Duke University Press, 2021 eISBN: 978-1-4780-1308-2 | Paper: 978-1-4780-1149-1 | Cloth: 978-1-4780-1053-1 Library of Congress Classification GN395.B668 2021
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
ABOUT THIS BOOK A political party worker who produces crowds for electoral rallies. A “prison specialist” who serves other people’s prison sentences in exchange for a large fee. An engineer who is able to secure otherwise impossible building permits. These and other dealmakers—whose behind-the-scenes expertise and labor are often invisible—have an intrinsic role in the city's functioning and can be indispensable for navigating everyday life in Bombay, one of the world’s most complex, dynamic, and populous cities. Bombay Brokers collects profiles of thirty-six such “brokers.” Written by anthropologists, artists, city planners, and activists, these character sketches bring into relief the paradox that these brokers’ knowledge and labor are simultaneously invisible yet essential for Bombay’s functioning. Their centrality reveals the global-scale paradoxes and gaps that these brokers mediate and bridge. In this way, Bombay Brokers prompts a reconsideration of what counts as legitimate and valuable knowledge and labor while offering insight into changing structures of power in Bombay and around the globe.
Contributors. Anjali Arondekar, Sarthak Bagchi, Tobias Baitsch, Sangeeta Banerji, Srimati Basu, Tarini Bedi, Amita Bhide, Lisa Björkman, Uday Chandra, Simon Chauchard, Ka-Kin Cheuk, Michael Collins, Daisy Deomampo, Maura Finkelstein, Ajay Gandhi, Rupali Gupte, Kathryn C. Hardy, Lalitha Kamath, Prasad Khanolkar, Bhushan Korgaonkar, Ratoola Kundu, Ken Kuroda, Annelies Kusters, Lisa Mitchell, Shailaja Paik, Gautam Pemmaraju, Lubaina Rangwala, Llerena Guiu Searle, Atreyee Sen, Prasad Shetty, Rohan Shivkumar, Edward Simpson, David Strohl, Rachel Sturman, R. Swaminathan, Aneri Taskar, Yaffa Truelove, Sahana Udupa, Lalit Vachani, Leilah Vevaina
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Lisa Björkman is Assistant Professor of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, and author of Pipe Politics, Contested Waters: Embedded Infrastructures of Millennial Mumbai, also published by Duke University Press, and Waiting Town: Life in Transit and Mumbai's Other World-Class Histories.
REVIEWS
“Lisa Björkman's collection Bombay Brokers offers a brilliantly multivocal account of the many worlds of practical negotiation and embodied expertise that animate urban life in one of India's most dynamic, polarized cities. Just as important, it is a remarkable work of collaborative ethnography that forges a distinctive methodological strategy through which to illuminate the crises and contradictions of contemporary urbanism in Bombay and beyond.”
-- Neil Brenner, Urban Theory Lab, University of Chicago
“This remarkable edited collection is a commendable contribution to the study of the links between mediation and intermediation, thus linking a venerable tradition of political anthropology with vivid portraits of the agency of brokers. It brings Bombay to life in ways that will surely inform the comparative study of fixers in other large cities caught in the flux of globalization.”
-- Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
"An unconventional introduction to India's biggest city and an invitation to the joys and challenges of ethnography."
-- Andrew J. Nathan Foreign Affairs
“While [Bombay Brokers] is nominally about the city of Mumbai, there is little doubt that it will resonate with anyone interested in the story of urban change and continuity all around the world. It is a distinctive contribution to the literature on cities and labour and one that is bound to inspire similar books in years to come.”
-- Sneha Annavarapu International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
“[Bombay Brokers] is a highly engaging read, as well as a rich and very valuable contribution to the literatures about Mumbai and the concept of brokerage.... The book provides food for thought for debates about the specificity of Southern urbanisms and enriches our conceptual vocabulary for thinking about cities.”
