The Right to Be Counted

Reviews / Votes

"The Right to Be Counted presents a rich ethnographic analysis of the range of strategies adopted by displaced populations crowding into urban slums to stake their claim to belong to the city. Routray's depiction of 'numerical citizenship' is persuasive and enlightening. This is a valuable addition to the growing literature on popular politics in megacities."-Partha Chatterjee, Columbia University "This is a 'how things work' book of top quality. With deep, analytical, thoughtful scholarship, Routray provides one of the clearest and most accessible accounts of how the poor fight to make a home in Delhi."-Durba Chattaraj, Ashoka University "Routray offers an impressive and authoritative account that displays a remarkable ability to synthesize interdisciplinary ideas from across disciplines and geographies, while always building his theorizing from a deep commitment to a historically informed ethnography. I learned so much about the relationship between housing, politics and citizenship in Delhi, and beyond. I am sure this text will resonate well beyond its origins."-Ryan Powell, Housing Studies "Routray's book highlights how the logics of planning are employed not only by the powerful to suit the interests of global city making but also by marginalized communities to resist processes of uprooting and work to secure the rights of urban citizenship. The author navigates the difficult task of arguing for the agency of Delhi's urban poor while documenting the profound injustice and suffering they endure in the process."-Shoshana Goldstein, Journal of the American Planning Association "[The Right to be Counted] is a fine-grained ethnography of the politics of the poor in Delhi, and it deserves commendation."-Diya Mehra, Contributions to Indian Sociology "The Right to be Counted is an ethnographic masterpiece on how politics 'actually' works in Delhi's informal settlements. Sanjeev Routray's analysis and arguments skillfully cover the multi-scalar and relational practices, agents, and sites that shape and realise citizenship for residents of these settlements."-Naomi Hazarika, Journal of Contemporary Asia "The Right to Be Counted: The Urban Poor and The Politics of Resettlement in Delhi by Sanjeev Routray offers a compelling analysis of citizenship struggles of the urban poor in contemporary times."-Paroj Banerjee, Society and Space