Maximum City Under Seige

The terrorists have struck again in Mumbai. The city has been under seige for almost twelve hours, as gunmen armed with AK-47s and grenades have stormed close to a dozen targets throughout India's largest city.

Among the notable locations attacked allegedly by the Deccan Mujahideen are the monumental Victoria Terminus (Chhatrapathi Shivaji Terminus) train station, the iconic Taj Palace hotel, and popular Leopold's Cafe. These symbolic sites were struck because they represent the centers of elite life in Mumbai, where wealthy Mumbaikars, tourists, and Western expatriates mingle. The unprecedented scope of the attacks caught the city completely off-guard, as the gunmen entered into the city from boats that docked next to the Gateway of India.

VT station is where two million commuters come and go every day of the week. This is the primary transit hub for the residents of India's financial capital. The assaults inside this station come two years after a series of six blasts in the first class compartments on trains across Mumbai killed 200 people.

But the scale of last night's attacks went far beyond the crowded railways. Attacking tourist haunts, the Cama Hospital, a movie theater, and the creme de la creme hotels make this strike the most bloody and unusual series of coordinated terrorist actions that India has ever experienced.

Mumbai awoke Thursday morning to the shocking sight of the Taj Mahal Hotel burning and army snipers waiting atop the adjacent Gateway of India for the terrorists to emerge. Commandos attempted to end hostage situations at several locales across South Mumbai. Jamshetji Tata's jewel was crackling with the flames of a war initiated by a mysterious terrorist organization. Along with the Trident Oberoi hotel, the Taj is truly a landmark of opulence. Striking at this symbol of affluence makes an enormous statement. Combating so many centers of power with this new kind of terror sets a horrific precedent for the future.

Mumbai is a powder keg, and this explosive series of actions has shocked anti-terror security forces, whose leader was actually killed in gun battles with the terrorists. The level of planning that went into this operation is astounding, and the security forces need to bone up on their intelligence gathering.

Whether the goal of this multi-faceted operation was to destabilize Indian society, kill Westerners, or free Islamic prisoners, terrorism in India has been taken to the next level. It is baffling to try piecing together images of blood splattered across the floor of VT and multiple reports of middle-class, uncharacteristic hostage-takers. Although Western expatriates are disproportionately represented among the victims of the prolonged agony, many questions have yet to be answered.

Does this operation emerge in the anti-Western ideas of Pakistani madrasas? Has it boiled over from the deep poverty of Mumbai's overcrowded slums? How wide is the terror network that carried out the attack? What is the essence of their message?

My home for nine months has been victimized by political violence. But, my hope is that fear and hatred will not prevail in the city of dreams. While train services are running, stock exchanges, schools, and offices will remain closed on Thursday. The young perpetrators of these acts have caught a city that was not well-equipped enough for attacks of this scope, but the city will quickly rebuild.

Jai Mumbai!

The Hood of Bandra

Caste in the City: The Dynamics of Class-Caste Mobility in Mumbai

Here is my final Fulbright report, the culmination of 9 months of caste research at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences in Mumbai, India.

Mumbai Metro to the Fore

Mumbai's urban railway network is notoriously clogged with bodies. While around 13 people die every day from accidents, the city strives less-than-wholeheartedly to construct a thorough metro system. I wish India's largest urban agglomeration the best of luck in this enterprise, but I am fairly certain that the metro will not be completed for many years. I'll be supremely gladdened when the system finally does take off the ground. For the 6+ million people who grace the rails each waking day, any and every improvement is overdue.


Here are some links that deal with the Mumbai train system and the construction progress. This process surely takes some time!


Death Trains

mumbaimetro1

Mumbai Matters


Two conferences that I attended in Bombay, Urban Age Mumbai and the 5th International Conference of Critical Geography, presented very different approaches to urban development, but both undoubtedly would laud the speedy completion of the planned Mumbai metro. While neoliberal development advocates might be more at peace with the rapid influx of motor vehicles, the automobile's pathways cannot keep pace with the increase in car ownership. The public infrastructure of Mumbai just cannot meet the demands of the demographic increases that will not cease at any point in the near future.

There is no practical way of capping the density of Mumbai, but this should not discourage critical investments in infrastructure. It's just that the burden on any new infrastructure quickly wears away at the newness. There's no end in sight to the population explosion in 3rd World cities such as Mumbai. We can merely hope and beg for more expedient development of public transport so that the morass of motoring metal, bodies, and fumes does not spontaneously combust...

Yay or No, Tata Nano?

Tata Motors has just unleashed a beast of a vehicle. Their new People's Car is bite-size but packs a punch for the roaring Indian economy. While the release of this four-wheeler will clog roadways and gulp gazillions of pint-sized gas jugs, the Nano offers many folks the first car they could never before afford. This thusly presents a double-edged sword. Like much technology that is introduced to the market before the true impact can be gauged, this 1 lakh (100,000 rupees = $2,500) car will make waves.