-- Pablo Holwitt Antipode
“[Bombay Brokers] is a book that, in its combination of sharp-eyed detail and endlessly multiplying perspectives, manages to create a simulacrum of the city itself in all its plurality and vitality. . . . The structure of the book makes it especially useful as a teaching resource.”
-- Jonathan Spencer Journal of Anthropological Research
“Bombay Brokers is an expert exploration of how life is fashioned in a harshly hierarchical city through the activities of individuals—creative, complex, tenacious individuals who accomplish survival, success or profit, sometimes space to build a community, by brokering deals and mediating conflicts between messy, overflowing institutions.”
-- Tania Bhattacharyya Journal of Asian Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii Introduction. Ethnography in the Global Interregnum / Lisa Björkman 1 Part I. Development / Rachel Sturman 47 1. Bunty: Singh Builder of Dreams / Lalitha Kamath 59 2. Imran: Housing Contractor / Tobias Baitsch 68 3. Dalpat: Manager of Services / Lisa Björkman 78 4. Mehmoodbhai: Toilet Operator / Prasad Khanolkar 87 5. Kaushal: Land Agglomerator / Llerena Guiu Searle 95 6. Janu: Sister-Supervisor of Migrant Construction Workers / Uday Chandra 101 Part II. Property. Lisa Björkman 109 7. Dr. K: Middle-Class Social Worker / Yaffa Truelove 121 8. Ashok Ravat: Shivaji Park's Sentinel / Lalit Vachani 128 9. Shazia: Proof Maker / Sangeeta Banerji 137 10. Nirmala: Kamathipura's Gatekeeper / Ratoola Kunda 145 11. Farhad: "Sue Maker" / Leilah Vevaina 154 Part III. Business / Tarini Bedi 163 12. Ramita: Surrogacy Agent / Daisy Deomampo 175 13. Muhammad: Revalorizer of E-Waste / Aneri Taskar 182 14. Deepak: Making Mumbai (in China) / Ka-Kin Cheuk 191 15. Lubaina: Framing "Development" / Lubaina Rangwala 199 16. Shankar: Delivering Authenticity / Ken Kuroda 208 17. Manal-Muna: Cooking Up Value / Tarini Bedi 216 18. Ramji: Business Energizer / Lisa Björkman 224 Part IV. Difference / Anjali Arondekar 233 19. Bhimsen Gaikwad: Singer of Justice / Shailaja Paik 243 20. Sultan: Image Manager / David J. Strohl 253 21. Raj: Carting Cosmopolitanism / Maura Finkelstein 262 22. Laxmi: Dealer in Emotion / R. Swaminathan 270 23. Dharamsey: Assembler of Tradition / Edward Simpson 278 24. Dalvi: Speaker of Cities / Gautam Pemmaraju 286 Part V. Publics / Lisa Björkman and Michael Collins 297 25. Shashi: Dot Connector / Rohan Shivkumar 307 26. Anil Prakash: Amplifier of Cinema-Industrial Connections / Kathryn Hardy 315 27. Gauravpant Mishra: Crowd Maker / Sarthak Bagchi 322 28. Srinivasan: Kingmaker / Simon Chauchard 329 29. Madhu: Door Opener / Bhushan Korgaonkar 337 30. Poornima: Designing Relations / Ajay Gandhi 347 Part VI. Truth / Lisa Björkman 355 31. Rajani Pandit: Detector of "Truths" / Srimati Basu 367 32. Afzal Taximan: Rumor Navigator / Sahana Udupa 378 33. Pawan: Prison Master / Atreyee Sen 384 34. Sujit: Master Communicator / Annelies Kusters 391 35. Chadda: Report Maker / Prasad Shetty & Rupali Gupte 401 36. Prakash: Data Entrepreneur / Amita Bhide 405 Conclusion. Other Places, Other Times / Lisa Mitchell 414 Glossary 425 About the Contributors 437 Index 441
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Duke University Press, 2021 eISBN: 978-1-4780-1308-2 Paper: 978-1-4780-1149-1 Cloth: 978-1-4780-1053-1
A political party worker who produces crowds for electoral rallies. A “prison specialist” who serves other people’s prison sentences in exchange for a large fee. An engineer who is able to secure otherwise impossible building permits. These and other dealmakers—whose behind-the-scenes expertise and labor are often invisible—have an intrinsic role in the city's functioning and can be indispensable for navigating everyday life in Bombay, one of the world’s most complex, dynamic, and populous cities. Bombay Brokers collects profiles of thirty-six such “brokers.” Written by anthropologists, artists, city planners, and activists, these character sketches bring into relief the paradox that these brokers’ knowledge and labor are simultaneously invisible yet essential for Bombay’s functioning. Their centrality reveals the global-scale paradoxes and gaps that these brokers mediate and bridge. In this way, Bombay Brokers prompts a reconsideration of what counts as legitimate and valuable knowledge and labor while offering insight into changing structures of power in Bombay and around the globe.
