Global South Asia. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022. xi, 230 pp. (Maps, B&W photos.) US$99.00, cloth. ISBN 9780295749853.
Mumbai, the financial and industrial capital of India, is one of the fastest growing cities of the Global South. However, the rhythm and pace of life of all sections of Mumbai society do not move at an equal pace. There are well-knit communities living and continuing with their inherited occupations and traditional practices. This book centres on the taxi-driving business of the Chillias, a Sunni Muslim community originally from Palanpur, Gujarat, who migrated to Mumbai a few generations ago. With the narrative focused specifically on Rashid bhai (brother), a taxi driver from this community, and his experiences driving for many years the old (joona) car, the author brilliantly examines and unravels the occupation (dhandha) of taxi-driving, Chillias social networks (jaalu), the desire of the postcolonial state (sarkar) to modernize technologies, Mumbai urban ecologies, the politics and spaces of taxi unions, the struggle to obtain permits for plying old taxis, corruption in the system, and the technologies of maintenance (dekh-bhaal) of old Padmini cars used as kaali-peeli (black and yellow) taxis. Focused on the locality called Pathanwadi, through ethnography the author reveals how taxi drivers there “see, experience, and shape the spaces of the city as a part of the work of driving and to understand how they create what they call the jaalu of the Chillia taxi trade” (18).
The book is divided into 6 chapters along with an introduction and conclusion. Thematically well-integrated, each chapter unfolds as a continuation and extension of the previous. In the introduction, the author lays out the structure of her book and the reader learns of the author’s familiarity with the city. Bedi is not approaching her subject from the outside, but as one very familiar with the city and the Chillia community. Some of her knowledge of the subject derives from her father, who not only had a Premier Padmini automobile but also a Chillia driver, and always advised her to rely on those topi-wallas (Muslim cap) taxi drivers of the city. As such, the book is based not only on the author’s previous ten years of research, but also on her observations over the years in the city and her reliance on the old networks that helped her to engage with the community, and Rashid and his family, upon whom a major part of this work is based.
Rashid has driven his kaali-peeli taxi for the last twenty years, and also takes an active interest in fixing and decorating his vehicle. Bedi narrates how collectively Rashid’s family and kin use the old taxi; the taxi is means of livelihood not only for Rashid’s family, but also for his relatives, who drive the same car in shifts and pay rent to Rashid. Thus, the car supports the livelihoods of 18 persons. This old jooni car, purchased second-hand in 2009, runs at about 15 km per hour, and as per the government policy was slated to be scrapped in 2020. The author also relates how Chillia drivers of the city are considered to be sensible and reliable, possessed with sound topographical knowledge, and not rushed.
The author also unravels the Singaporization of taxi rules in Mumbai, such as the introduction of a taxi fleet over the last two decades, compromising the dhandha of these older and traditional taxi drivers. Bedi also brings out the rivalries for space in the city’s traffic between taxi cab drivers and private car drivers, each hurling abusive and harsh slang at the other. The author relates an instance when Rashid, who has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s, driving his quivering old car was verbally abused by a private car driver, “Tere baap ka road hai kya? [Is this your father’s road?]” (11).
The author also shows the gendered aspect of taxi driving among the Chilias. That said, women play an integral part in the making of these drivers as they take care of the domestic chores and dekh-bhal (maintenance) of cars. Over time, the taxi drivers themselves become semi-mechanics. Bedi also discusses the policemen who direct Mumbai’s entangled traffic, and who are famous for confiscating driving licenses. The author details how paan and tobacco-chewing drivers spit on roads, creating spots of red.
This study is both theoretically and empirically rich. Through it is a case study of the taximen of India’s financial capital, the author extends our understanding of relations between labour and capital, capital and society, male and female, family and kin, drivers and mechanics, as well as the relationship between cars, drivers, passengers, policemen, gas stations, labour unions, and urban ecology.
However, missing in the book is any discussion or description of the many other communities—such as the Sikhs—who like the Chillias have been engaged in kaali-peeli taxi-driving for generations and are juna drivers of juna Padmini taxis and considered to be equally reliable.
The author’s writing style is more akin to storytelling, detailing and making an impression with words infused with nuance. The book’s writing is very lucid and jargon free, which helps the reader better understand the story and its context, and makes the book accessible not only to younger academics but for laypersons as well. In places the author even becomes poetic, with ample use of figures of speech lending colour to the narrative. Simile (“Dupatta floats off her shoulders like a wave of crisp blue water” [11]), metaphor, and onomatopoeia (“I hear the familiar chug as the clutch moves into place, and then feel my stomach lurch as parts of the car rattle in different directions” [10]), are found in abundance.
This book is an important contribution to work on the critical occupation of taxi-driving (related to urban mobility), which is currently undergoing a rapid transformation driven by technology and the aspirations of post-colonial citizens and the state. In fact, Rashid bhai may represent the last generation of this cab-driving community, which may very soon be lost amidst urban change led by technological revolution.
Abdul Shaban
Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai