Installing Automobility

Reviewed by: Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities by Govind Gopakumar Aparajita Mukhopadhyay (bio) Installing Automobility: Emerging Politics of Mobility and Streets in Indian Cities By Govind Gopakumar. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2020. Pp. 312. Installing Automobility is a welcome addition to mobility studies, both in the context of India and beyond. In the case of India, it adds an interpretative layer to the existing literature on mobility and urban transportation and planning by underlining how automobility is transforming Indian cities by compounding existing inequalities. Though the focus of this volume is Bengaluru, an important economic hub in southern India, the conclusions and analysis can be relevant for other Indian cities and towns and for the Global South more broadly. The book makes a forceful and empirical addition to the claim that automobiles are not merely vehicles of transit, but also "technologies that mediate and intersect with core elements of lives [...] in a complex and polyvalent manner" (p. 11). Gopakumar argues that the remarkable rise in the number of automobiles on the streets of India alongside socioeconomic inequalities in the region allows for using similar conceptual frameworks as have been applied to Western societies. Installing Automobility has seven primarily thematic chapters, although chronology provides a broad backdrop. Chapter 1 sets out the central arguments of the book and discusses the theoretical and methodological choices. The second chapter "locates" the beginning of vehicular congestion in Bengaluru by discussing how the city was transformed under the British colonial administration from the late nineteenth century onward. The third chapter brings the story forward and discusses the ways in which Bengaluru's experience as an old and established administrative and market center coincided with a new identity in postcolonial India as a hub of scientific and technological research. This, Gopakumar argues, led to significant change including spatial expansion of the city's boundaries, as well as a remarkable rise in population, attracting laborers and skilled [End Page 876] workers from across India. The following three chapters (4, 5, and 6) provide rich empirical details of how the twin pressures of "legacy-oriented" administrative decisions and the "proselytizing appeal of global values and exemplars touted by the new middle class" dramatically limited the urban space available for the marginalized (p. 135). This, Gopakumar argues, is augmented by "automotive citizenship" (p. 139)—an enduring process engendered through everyday negotiations and practices involved in traversing urban space. Although "everyday negotiations" suggests that the needs of different social groups, including the marginalized, are accommodated, Chapter 5 shows that automobility in Bengaluru has "enfranchise[d] an auto-mobile public, while at the same time excluding the non-motorized" (p. 168). Chapter 6 takes the theme of negotiation further through what the author describes as "shabby automobility" and underlines the "ongoing contestation of automobilities arising from diverse historically rooted congestions" that persistently challenge engineers or urban designers' attempts to provide seamless automobility (p. 202). The concluding chapter is an agenda for the future, exploring how the socioeconomic challenges posed by increasing automobility in Bengaluru can be met. Gopakumar provides a fascinating and empirical microlevel study of a city that despite its claim to be the "Silicon Valley of India" invariably appears bedraggled, largely because of a burgeoning population matched by rising vehicular traffic. More importantly, the book illustrates how unequal automobility in Bengaluru is a product of neoliberal political choices. Installing Automobility is an excellent reminder of the challenges that beset not just Bengaluru but more broadly the Global South: how to deliver sustained economic growth that does not amplify currently existing gaping socioeconomic inequalities. Gopakumar presents a strong argument through a relevant case study. However, except in some fleeting references in Chapters 2 and 3, the book does not discuss the role of caste and how it amplifies inequalities created by automobility. This is an important drawback, as caste is possibly the most relevant explanation of how inequality is created and sustained in contemporary India. Additionally, the book does not discuss motorbikes and scooters, which because of their lower price are popular among nonmiddle-class groups and add to the congestion on streets. Aparajita Mukhopadhyay Aparajita Mukhopadhyay is lecturer in nineteenth-century imperial history

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