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TOXICITY 1: On Ambiguity and Sewage in Mumbai's Urban Sea

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  • Nikhil Anand

Abstract

In this essay, I focus on the remarkable process through which Mumbai's urban administration has continued to release its sewage, largely untreated, into the Arabian Sea. I show how it does this by rendering sewage both legally and materially ambiguous. I urge an attention to the processes of legal and material ambiguation, through which ‘slow violence’ is unevenly administered in Mumbai. Building on the work of Jacqueline Best, I argue that ambiguity does not simply leave open improvised forms of technocratic administration; ambiguity also defers bureaucratic activity in particular domains, while permitting activity in others. Taken together, the municipal administration mobilizes ambiguity so as to evade rendering toxicity an actionable problem of urban living and distributed social vulnerability in the city.

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  • Nikhil Anand, 2022. "TOXICITY 1: On Ambiguity and Sewage in Mumbai's Urban Sea," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 687-697, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ijurrs:v:46:y:2022:i:4:p:687-697
    DOI: 10.1111/1468-2427.13093
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Pranjal Deekshit & Simran Sumbre, 2022. "AFTER THE RIGHT TO WATER: Rethinking the State and Justice in Mumbai," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 711-720, July.
    2. Vyjayanthi Rao, 2006. "Slum as theory: the South/Asian city and globalization," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 30(1), pages 225-232, March.
    3. Sapana Doshi & Malini Ranganathan, 2017. "Contesting the Unethical City: Land Dispossession and Corruption Narratives in Urban India," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 107(1), pages 183-199, January.
    4. Lalitha Kamath & Anushri Tiwari, 2022. "Ambivalent Governance And Slow Violence In Mumbai'S Mithi River," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 674-686, July.
    5. Matthew Gandy, 2004. "Rethinking urban metabolism: water, space and the modern city," City, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 8(3), pages 363-379, December.
    6. COLIN McFARLANE & JONATHAN RUTHERFORD, 2008. "Political Infrastructures: Governing and Experiencing the Fabric of the City," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 32(2), pages 363-374, June.
    7. Sapana Doshi, 2019. "Greening Displacements, Displacing Green: Environmental Subjectivity, Slum Clearance, and the Embodied Political Ecologies of Dispossession in Mumbai," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 43(1), pages 112-132, January.
    8. Tathagat Bhatia, 2022. "TOXICITY 2: The Violence of Thresholds in Philadelphia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 698-710, July.
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    1. Tathagat Bhatia, 2022. "TOXICITY 2: The Violence of Thresholds in Philadelphia," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 698-710, July.
    2. Pranjal Deekshit & Simran Sumbre, 2022. "AFTER THE RIGHT TO WATER: Rethinking the State and Justice in Mumbai," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 711-720, July.
    3. Lalitha Kamath & Anushri Tiwari, 2022. "Ambivalent Governance And Slow Violence In Mumbai'S Mithi River," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 674-686, July.
    4. Nikhil Anand & Bethany Wiggin & Lalitha Kamath & Pranjal Deekshit, 2022. "ENDURING HARM: Unlikely Comparisons, Slow Violence and the Administration of Urban Injustice," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 651-659, July.
    5. Malini Ranganathan, 2022. "CODA: The Racial Ecologies of Urban Wetlands," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 46(4), pages 721-724, July.

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