Bombay Brokers

Published by Duke University Press 2021

Bombay Brokers

Edited by: Lisa Björkman

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781478013082

Overview
Contents

About this book

Bombay Brokers collect thirty-six character profiles of men and women whose knowledge and labor—which is often seen as morally suspect—are essential for navigating everyday life in Bombay, one of the world's most complex, dynamic, and populous cities.

Author / Editor information

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

"Bombay Brokers is ideal for teaching. One could easily assign a single chapter, thematic domain, or the whole. The book’s careful interventions on theories of value, politics, urban belonging, and place making will invigorate advanced students as well as professional anthropologists and urban planners, while individual chapters would be ideal for teaching introductory courses on cultural anthropology, urbanism, or South Asia. This imminently readable and teachable volume burgeons with insights and new research avenues for people thinking about and living in cities in South Asia and beyond."

-- Andrew McDowell City & Society

"It should be read widely. An ambitious project like this is rarely produced, or even attempted, and rarely with this consistent level of craftsmanship and shared vision start to finish. The style and length of the chapters, short and lacking pretense and jargon, make it an ideal complement to more densely theoretical tracts in undergraduate and graduate courses on urban politics and development in South Asia and the global South. The book is also a model of collaborative inquiry."

-- Patrick Inglis Contemporary Sociology

“Bombay Brokers deserves to be read and engaged with by scholars across anthropology, political science, history, and critical area studies. … [It] vividly captures the art of ethnographic writing and the ends to which it can be mobilized.”

-- Amogh Dhar Sharma Pacific Affairs

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
CONTENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
INTRODUCTION URBAN ETHNOGRAPHY IN THE GLOBAL INTERREGNUM Lisa Björkman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I DEVELOPMENT
Introduction Rachel Sturman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	47
1 BUNTY SINGH BUILDER OF DREAMS Lalitha Kamath Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	59
2 IMRAN HOUSING CONTRACTOR Tobias Baitsch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	68
3 DALPAT MANAGER OF SERVICES Lisa Björkman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
4 MEHMOODBHAI TOILET OPERATOR Prasad Khanolkar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	87
5 KAUSHAL LAND AGGLOMERATOR Llerena Guiu Searle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	95
6 JANU SISTER-SUPERVISOR OF MIGRANT CONSTRUCTION WORKERS Uday Chandra Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	101
PART II PROPERTY
Introduction Lisa Björkman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	109
7 DR. K MIDDLE-CLASS SOCIAL WORKER Yaffa Truelove Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	121
8 ASHOK RAVAT SHIVAJI PARK’S SENTINEL Lalit Vachani Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	128
9 SHAZIA PROOF MAKER Sangeeta Banerji Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	137
10 NIRMALA KAMATHIPURA’S GATEKEEPER Ratoola Kundu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	145
11 FARHAD “SUE MAKER” Leilah Vevaina Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
PART III BUSINESS
Introduction Tarini Bedi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	163
12 RAMITA SURROGACY AGENT Daisy Deomampo Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
13 MUHAMMAD REVALORIZER OF E-WASTE Aneri Taskar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	182
14 DEEPAK MAKING MUMBAI (IN CHINA) Ka-Kin Cheuk Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	191
15 LUBAINA FRAMING “DEVELOPMENT” Lubaina Rangwala Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	199
16 SHANKAR DELIVERING AUTHENTICITY Ken Kuroda Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
17 MANAL-MUNA COOKING UP VALUE Tarini Bedi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	216
18 RAMJI BUSINESS ENERGIZER Lisa Björkman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	224
PART IV DIFFERENCE
Introduction Anjali Arondekar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	233
19 BHIMSEN GAIKWAD SINGER OF JUSTICE Shailaja Paik Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	243
20 SULTAN IMAGE MANAGER David J. Strohl Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	253
21 RAJ CARTING COSMOPOLITANISM Maura Finkelstein Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	262
22 LAXMI DEALER IN EMOTION R. Swaminathan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	270
23 DHARAMSEY ASSEMBLER OF TRADITION Edward Simpson Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	278
24 DALVI SPEAKER OF CITIES Gautam Pemmaraju Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	286
PART V PUBLICS
Introduction Lisa Björkman and Michael Collins Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	297
25 SHASHI DOT CONNECTOR Rohan Shivkumar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	307
26 ANIL PRAKASH AMPLIFIER OF CINEMA-INDUSTRIAL CONNECTIONS Kathryn Hardy Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	315
27 GAURAVPANT MISHRA CROWD MAKER Sarthak Bagchi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	322
28 SRINIVASAN KINGMAKER Simon Chauchard Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	329
29 MADHU DOOR OPENER Bhushan Korgaonkar Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	337
30 POORNIMA DESIGNING RELATIONS Ajay Gandhi Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	347
PART VI TRUTH
Introduction Lisa Björkman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	355
31 RAJANI PANDIT DETECTOR OF “TRUTHS” Srimati Basu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	367
32 AFZAL TAXIMAN RUMOR NAVIGATOR Sahana Udupa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	378
33 PAWAN PRISON MASTER Atreyee Sen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	384
34 SUJIT MASTER COMMUNICATOR Annelies Kusters Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	391
35 CHADDA REPORT MAKER Prasad Shetty and Rupali Gupte Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	401
36 PRAKASH DATA ENTREPRENEUR Amita Bhide Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	405
CONCLUSION OTHER PLACES, OTHER TIMES Lisa Mitchell Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	414
GLOSSARY Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	425
ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTORS Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	437
INDEX Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	441

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 472

eBook

Published: April 5, 2021
ISBN: 9781478013082