Narratives and Politics DISSERTATION
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, IRVINE Persistence of Water Access Conflicts in Mumbai: Narratives and Politics DISSERTATION submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy by Paroma Subodh Wagle Dissertation Committee: Professor Richard Matthew, Chair Professor David Feldman Professor Kavita Philip 2020 © 2020 Paroma Subodh Wagle DEDICATION To My parents. And the oddity that is water. Water is far from a simple commodity, Water's a sociological oddity, Water's a pasture for science to forage in, Water's a mark of our dubious origin, Water's a link with a distant futurity, Water's a symbol of ritual purity, Water is politics, water's religion, Water is just anyone's pigeon, Water is frightening, water's endearing, Water's a lot more than mere engineering, Water is tragical, water is comical, Water is far from the pure economical, So studies of water, though free from aridity, Are apt to produce a good deal of turbidity. - Kenneth Boulding (1966) ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page LIST OF FIGURES iv LIST OF TABLES v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS vi VITA vii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION . viii CHAPTER 1: IINTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 2: RESEARCH DESIGN 24 CHAPTER 3: RIGHTS 54 CHAPTER 4: TENEMENT 80 CHAPTER 5: TECHNOLOGY 109 CHAPTER 6: ECONOMICS 136 CHAPTER 7: POLITICS OF NARRATIVES 162 CHAPTER 8: POLITICS OF PRACTICE 186 CHAPTER 9: DYNAMIC GRIDLOCK 204 CHAPTER 10: CONCLUSION 222 PANDEMIC POST-SCRIPT 249 BIBLIOGRAPHY 254 LIST OF INTERVIEWEES 280 iii LIST OF FIGURES Page Figure 1.1 Bombay in 1893 18 Figure 7.2 Strategic Positioning of Narratives and Actors 165 Figure 9.3 Two Separate but Interconnected Planes 208 Figure 9.2 Dynamic Gridlock 211 iv LIST OF TABLES Page Table 2.1 Substantive Themes and Core Rhetoric of Narratives 49 Table 2.2 Strategic Typology and Corresponding Narratives 51 Table 7.1 Typology of Narratives: Strategic Approach 164 Table 7.2 Values and Interests: Hydraulic Engineers 169 Table 7.2 Values and Interests: Officials and Politicians 171 Table 7.2 Values and Interests: Activists 172 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions: Hydraulic Engineers 176 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions: Activists 177 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions: Politicians in Power 179 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions: Politicians in Opposition 180 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions: Experts 182 Table 7.2 Essence of Positions and Rhetoric of Narratives 224 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my committee chair Professor Richard Matthew, who has been a continued source of inspiration, encouragement, guidance, and support. I am especially grateful for the independence and strength he instilled in me to explore new and challenging horizons in research, and on the other hand the grounding he provided through training in theory and diverse fields. From him, I also learnt to look at the big picture, while being amazed by the little things that matter. I would like to thank my committee member Professor Kavita Philip for setting an example of the scholar, mentor, friend, and person I now aspire to be. Working under Professor Philip’s guidance has been an invaluable experience and has changed my outlook of the world, and, at the same time, has taught me to stand strong in my convictions and values. She has helped me expand and elevate my thinking and research for which I am truly grateful. I would also like to thank my committee member Professor David Feldman, from whom I learnt to be a true water professional and an enthusiastic teacher. His love for water is infectious. His continued encouragement and support to follow my own path and passions has often been the trigger I needed to keep working when I doubted myself and my research. Immense gratitude towards my interviewees in the city of Mumbai who welcomed me and shared their stories with me. Thank you for your cooperation, trust, and openness. Thank you to Pranjal Deekshit and Lalita Joshi for making my fieldwork in Mumbai such a success through their guidance, incomparable local knowledge, and connections. I would like to acknowledge the support of UCI’s School of Social Ecology as well as the staff and faculty of the Department of Urban Planning and Public Policy. Timely help, guidance, and support were provided by numerous people in varied capacities. I would like to especially thank Janet Gallagher, the Graduate Coordinator of the UEPP program and a dear friend, who was invaluable in this PhD process. I would like to thank all my friends and cohort in UCI for their friendship, camaraderie, love, and peer mentorship. My cohort – Nene Osutei, Michelle Zuniga, Narae Lee, Deyanira Nevarez Martinez, Mariana Garcia Junqueira, and Edith Medina Huarita – have been my anchor and support system in UCI for five years. Thank you to Jongho Won for being my calm and encouraging writing buddy and friend. Thank you to Ashley Hooper, Matt Schneider, Genia Nizkorodov, Sifat Raezi, Maureen Purcell, and Yi Ci Lo for your support and friendship. A special thank you to Amrita Jain for her generosity, affection, and kindness particularly in the final stretch of my PhD. Thank you to my little global commune of strong independent women who have hoisted me up during tough times and celebrated my every little victory with me. Thank you to Leonie Sterk for vi her enduring friendship and love, and for sharing this PhD journey virtually and vicariously. Thank you to Maggie Dethloff, my roommate, dearest friend, writing buddy, and one-woman cheerleading team, without whom the last five years would not have been complete. