populists—are no longer adequate for the transformed agrarian milieu of the twenty-first c...

Spectacular Events, City Spaces and Citizenship: The Commonwealth Games in Delhi

Urban Navigations, 2013

Street food and the art of survival: migrants and places in Delhi, India

Food, Culture & Society, 2021

The modernist conception of urban order is predicated on state regulation of city spaces and soci... more The modernist conception of urban order is predicated on state regulation of city spaces and social practices. Street food vending disrupts this idealized order and is therefore denounced by state officials and the bourgeois public. Hamstrung by this hostile discursive field and their own lack of symbolic capital, how do food vendors manage to maneuver their way through an inhospitable city? In this paper, I use ethnographic vignettes from two neighborhoods in Delhi to argue that street vendors and city spaces should not be treated as homogeneous categories; differences among vendors and between urban settings are crucial for explaining heterogeneous survival strategies. These differences relate to ethnic identities derived from diverse histories of migration, as well as to the variegated layout, land use and legal geographies of spaces in the city. I conclude by showing that negotiations over food vending now occur not only on the street, but also through the virtual world of food ...

Special Module: Plenary Debate from the IUAES World Congress 2013: Evolving Humanity, Emerging Worlds, 5–10 August 2013

Anthropological Forum, 2016

>), as its name suggests, brings together scholars from all regions of the world and all fields o... more >), as its name suggests, brings together scholars from all regions of the world and all fields of anthropology (Nas et al. 2009). Every five years, it holds a World Congress, with inter-congresses held in the intervening years. One of the features of the IUAES is that it can be seen as a counterweight to the predominance of Anglo-American conferences, attracting significant participation from Asia, South East Asia in particular, and South America. Previous world congresses have been held in Russia, Mexico, Japan, India and China, as well as in European and North American cities. The World Congress in Manchester attracted a significant participation from Asia and South East Asia, notably India and Japan (where the subsequent Intercongress was held in 2014). Despite some very problematic obstacles, notably the unwillingness of the UK Border Agency to grant visas to visiting academics from several countries, there was broad-ranging participation in the Manchester congress. Given the cross-field interests in the IUAES, the organising committee of the Manchester World Congress was keen to promote opportunities for discussion between different anthropological fields, as well as within them. At the same time, a key goal was to promote the kinds of important questions on which anthropologists are in a position to comment, to encourage British media attention, as well as generating participation in the congress. One way to achieve both goals was to organise plenaries in the form of debates, a form that is well established at Manchester University's Anthropology department (via GDAT, the Group for Debates in Anthropological Theory i). In organising the debates, the committee was attentive to the nationality, gender, anthropological field and ethnographic specialities of the speakers. Three debates were held in the plenary hall. The second of these explicitly intended to generate discussion on one of the primary political issues of our day, the question of environmental justice. At a time when global talks were pitting economic benefits against climate risks, the question of justice was one the organisers wished to see from different perspectives. The second of the three plenary debates addressed the motion: 'Justice for people must come before justice for the environment'. Amita Baviskar (Delhi University) proposed the motion, seconded by Don Nonini (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill). Helen Kopnina (The Hague University of Applied Science) opposed the motion, seconded by Veronica Strang (Durham University). The debate was chaired by John Gledhill (Manchester University). The format of the debate pitches two pairs of speakers to argue for and against the motion, in turn. Members of the audience are then invited to pose questions to the speakers, and each speaker, again in turn, then presents concluding comments in the light of the questions and the other speakers' contributions. After all of the concluding comments, the audience members are invited to vote either for or against the motion. It should be noted that in devising the motion itself, the organisers sought to give the

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IntroductionHonouring Patricia Uberoi

Contributions To Indian Sociology, 2010

When Patricia Uberoi handed over the files of Contributions to Indian Sociology (CIS), we found t... more When Patricia Uberoi handed over the files of Contributions to Indian Sociology (CIS), we found these remarks from contributors and referees embedded in routine discussions about the work at hand. We instantly recognised in them sentiments we ourselves have felt several times over, as colleagues of Patricia, both on Contributions and at the Institute of Economic Growth. Everyone who knows Patricia cherishes her gentle humour, her generosity—especially towards younger colleagues, her selflessness when it came to Contributions and her willingness to push the boundaries of existing research and open up new areas. This collection of essays has been a long time in the making, much before they found a home as part of a special issue of this journal. At the same time, readers will agree, it is especially fitting that these essays be published in CIS, thus continuing the tradition—established by the special issues on/for Louis Dumont and Triloki Nath Madan—of honouring those who have shaped and nurtured Contributions to Indian Sociology.

