Archives - Question of Cities

‘Keep environmental justice at the core, not mere environmentalism’

India’s economic growth model, which is based on passing costs to the poor and marginalised while the benefits are for another class of people, makes environmental justice urgent. Environmental issues are seen as problems to be solved with technological interventions,…

How bold urban designs are changing our relationship with cities

As cities develop, streets and public spaces are built to give more room to an increasing number of vehicles. In the process, these spaces lose their people-centric character, disconnecting residents from their cities. Some cities around the world have broken…

We, the people, must fight to save our cities and ourselves

Governments and authorities are the custodians of our ecology but, in the past few years, people have resisted and protested actions of their governments to save trees, forests, hills, rivers, creeks, seafronts, wetlands and more. While the prevailing urban development…

Jal Satyagraha: From water conversations to water conservation and justice

Drawn from the ‘swaraj through satyagraha’ concept of India’s independence movement, the struggle for water access and equity has spread across rural India. It’s time for Jal Satyagraha to take shape in cities too given the water crises, top-down water…

To record and remember changing cities is to resist their erasure

As cities transform with breath-taking speed and the shiny new replaces the fading old, resisting the physical change is impractical and untenable. Resistance then takes other forms such as documenting, recording, collecting stories, organising walks, logging the everyday life, and…

Watching over the water of our lakes and wetlands

Thane and Navi Mumbai, old and new cities respectively which are often overshadowed by Mumbai, have seen their ecological abundance of rivers, creeks, wetlands, hills and forests threatened by ‘development’ plans and infrastructure projects. Professionals, environmentalists, architects, traditional communities like…

‘Resistance is needed for government to perform its basic duties’

Eminent environmentalist Ravi Chopra resigned from the Supreme Court-appointed high-powered committee to supervise the Char Dham road-widening project in 2022 as an act of protest. His advice to limit the road width in the fragile Himalayan terrain had been overruled.…

‘Keep environmental justice at the core, not mere environmentalism’

How bold urban designs are changing our relationship with cities

We, the people, must fight to save our cities and ourselves

Jal Satyagraha: From water conversations to water conservation and justice

To record and remember changing cities is to resist their erasure

Watching over the water of our lakes and wetlands

‘Resistance is needed for government to perform its basic duties’

We want safe cities, we want feminist cities

Small but significant changes for gender-inclusive cities

‘The Delhi metro is inclusive but also not equitable’