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my uncle, grandmother, aunts, cousins, and cats for their unconditional solidarity and love over the years. Thank you to my mother, Vibha Wagle, for all the love in the world, and teaching me to be a more empathetic person. Last but not the least, thank you to my father, Subodh Wagle for being my inspiration and the most solid unwavering support in my life. vii VITA Paroma Subodh Wagle 2010 B.Sc. Statistics (with Physics and Chemistry), University of Pune, India 2010-11 Research Associate, Prayas Pune, India 2011-13 Erasmus Mundus Masters in Environmental Sciences, Policy and Management, Jointly awarded by Central European University (Hungary), Aegean University (Greece) , Lund University (Sweden) and Manchester University (U.K.) 2015 M. Res. Social Science Research Methods (International Development Specialization), University of East Anglia, United Kingdom 2015-16 Teaching Assistant, School of Social Ecology, University of California, Irvine 2016-19 Research Assistant, SedRISE Project, University of California, Irvine 2020 Ph.D. in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy, University of California, Irvine FIELD OF STUDY Water Conflicts viii ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Persistence of Water Access Conflicts in Mumbai: Narratives and Politics by Paroma Subodh Wagle Doctor of Philosophy in Urban and Environmental Planning and Policy University of California, Irvine, 2020 Associate Dean Richard Mathew, Chair Access to adequate, timely, and reliable supply of good quality water is fundamental to survival and well-being of human beings. However, a large part of the global population, including population of megacities of the world, is denied access to water. Conflict over water-access has been a historical phenomenon in Mumbai, one of the global megacities in India. Such conflict still persists in the city especially over denial of access to the formal water supply network to residents of slum colonies, even though the city has abundant water supply and adequate financial resources. This doctoral dissertation investigates persistence of this water-access conflict in the city of Mumbai. While accepting the theoretical lens of political ecology, the dissertation adopts the methodological approach that involves eliciting, re-articulating, and analysing narratives around the issue of water-access of key actors who influence water-access policies. Narratives, here, are normative accounts deployed by actors around a contested issue. Such narratives comprise articulation of positions of these actors on the issue and justification of these positions. Often, these also include criticisms of positions of other actors. The field work for this research involved multi-round and extended semi-structured interviews— conducted over a period of ten months—of sixty-four respondents representing different key actor-groups. The data collected was analysed parallelly using the thematic analysis technique and NVivo, the qualitative data analysis software. Twelve narratives emerging from data have the following central themes: (i) Human Rights, (ii) Right to City, (iii) Legality of Tenements, (iv) Structure and Spatiality of Tenements, (v) Planning Lacunas, (vi) Technical Barriers (vii) Techno-Fixes, (viii) Economic and Financial Barriers, (ix) ix Commodification and Privatization, (x) Slum-Dwellers as Free-Riders, (xi) Slum-Dwellers as Thieves, (xii) Mafia, Profiteers, and Nexus. These narratives are divided in four substantive groupings, titled: Rights, Tenements, Technology, and Economics. Different actor-groups involved in this conflict strategically deploy these narratives in order to protect and promote their respective interests and values. Based on such strategies, these narratives are divided in four strategic groups called Narratives of Claim, of Denial, of Evasion, and of Excuse. Starting with inequality and the conflict around water-access and using the theoretical lens of political ecology, this dissertation then presents politics, on the plane of narratives, around the water-access conflict. This politics manifests in terms of contestation among values and interests underlying these narratives as well as among strategic positions of different actors. The overall picture that emerges from this politics leads to the finding that the conflict around water-access on the plane of narratives is in the state of gridlock. The lens of political ecology is also used to bring out politics on the ground or on the plane of practice, operating in three different spheres— namely, politics of policy, politics of class, and politics of othering.