This car is undoubtedly a safe alternative for millions of Indians who have been riding perilously along on two-wheelers with toddlers hanging off the sides and a stack of plywood strapped to the back rack. It is a rather affordable opportunity to jump into a vehicle that will protect human bodies from the rough and tumble of non-stop congestion on the pavement. Safety for bodies and affordability for pocketbooks are certainly top priorities, but it behooves us to understand the long-term effects of this vehicle.

But, it is first necessary to reiterate how the 1 lakh Nano is a simple machine. It has none of the following: AC, power windows, power steering, keyless entry, radio. It also has only one windshield wiper. We indeed must admire the simplicity of this miniature automobile and the truly impressive aesthetic that it embodies. Semi-Luddite tendencies aside, the low cost of this vehicle and its inherent Nano coolness make it an attractive buy for many people who are in the market for bigger and better ways of living their quotidian existences.

Back to the costs, ecologically and transportationally speaking. This car promotes the consumption of ever more fossil fuels, at a time when Indian corporations need to be investing in public transport infrastructure rather than in these Nano vehicles. Instead of pumping capital into the marketing of Nanos and ensuring their eventual proliferation, money would be infinitely better spent on unclogging roads. This could be achieved, in a dream world, by laying down more railroad tracks, creating workable high-speed bus lanes, and providing incentives for municipalities to charge a congestion tax for car commuters (who cannot really be blamed for avoiding the mayhem of bus/train travel in cities like Mumbai). Yet, this eternally increasing number of drivers mercilessly and exponentially drive us all into transportation hell on a daily basis. In an ideal world, we would not want more cars on the road.

Yet, let's not kid ourselves here. This is India, and there are bohut bohut bucks to be made from this Tata Nano. Hate it or love it, the Nano represents both the best of India's dreams and the worst of its shortcomings. It delivers on the promise for each and every deserving soul to ride around in a Nano car. It also contributes to the quickening disintegration of roadway sanity and well-being. Ratanji, this car has got to be, the symbol of the new Bharat. Shall it be Yay or No to your Tata Nano? Na, no? Ha, ji?

Tata Motors Press Release

Dalit Dreams

My seven weeks thus far on the subcontinent have brought me into close proximity with more human beings than I have ever seen, smelled, or touched. This India is teeming with bodies. More than anything else, what differentiates one's experiences with the Indian masses from experiences with masses of people in other countries is the extent to which the Indian masses are so severely downtrodden. The Britishers used to call these folks the depressed classes of Indian society.

At times, they have been labeled backwards, indigent, or primitive. While those who formerly were considered untouchables constitute about 16% of India's population, around 2/3 of the country's inhabitants are considered backwards. This term is not considered offensive or even politically incorrect here. It is not suggestive of one's political inclination or ideological bent. Dalit is the term used for "broken" people, and although it is generally limited to those who are termed Scheduled Castes (former untouchables), it is a word that encompasses a much broader movement and a much larger amalgamation of downtrodden groups. So, I believe that it can be effectively applied to the better portion of this country's people. This would include all of the originally low-caste people who currently self-identify with either Hinduism or any of the other various faiths that have absorbed large numbers of former untouchables.

Either way, I must first make clear that I have no intention of presenting my political views herein. Due to the nature of my research activities in Mumbai, I refrain from political participation to the best of my ability. While this is difficult to do when researching Dalit issues, it is necessary to do so in order to present impartial findings on the subject after fair evaluation of sources, scope, and eventual utilization of resource outputs after the project's completion.

So, regardless of political orientation, all those who understand India's workings realize that the vast majority of her people are struggling, impoverished, and lacking in material resources. I offer no assessment of whether such material dearth is better or worse for satisfaction levels over the course of a lifetime.

Over the past few weeks, I've had the opportunity to observe many aspects of the Indian social structure. While studying the various forms of cultural organization that keep Indian society severely stratified, I have embarked on a mission to document and describe, understand and enlighten. I do my best to maintain neutrality, and I avoid political engagement. Perhaps some folks see that this is not even possible given the nature of social science and human geography research. But, my goal is certainly to maintain as unbiased a stance as possible.

That being said, I have observed whom some may refer to as the dregs of the earth. Dalits are the throngs of human beings that arouse feelings of insecurity in those who fear overpopulation with masses of uneducated, un-Westernized, and unchanged persons. These folks have not much evolved due to how they have been disconnected from many possible channels to advancement. Yet, opportunities exist that may be availed by these populations.

Despite their hunger and pain, their madness and degradation, these are pure human beings. Gandhi called them children of God: Harijans. They are beautiful despite their ignorance and seemingly permanent state of severe defeat. They are emerging. They swear never to remain broken, devalued, downtrodden.

One caste/one tribe. One earth/one love.

Multihued Multitudes of Mumbaikars

My experience thus far in Mumbai has encouraged me to ponder and act in ways that I have not previously been compelled to comport myself. The brazen attitude that one must adopt in order to board a second-class coach during rush hour is something that you cannot develop prior to actually being here. The adjustment to sheer volume of human beings takes some time. In fact, perhaps living in such a congested, clogged, and crowded metropolis might not be at all desirable in the long term. However, the human truths that can be accumulated by living the metropolitan grind are so far worth the struggle.

