Robert Smith

Workshop on authoritarianism, law, and the remaking of society 🗓️19 - 20 June 2025, 10am 📌S312 (Paul Webley Wing), SOAS Registration: shorturl.at/w9XPG Programme 👇

It's part of a long-running movement, some of it is covered here:

Wrote something for Public Culture on what Bulldozers have come to mean today. It engages Science and Technology studies with questions of contemporary politics in India and beyond. The proof copy is behind the paywall for a while. Here is the link. read.dukeupress.edu/public-culture…

Thrilled to share the cover of my book, forthcoming from @PennPress 😍❤️

In the public health literature on India, one thing folks like me dont agree with is the persistent belief that India is 'resource-poor' or has 'insufficient funds' for taking care of its people. Awesom that back in 1971, KS Sanjivi had already made this point: India ain't poor.

Meera Nanda - A Field Guide to Post-Truth India Explains a lot of the nonsense we see today in terms of saffronized institutional discourse and its intellectual roots - especially in the fields of science, medicine and education - while offering solid rebuttals. Read:

Very interesting read so far.

Just published in Environment and Planning E: Nature and Space! This paper examines Mumbai's unfinished sewage infrastructure and deepens our understanding of how infrastructural 'delays' are lived. Link: journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/25… #UrbanStudies #Infrastructure #Mumbai

Assembling India's Constitution: A New Democratic History by @OrnitShani and @itihaasnaama is out later this year with @CambridgeUP (cover below) and @PenguinIndia cambridge.org/core/books/ass…

The past few days have been a harsh lesson in how India's top private hospitals treat EWS patients. What unfolded at @fortis_hospital in Delhi was not just negligence, it was open discrimination. A case study on how healthcare, at its worst, becomes a privilege, not a right:

Want to pick up a great book to read on Women’s Day? These are my 5 recommendations - 1) Why Loiter? This book is such an eye-opener on how we perceive and behave in public spaces and how inherently gendered these spaces are. Fantastic for working towards an inclusive world!

@PoojaSharm3006 And you were a hug reason for that, Pooja. You teach me so much. Thank you

@Robosmit And you survived to tell the tale!! Bon voyage 🛫 and so much love ♥️

18 months later. That was hard. Lots to write. I didnt feel safe posting much on twitter during the duration of my research. Will be nice to be back, and redicosver my voice. Fieldwork: done ✔️

AAP has made lots of mistakes - but this 2025 election loss cannot be attributed to a single one of them. BJP won thru a brazen power grab. Other explanations are missing the giant elephant in the room - a BJP that is subverting our democracy. theprint.in/opinion/bjp-de…

It's practically nightmare going to big private hospitals. You get the sense from minute you step foot they are preparing you to spend as much money as possible before they let you leave. We recently went to prominent hospital in NCR to doctor who came recommended for my mother

The CfP for the UCLA Center for India and South Asia (CISA) Interdisciplinary Grad Conference (May 17 '25) is live. Please submit abstracts and share widely: docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAI…

@Jasmine441 @PenguinIndia Any planned book launches in Delhi that are open to the public?

Thrilled to announce the launch of my first book: The Delhi Model: A Bold New Road Map to Building a Developed India Will release around mid-December by @PenguinIndia More details and pre-order link: amazon.in/dp/0143472135 The book tells the impossible story of how a political startup under the leadership of @ArvindKejriwal ended up redefining governance in India, leading to the birth of a brand new model of governance - The Delhi Model. It's a first hand and research-backed account that unpacks the reforms undertaken by the AAP government in Delhi in six key sectors—education, health, air pollution, transport, electricity and water—and the outcomes they resulted in. It also draws out an ambitious road map for building a developed India by leveraging principles of the Delhi Model. This book is the first such account of what the Delhi Model truly is, detailing its economic foundation and how it compares with other governance models in India, especially the Gujarat Model. The book took nearly two years of planning and writing but I enjoyed every moment of it. It was a collaborative project and I can't thank enough so many friends and colleagues who helped me through it. Grateful to Raghuram Rajan, Justice Madan Lokur, Rajiv Bajaj, Arun Maira and Karthik Muralidharan for the early endorsements. Do spread the word and start ordering your copies NOW!

Ppl r rightly mad about a new South Asian ('Indian') history textbook by an academician whose Twitter feed contains massive red (& bhagwa) flags. Just taking the opportunity to remind folks of a brilliant history textbook they might never have heard of. G. Aloysius's eye-opener:

@Vakeel_Sb Any type of analysis you are aware of that goes into the history (of the political economy) of this act? ie why who how, etc. Thanks for sharing this important point

Delhi's toxic smog has roots in the Punjab Subsoil Water Act, 2009, designed to conserve groundwater by delaying paddy sowing. Which resulted due to Israel 's lobbying of its high yield and water efficient seeds. Consequent: synchronized stubble burning choking NCR. #DelhiSmog

How people are fooled to work against their collective interests by popular capitalist propaganda tropes: a thread 🧵