Dr Aparna Agarwal - The making and unmaking of the Bhalswa landfill in Delhi

Contemporary South Asia Podcast by Dr Thomas Chambers & Guests

Episode notes

This paper explores the politics of invisibilising waste through peripheral spaces and built infrastructures of landfills. In particular, it examines the socio-spatial making and unmaking of the Bhalswa landfill in Delhi, from colonial to post-colonial times. It seeks to understand the processes and politics behind the opening of the landfill and the recent attempts at its closure, which have effectively failed. In doing so, it analyses the association of waste with urban marginalities both physical and social—in terms of the spaces it occupies and the lower-caste and class communities residing in the neighbouring areas of the landfill. Furthermore, the article critically explores the role of technology recently installed around the landfill in eliminating the waste crisis by invisibilising it – both spatially and materially, by incinerating wast ... 

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Keywords
IndiaWasteCasteLandfillInvisibilisationPeripheryTechnologyInfrastructureSpaceEthnography
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