Claiming Mumbai: through the forgotten memories of Mithi’s shifting topographies
Tracing the topographical transformations of the Mithi river unfolds a parallel history and transformation of Mumbai. From a reading of these shifting landscapes and ever-dynamic edge conditions between water and land, emerge evidences of resilience and vestigial traces of forgotten identities not only of the river, but also the city and its people. The research steers away from the prescriptive narratives of ‘restoring the river’ and ‘correcting the city’, to explore the potential of memory in investigating future histories and claiming imminent identities. Framed on the politics of possibility, the study hopes to reimagine Mithi, and therefore, Mumbai, from a perspective that grants agency to non-human and human actors alike woven into a tapestry derived from fragments of historical narratives, official reports, independent research, media coverage as well as personal accounts.
www.betterphotography.in
Positioning the child at the edge of the water, the photographer composes his image with the hope of the future backdropped by monsoon skies and the unmistakable evidence of modernity reflecting in an expansive river.
What will probably not be frozen in his frame, and in time, is the mound of garbage the subject is perched on, the looming malodour, the debris wafting just beneath the surface of the water, and the precarity of the threshold they inhabit in that moment.
“A Walk Along The River - Better Photography.”
“Story of Cities #11: The Reclamation of Mumbai – from the Sea, and Its People?” The Guardian, March 30, 2016.
“It is almost as if the city doesn’t remember where it came from.”
Srinath Perurashilranpara. “Along the Mithi.” The Water Story (blog), May 19, 2020
The shape of the water | Preface
Forming the island city of Bombay
Mahim coast becomes Mahim Bay
Mithi loses sight of the sea
A watershed moment
The 2005 Mumbai Floods
Breaching the edges of land and water
Mithi: the failed crusader
Migration transforms Mithi’s hydrological landscape
From a geographical feature to an infrastructural system
Mithi: the restored paladin
Establishing resilience, restoring a lost identity
Resurfacing topographical memories
Deep cleaning vs cleansing
Mithi: a resurrection
Restoring an agency of care
Re-defining the water’s edge, reversing the narrative
The shape of the water | Preface
Forming the island city of Bombay
Mahim coast becomes Mahim Bay
Mithi loses sight of the sea
Primary References (books):
Chatterjee, Partha, Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Bodhisattva Kar, and In Social. New Cultural Histories of India : Materiality and Practices. New Delhi, India: Oxford University Press, 2014.
Dossal, Mariam. Theatre of Conflict, City of Hope : Mumbai, 1660 to Present Times. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010.
Dwivedi, Sharada, and Rahul Mehrotra. Bombay: The Cities Within. Edited by Umaima Mulla-Feroze. India Book House, 1995.
“In fact, Bombay’s history was a result of such a process where many impulsive and incremental gestures contributed rather than a large-scale superimposition of a pre-conceived order.”
A watershed moment
The 2005 Mumbai Floods Breaching the edges of land and water
Question:
Are these ‘natural’ phenomena, facilitated by contrived circumstances, nature’s reminder that there are other forms of existence?
Bryan Denton. “India’s Ominous Future: Too Little Water, or Far Too Much.”
Primary References:
Mathur Anuradha, and Dilip Da Cunha. SOAK : Mumbai in an Estuary. New Delhi: Rupa, 2009. Shannon, Kelly, and Janina Gosseye. Reclaiming (the Urbanism Of) Mumbai. Sun Academia, 2009.
V. Chitra, “Remembering the River: Flood, Memory and Infrastructural Ecologies of Stormwater Drainage in Mumbai,” Sage Journals.
A watershed moment
The 2005 Mumbai Floods Breaching the edges of land and water
Question:
Are these ‘natural’ calamities, nature’s way of reminiscing the past?
Primary References:
Mathur Anuradha, and Dilip Da Cunha. SOAK : Mumbai in an Estuary. New Delhi: Rupa, 2009. Shannon, Kelly, and Janina Gosseye. Reclaiming (the Urbanism Of) Mumbai. Sun Academia, 2009.
