Siddhartha Mukherjee (Jawaharlal Nehru University), "Controlling the Currents: Wartime Crises, State Response, and Electricity Consumption in Delhi (1942-44)"
Discussant: Victor Seow (Harvard University)
Abstract
This paper explores the history of electricity in Delhi during the Second World War by looking at the results of three intersecting crises. The crises were related to the availability of coal, capacity of electricity generating power station, and the problems in importing electrical machineries. The essay demonstrates the resultant attempts by the colonial state to impose restrictions on the uses of electricity. In so doing, it reveals how the colonial state instructed the inhabitants of Delhi to use less electricity and the results of the imposition of its restrictions on the street, in the pumping stations and broadly, on the lives of the people of Delhi. The paper argues that focusing on the history of electricity in Delhi in the 1940s brings out the state’s attempt to influence the habits of its subjects and shows the limits of its control on infrastructures at a time of crises.