Hydrosocial Precarity and Postmillennial Indian Fiction: Reading Prayaag Akbar’s Leila

Abstract

This paper aims to make a contribution to the debate on how hydropolitics help us understand the socio-spatial dynamics of urban space and identity formation by reading the speculative city in Prayaag Akbar’s Leila (2017). The paper attempts to give Leila, frequently read under dystopic genre fiction, a hydropolitical reading, an overlooked critical paradigm, particularly in the context of postmillennial Indian fiction. To that end, it draws upon the concept of hydrosocial territories to spatialize the city-splitting in Leila. This kind of approach critically reconfigures water, as a new social, that shapes the spatial. The paper charts how the neoliberal “Council” in Leila governmentalizes the hydrosocial relations. Central to its hydroterritorial apparatus is the utilization of different contours, including pipe politics, water time, and hydraulic citizenship that induce hydrosocial precarity.

Keywords:

• Hydraulic citizenship
• hydropolitics
• hydro infrastructures
• hydrosocial precarity
• postmillennial
• water democracy

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karuna Gupta

Karuna Gupta is a PhD research scholar in the Department of English at Central University of Jammu, UT of J&K, India. Her research interests include cultural studies, gender studies, spatial studies and biopolitics. She is currently working on discard and postbiopolitical frameworks in the Indian postmillennial fiction. Email: [email protected]

Raj Thakur

Raj Thakur (Ph.D., Panjab University, India, 2017) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Central University of Jammu, UT of J&K, India. He has published in reputed journals like South Asian Popular Culture and International Journal of Cultural Studies. His area of interest includes cultural studies, critical theory, and popular culture. Email: [email protected]