Contributors. Anjali Arondekar, Sarthak Bagchi, Tobias Baitsch, Sangeeta Banerji, Srimati Basu, Tarini Bedi, Amita Bhide, Lisa Björkman, Uday Chandra, Simon Chauchard, Ka-Kin Cheuk, Michael Collins, Daisy Deomampo, Maura Finkelstein, Ajay Gandhi, Rupali Gupte, Kathryn C. Hardy, Lalitha Kamath, Prasad Khanolkar, Bhushan Korgaonkar, Ratoola Kundu, Ken Kuroda, Annelies Kusters, Lisa Mitchell, Shailaja Paik, Gautam Pemmaraju, Lubaina Rangwala, Llerena Guiu Searle, Atreyee Sen, Prasad Shetty, Rohan Shivkumar, Edward Simpson, David Strohl, Rachel Sturman, R. Swaminathan, Aneri Taskar, Yaffa Truelove, Sahana Udupa, Lalit Vachani, Leilah Vevaina
AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY Lisa Björkman is Assistant Professor of Urban and Public Affairs at the University of Louisville, Research Fellow, Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle, and author of Pipe Politics, Contested Waters: Embedded Infrastructures of Millennial Mumbai, also published by Duke University Press, and Waiting Town: Life in Transit and Mumbai's Other World-Class Histories.
REVIEWS
“Lisa Björkman's collection Bombay Brokers offers a brilliantly multivocal account of the many worlds of practical negotiation and embodied expertise that animate urban life in one of India's most dynamic, polarized cities. Just as important, it is a remarkable work of collaborative ethnography that forges a distinctive methodological strategy through which to illuminate the crises and contradictions of contemporary urbanism in Bombay and beyond.”
-- Neil Brenner, Urban Theory Lab, University of Chicago
“This remarkable edited collection is a commendable contribution to the study of the links between mediation and intermediation, thus linking a venerable tradition of political anthropology with vivid portraits of the agency of brokers. It brings Bombay to life in ways that will surely inform the comparative study of fixers in other large cities caught in the flux of globalization.”
-- Arjun Appadurai, Paulette Goddard Professor of Media, Culture, and Communication, New York University
"An unconventional introduction to India's biggest city and an invitation to the joys and challenges of ethnography."
-- Andrew J. Nathan Foreign Affairs
“While [Bombay Brokers] is nominally about the city of Mumbai, there is little doubt that it will resonate with anyone interested in the story of urban change and continuity all around the world. It is a distinctive contribution to the literature on cities and labour and one that is bound to inspire similar books in years to come.”
-- Sneha Annavarapu International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
“[Bombay Brokers] is a highly engaging read, as well as a rich and very valuable contribution to the literatures about Mumbai and the concept of brokerage.... The book provides food for thought for debates about the specificity of Southern urbanisms and enriches our conceptual vocabulary for thinking about cities.”
-- Pablo Holwitt Antipode
“[Bombay Brokers] is a book that, in its combination of sharp-eyed detail and endlessly multiplying perspectives, manages to create a simulacrum of the city itself in all its plurality and vitality. . . . The structure of the book makes it especially useful as a teaching resource.”
