Page 260 - EducationWorld November 2020

Books

the author takes a clear talks about it and some understand that being poor left to die in the most in-
stand that it is “automobile are ashamed of this spatial doesn’t necessarily result humane circumstances.
avarice” that generates hierarchy, little is done to in dependence and me- The Covid-19 pandemic
the noxious air Delhiites remove it. Amita Baviskar niality. It is about under- has vividly presented
breathe, to a greater extent provides a timely remind- standing the hinterland, visual imagery of the
than any other factor. Any- er that social conscience, which when depleted of death-dealing behaviour
one who has lived in the civic sense and justice for opportunities forces people of employers and land-
environs of factories would the poor must be woven to migrate to cities. She lords, as migrant workers
know experientially that into every discourse of civ- seeks to understand why were rendered destitute.
air does get cleaner when ic management and urban bourgeoisie mentalities are What Amita Baviskar with
factories move away. planning. Her attention to so hardened that they view her understanding of the
Yet, Baviskar through climate change, degrada- poverty as an accident of commons, and grasp of
quantitative analyses tion of River Yamuna and fate and have ill-concealed the importance of revitali-
proves her case. Her analy- the lives of people who live contempt for those forced sation of forest lands dis-
sis of the Commonwealth on its banks is a masterly into shanties and slums. plays is that in the search
Games, the construction of discourse on the connec- The servitude or “disor- for ironed-out parks for
sports stadia and housing tions between environ- der” of the poor is the very the middle class, workers
enclaves as pride parades ment, ecology and human “order of capitalism” that are treated as unwelcome
that benefit the upper rights of the poor, which the Mexican sociologist encroachers doomed to
classes is astute, as is her as she demonstrates are Manuel Castells discussed exclusion, without water
charge that all Delhiites non-existent. 50 years ago in The Urban and basic amenities. They
live with the continual In this important Question (1979). Urban serve the city, but the city
show of excess, while hid- book, Baviskar has made elites regard it as an op- prefers not to see them.
ing the squalor of the poor. an appeal to the social portunity to extract labour SUSAN VISVANATHAN
Although everyone conscience of people to of the poor until they are (The Book Review)

260 EDUCATIONWORLD NOVEMBER 2020