V. Chitra, “Remembering the River: Flood, Memory and Infrastructural Ecologies of Stormwater Drainage in Mumbai,” Sage Journals.
Sebastian D’Souza/AFP via Getty Images. 26 July 2005, Mumbai
“The monsoon was and is writing its own story and we are writing its myths.”Harshvardhan Bhat. “The Air of the Monsoon: in myth, pause and story.” Monsoon as Method – Assembling monsoonal multiplicities. 238. Manoj Patil/Hindustan Times via Getty Images
The lines between two elements may appear to be deftly drawn, however, these margins are constantly shifting and redefining their bounds. Hardly constant, the seemingly controlled edges are often infiltrated by claiming, reclaiming or encroaching by land, water or man.
Mithi: the failed crusader
Migration transforms Mithi’s hydrological landscape Question: Does the politics of ‘life’ trump the politics of nature?
From a geographical feature to an infrastructural system
Question: How has slow violence restructured the course and function of the Mithi?
Primary References:
Blackman, Lisa. “Affective Politics, Debility and Hearing Voices: Towards a Feminist Politics of Ordinary Suffering.” Feminist Review, no. 111 (2015)
Lalitha Kamath and Anushri Tiwari, “Ambivalent Governance And Slow Violence In Mumbai’s Mithi River,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 46, no. 4 (July 2022)
Nixon, Rob. Slow Violence and the Environmentalism of the Poor. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2011.
“It is unfortunate that one of the biggest drains of Mumbai is actually a river.”Gopal MS. “A Walk Along The River - Better Photography.” Dylan Crawford. “Sweet Mithi: The River That Soured”. The Source News
Gopal MS. “A Walk Along The River - Better Photography.”
“It is unfortunate that one of the biggest drains of Mumbai is actually a river.”Paul Noronha. “ How the Mithi Was Destroyed”. The Hindu
Mithi: the restored paladin
Establishing resilience and restoring a lost identity
Question: While function determines identity, can ‘naming’ restore a lost identity?
Resurfacing topographical and collective memories
Question: How do material traces become reminders of the way a place is perceived?
Deep cleaning vs cleansing
Question: How do we refrain from ‘othering’ to create a more empathetic ideology?
Primary References:
“A riverbank, is exactly what the name suggests a bank. It's a repository of wealth. It's a source of livelihood. It’s high time we start treating it like one.”Janak Daftari, IITian and Convenor of Jal Biradari. “Saving the Mithi | LinkedIn.” Pratik Chorge “ BMC to Install 28 Floodgates at Mithi River…” March 21, 2022. HT Photo.
Mithi: a resurrection
Who holds the agency of care
Question: Can the politics of possibility determine the agency of care?
Re-defining the water’s edge, reversing the
Question:
How can memory be employed as a tool to reaffirm and redefine narratives?
“Cosmetic Measures Will Not Revive Mithi River in Mumbai.” www.inkl.com/news
Primary References:
Bellacasa, Maria Puig de la. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2017. Appadurai, Arjun. The Future as Cultural Fact : Essays on the Global Condition. London: Verso Books, 2013.
Mithi: a resurrection
Who holds the agency of care
Question:
Can the politics of possibility determine the agency of care?
Re-defining the water’s edge, reversing the narrative
Question:
How can memory be employed as a tool to reaffirm and redefine narratives?
“Strategies and approaches pertinent to public space for addressing floods” www.revistes.upc.edu
Primary References:
Bellacasa, Maria Puig de la. Matters of Care: Speculative Ethics in More than Human Worlds. Minneapolis, London: University of Minnesota Press, 2017.
Appadurai, Arjun. The Future as Cultural Fact : Essays on the Global Condition. London: Verso Books, 2013.
“Sustainability does assume faith in a future, and also a sense of responsibility for ‘passing on’ to future generations a world that is liveable and worth living in”
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LAND FORMATION: FROM BOMBAY TO MUMBAI
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