-- Jonathan Spencer Journal of Anthropological Research
“Bombay Brokers is an expert exploration of how life is fashioned in a harshly hierarchical city through the activities of individuals—creative, complex, tenacious individuals who accomplish survival, success or profit, sometimes space to build a community, by brokering deals and mediating conflicts between messy, overflowing institutions.”
-- Tania Bhattacharyya Journal of Asian Studies
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgments viii Introduction. Ethnography in the Global Interregnum / Lisa Björkman 1 Part I. Development / Rachel Sturman 47 1. Bunty: Singh Builder of Dreams / Lalitha Kamath 59 2. Imran: Housing Contractor / Tobias Baitsch 68 3. Dalpat: Manager of Services / Lisa Björkman 78 4. Mehmoodbhai: Toilet Operator / Prasad Khanolkar 87 5. Kaushal: Land Agglomerator / Llerena Guiu Searle 95 6. Janu: Sister-Supervisor of Migrant Construction Workers / Uday Chandra 101 Part II. Property. Lisa Björkman 109 7. Dr. K: Middle-Class Social Worker / Yaffa Truelove 121 8. Ashok Ravat: Shivaji Park's Sentinel / Lalit Vachani 128 9. Shazia: Proof Maker / Sangeeta Banerji 137 10. Nirmala: Kamathipura's Gatekeeper / Ratoola Kunda 145 11. Farhad: "Sue Maker" / Leilah Vevaina 154 Part III. Business / Tarini Bedi 163 12. Ramita: Surrogacy Agent / Daisy Deomampo 175 13. Muhammad: Revalorizer of E-Waste / Aneri Taskar 182 14. Deepak: Making Mumbai (in China) / Ka-Kin Cheuk 191 15. Lubaina: Framing "Development" / Lubaina Rangwala 199 16. Shankar: Delivering Authenticity / Ken Kuroda 208 17. Manal-Muna: Cooking Up Value / Tarini Bedi 216 18. Ramji: Business Energizer / Lisa Björkman 224 Part IV. Difference / Anjali Arondekar 233 19. Bhimsen Gaikwad: Singer of Justice / Shailaja Paik 243 20. Sultan: Image Manager / David J. Strohl 253 21. Raj: Carting Cosmopolitanism / Maura Finkelstein 262 22. Laxmi: Dealer in Emotion / R. Swaminathan 270 23. Dharamsey: Assembler of Tradition / Edward Simpson 278 24. Dalvi: Speaker of Cities / Gautam Pemmaraju 286 Part V. Publics / Lisa Björkman and Michael Collins 297 25. Shashi: Dot Connector / Rohan Shivkumar 307 26. Anil Prakash: Amplifier of Cinema-Industrial Connections / Kathryn Hardy 315 27. Gauravpant Mishra: Crowd Maker / Sarthak Bagchi 322 28. Srinivasan: Kingmaker / Simon Chauchard 329 29. Madhu: Door Opener / Bhushan Korgaonkar 337 30. Poornima: Designing Relations / Ajay Gandhi 347 Part VI. Truth / Lisa Björkman 355 31. Rajani Pandit: Detector of "Truths" / Srimati Basu 367 32. Afzal Taximan: Rumor Navigator / Sahana Udupa 378 33. Pawan: Prison Master / Atreyee Sen 384 34. Sujit: Master Communicator / Annelies Kusters 391 35. Chadda: Report Maker / Prasad Shetty & Rupali Gupte 401 36. Prakash: Data Entrepreneur / Amita Bhide 405 Conclusion. Other Places, Other Times / Lisa Mitchell 414 Glossary 425 About the Contributors 437 Index 441
REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE
If you are a student who cannot use this book in printed form, BiblioVault may be able to supply you
with an electronic file for alternative access.
Please have the accessibility coordinator at your school fill out this form.
It can take 2-3 weeks for requests to be filled.
ABOUT THIS BOOK | AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY | REVIEWS | TOC | REQUEST ACCESSIBLE FILE