Uncivil City

Ecology, Equity and the Commons in Delhi

“Although published shortly before the arrival of COVID-19 in India, Baviskar’s thesis nonetheless echoes the events unfolding in the capital, and across urban India today…. The vision of Delhi to which Uncivil City is committed emerges from a radial sense of possibility to conceive new, collective futures.”

“Connected by a timely introduction and concluding chapter, the book makes for relevant and sobering pandemic reading… Ethnographic writing in India has come a long way from M.N. Srinivas’s orderly and tranquil prose. This work exemplifies this shift.” 

“Her attention to the details of climate change, and how we look at the river Yamuna and the lives of the people who live by its sides is a masterly discourse. Amita uses a spare but interesting prose which occasionally turns chatty, but only to introduce us to an anthropologist’s sense of being part of the picture.” 

“Uncivil City is more than an academic tract. It is an elegy for Delhi… That is what makes the book tactile, relatable, and engaged.”

“The power of this collection lies in the evocative writing that often resembles a travelogue… the richness of this collection… contributes to an abundance of fascinating works on the changes in Delhi in the last ten years.”

“One of the first things that strikes one about the book is its’ readability… There are important things in this book for all of us to think about.”