Density...is the first reality with which one must become accustomed in this town. With a metro population of around 18 million bodies, that's something like 36 million each of ears, eyes, and kidneys. 180 million toes and fingers. 18 million souls. The average density in Greater Mumbai, which is the name given to the city itself and which does not include the population of the whole urban agglomeration, is something like 40,000 inhabitants per square kilometer. This absolutely staggering density of human habitation, while not close to the 170,000 inhabitants per square kilometer in the Lower East Side of NY in 1905, is considerably higher than 50,000 people per sqkm in many parts of the city. While sheer volume of people is no way to judge quality of life or ease of transport throughout a city, the congestion that plagues Mumbai is a function of a vast inability to cope with staggering population growth.

Map of Population Density by Country
Selected Urban Population Densities

Of three other world cities whose population densities in certain incredibly packed areas rival Mumbai's (Hong Kong, Cairo, and Shanghai), perhaps only Cairo would strike the average visitor as more overwhelming, due to a number of factors, including poverty stats, crime, and general overcrowding. Yet, Mumbai does not have a crime problem. Crime is a subject that will be dealt with in later entries, but for all intents and purposes, crime is not on the short list of perennial urban difficulties in India. Poverty and general overcrowding top the list of most daunting urban challenges in this Island City. Mumbai is strikingly civil, despite its chaotic traffic interchanges, overflowing trains, and reckless rickshaws. The humans who inhabit this dazzling metropolis do not carry on with the sort of anger and embitterment that would characterize a city inhabited by New Yorker-Americans in a town almost 1/4 the size of New York, at the gateway to a country with well over 3X the population of the United States, with an area less than 1/3 the size of the continental US. Americans would kill each other if they were confined to conditions that Indians tolerate. Period. A tiny fraction of the space. A tiny fraction of the wealth. Yet, Indians get by, eking out lives with their big hearts and impossibly charming demeanors.

Divisions...by caste and religion, age and gender, language and education are astounding. Indians, contrary to what foreigners usually expect when coming to India, are of a range of divergent types. The demographic divisions that separate Indians from each other are on a level that Westerners often cannot appreciate. The endless list of tribes (7% of the overall population), formerly untouchable "Dalit" castes (16%) are positively endless. The manner with which a woman folds her saree and how a man conducts his head wiggle and where one goes to acknowledge humility before a higher power are things that vary with inconceivable range.

Diversity...is a gift and a curse. While Indians have experienced a horrific calamity several times - first and most notably during the Partition with Pakistan in 1947, the dream of a unified cultural whole lives on. Whether unified behind the notion of Hindutva or behind the national cricketeer squad, somehow the nation clunks along as a mostly coherent amalgamation of socio-linguistic communities. The several thousands of caste groups (jatis) retain the sense of tribal distinctiveness that was more or less always a part of life on the subcontinent, yet this ancestral heritage is in certain key ways losing its grip on the modernizing, globalizing, and Indianizing system. India works. India works hard. She works hard to make progress as a cohesive expression of national will. I have no concept of how this is possible. What sort of cultural constitution makes this possible at such a grand scale? Although China has several hundred million more people, I dare say India's task of keeping its far more variegated communities unified is a far more improbable task.


Disparity...is a concept that Thomas Friedman recently attempted to address in a recent column on the release of a cheap new Tata motor vehicle that will aim to inundate first-time car purchasers with an unbeatable bargain. At a mere 1 lakh (100,000 Rupees = $2,500), this vehicle will permit masses of middle-class Indians to drive to work, drive to class, drive to the collective neoliberal paradise, which in other words, is a congested ecological catastrophe. While I have not always agreed with Friedman's often neocon and/or neoliberal tendencies, I found that his green streaks shone through on this piece. No, No, Tata

His fundamental point was that clean mass mobility must trump over the near-term rush to develop, market, and compete. Without more concern for the long-term consequences of increasingly clogged roadways, railways, and sidewalks, Mumbai will begin to burst. Cheaper cars will mean more demand for petroleum, more pollution, and more traffic. Although the egalitarian impulse embedded in all of us would have us believe that all Indians have the right to drive their own cars 25 miles a day wherever they please in the same careless way that Americans parade their motor vehicles around asphalt mazes. But, the plain truth is that if all Indians were granted this so-called right to own a car, India would cease to be. I agree with Friedman's assertion that Indians must somehow jump over the car step in the evolution of transport. Build more rail lines, enact legislation to decrease the number of vehicles permitted into the city, and reverse densification-redevelopment policies that threaten to destroy any remaining semblance of urban sanity.

Dolor, depravity, destruction, delapidation...find their way into Dharavi's complex existence because this heart-shaped area of the city is Asia's biggest slum, by most estimates. Slum life is a mode of survival, reproduction, and employment unto itself - entirely the topic of another entry. But, the dreadful extremes that exist in Mumbai are embodied by the continued prosperity of its notoriously gargantuan slum. After two visits to this vibrant disaster, I have simply become more confused about human suffering and about man's capacity to cope with the most disgusting and degraded circumstances. Dharavi is Mumbai at its best and its worst. Mumbai gone horribly wrong yet Mumbai that tries, triumphs, and turns over. Another day, another dollar and a dream.