CSH – CPR co-organize a digital workshop on:
Daggamaar Transport: Everyday Mobilities in Dehradun and Shillong
by
Gaurav Mittal
Tuesday, 29 June 2021, 3:45 PM IST onwards.
The session will be online via Zoom. To register, kindly fill this form
The session will also be live-streamed on the CPR Facebook page. About the Talk
Based on findings from his PhD research, which explored the relationship between transport and the city in two small Indian cities of Dehradun and Shillong, in this talk the speaker will highlight how private interests of transport operators fuse with the public welfare function of the state in these cities. It transforms transport into a service which offers neither a market-based solution to people’s mobility requirements nor a public good which should lead to equitable social development. Instead, this transport can be explained as Daggamaar – a colloquial Hindustani term predominantly used in North India to describe the ad hoc, arbitrary, and temporary nature of operation of transport vehicles. Daggamaar transport is facilitated by the practices of the state, which keeps an ambivalent outlook towards such operation. The speaker argues that as opposed to the widespread belief that the transport in these cities operates in the absence of state regulations, Daggamaar nature of transport helps the state to keep a firm control over the urban transport, through which the order of the cities is produced and maintained.
About the Speaker
Gaurav Mittal has completed his PhD from the Department of Geography, National University of Singapore. Located at the juncture of urban, transport, and political geographies, his research enquires into the role of governance of transport in ordering the urban space in two small Indian cities of Dehradun and Shillong. He is currently undertaking a visiting fellowship at Leibniz Institute of Regional Geography, Leipzig (Germany). Prior to joining his PhD, he has worked for five years in urban sector in India. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in Architecture and a master’s degree in Urban Policy and Governance from Tata Institute of Social Sciences.
This is the hundred and thirty-seventh in a series of Urban Workshops planned by the
Centre de Sciences Humaines (CSH), New Delhi and
Centre for Policy Research (CPR). These workshops seek to provoke public discussion on issues relating to the development of the city and try to address all its facets including its administration, culture, economy, society and politics. For further information, please contact:
Aprajita Sarcar of CSH at aprajita[dot]sarcar[at]csh-delhi[dot]com
, Mukta Naik at mukta[at]cprindia[dot]org or
Marie-Hélène Zerah at marie[hyphen]helene[dot]zerah[at]ird[dot]fr.