Between violence and desire: space, power, and identity in the making of metropolitan Delhi

International Social Science Journal, 2003

Delhi, on the morning of January 30, 1995, was waking up to another winter day. In the welltodo c... more Delhi, on the morning of January 30, 1995, was waking up to another winter day. In the welltodo colony of Ashok Vihar, early risers were setting off on morning walks, some accompanied by their pet dogs. As one of these residents walked into the neighbourhood ''park'', the only open Amita Baviskar is a sociologist at the University of Delhi, India. Her research addresses the cultural politics of environment and development. Her publications include the book In the Belly of the River:

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Between Micro-Politics and Administrative Imperatives: Decentralisation and the Watershed Mission in Madhya Pradesh, India

The European Journal of Development Research, 2004

at Berkeley. The author would like to thank Anne Larson and Jesse Ribot for their detailed commen... more

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Malignant growth: The Sardar Sarovar dam and its impact on public health

Environmental Impact Assessment Review, 1994

Large projects associated with industrial and economic growth in most lesser or newly industriali... more Large projects associated with industrial and economic growth in most lesser or newly industrialized countries have generally resulted in wide-ranging impacts on local populations. The effects may be direct, due to changes in the physical environment, or indirect, as populations are displaced and traditional lifestyles disrupted. Adverse health effects represent an important dimension, although this is often not reflected in the assessments undertaken during the planning of such projects. This article discusses the impacts of an ongoing massive river project in India on the health and welfare of affected indigenous populations.

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Report on Duke Kunshan conference on Environmental Justice and Sustainable Citizenship, 22–24 May 2017, Kunshan, China

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India: A tale of two movements – South Asia Citizens Web

The agitation for the Jan Lokpal Bill (JLB) is being hailed as ‘unprecedented' and as a ‘seco... more

The Politics of Being ”Indigenous”

contract Killings: Silicosis among adivasi m igrant Workers

Economic and Political Weekly, 2008

Hundreds of migrant adivasis from Madhya Pradesh have died from acute silicosis (caused by inhali... more

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The burden of resources : oil and water in the Gulf Region and the Nile Basin

This collection of essays seeks to investigate questions of oil and water resources contestation,... more This collection of essays seeks to investigate questions of oil and water resources contestation, wars, and cooperation in the context of the Gulf region, especially Iraq, and of the Nile Basin. It tries to explore different opinions, rather than arrive at consensus, regarding the following questions: Does scarcity lead to violent conflicts? Or does abundance? And once war starts, what is the role of resources in expanding/limiting the scope and intensity of war and prolonging/ shortening it? Finally could resources, whether scarce or abundant, induce cooperation instead of dispute and violence? Why and how?

Contested grounds : essays on nature, culture, and power

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. Introduction: Contested Grounds: Nature, Culture and Power (Amita Baviskar) 2... more ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 1. Introduction: Contested Grounds: Nature, Culture and Power (Amita Baviskar) 2. Water and Waste: Nature, Productivity, and Colonialism in the Indus Basin (David Gilmartin) 3. Contexts and Constructions of Scarcity (Lyla Mehta) 4. Environmental Insecurities: Geopolitics, Resources and Conflict (Simon Dalby) 5. Investing in Nature around Sylhet: An Excursion into Geographical History (David Ludden) 6. Economies of Violence: More Oil, More Blood (Michael Watts) 7. Natural Resources and Capitalist Frontiers (Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing) 8. Cultural Theory, Climate Change and Clumsiness (Michael Thompson) 9. Whos in Charge? Reflections on the Worldwide Displacement of Democratic Judgement by Expert Assessments (Steve Rayner) 10. Situating Resource Struggles: Concepts for Empirical Analysis (Tania Li) REFERENCES NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS INDEX

Untouchability in Rural India

Foreword Babu Mathew Preface Harsh Mander Introduction: Caste, Untouchability and Dalits in Rural... more Foreword Babu Mathew Preface Harsh Mander Introduction: Caste, Untouchability and Dalits in Rural India 'Unclean Occupations': Savaged by Tradition Dalit Women and the Practice of Untouchability Violence against Dalits Demanding Rights, Equality and Dignity Conclusion Appendices Glossary References Index

A Grain of Sand on the Banks of Narmada

How are the poorest of adivasis in the Narmada valley dealing with the dangers of displacement, e... more

Development, nature and resistance : The case of Bhilala tribals in the Narmada valley

ABSTRACT

An uncivil city

In the Belly of the River: Tribal Conflicts over Development in the Narmada Valley

This book provides an account of the lives of Bhilala adivasis in the Narmada valley who are figh... more This book provides an account of the lives of Bhilala adivasis in the Narmada valley who are fighting against displacement by the Sardar Sarovar dam in Western India. On the basis of intensive fieldwork and historical research, this study places the tribal community in the context of its experience of state domination. The author challenges current theories of social movements which claim that a cultural critique of the "development" paradigm is writ large in the political actions of those marginalized by "development"--adivasis who lived in harmony with nature, combining reverence for nature with the sustainable management of resources. The complexity of adivasi politics cannont be reduced to an opposition between "development" and "resistance." The book forces us to re-examine the politics of representation within the ideology of progressive movements. It will be of equal interest to scholars and social activists concerned about development ...

What the Eye Does Not See: The Yamuna in the Imagination of Delhi

The SAGE Handbook of the 21st Century City

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Farmers’ protests in India: introduction to the JPS Forum

The Journal of Peasant Studies, 2021