This large-format book with many colour photos and drawings is an amazing documentation of home, work, life and culture in Dharavi. As most readers of Environment and Urbanization will know, Dharavi is a large informal township in Mumbai, which is the home and workplace for several hundred thousand people. Papers by Jockin Arputham and Sheela Patel in the two previous issues of Environment and Urbanization have explained how Dharavi is now under threat from external developers.

This book was put together by a group of artists, architects and writers as part of a project based at the Royal University College of Fine Arts in Stockholm. After an initial visit to India in 2005, which included a visit to Dharavi, they recognized how little they actually knew. But fascinated by both the poverty of Dharavi and the vitality and ingenuity of its inhabitants, they decided to document it, drawing heavily on interviews and discussions with its inhabitants. They returned to Dharavi in 2006 and 2007. This book brings together what they learnt, drew and photographed. The authors are also clear that they went to Dharavi to learn, not to teach.

Chapter 1 gives background information about Dharavi, including its history and its multiple links with the economy of Mumbai and beyond. Chapter 2 is a description of a walk through one street, giving a lot of detail and many photos to show its complexity, including the mix of home and business. It includes plot maps and detailed drawings of particular houses and their use of space. Chapter 3, entitled “Density and Infrastructure”, describes the lack of provision for water and sanitation (and the politics of defaecation in Dharavi), land use in Dharavi, examples of businesses there (for instance, the private doctor’s office), the use of streets and congested spaces and the quality of public and private infrastructure – all illustrated with numerous photos. Chapter 4 documents Dharavi’s economy, including the recycling industry, leather production, the printing industry, potteries, textiles, food production, a kite factory and many crafts and other businesses – again all illustrated with photos. Chapter 5 is about Dharavi as home to hundreds of thousands of people – with multiple photos, drawings and details of housing conditions. Here, as in Chapter 4, it combines general statistics with very detailed examples of particular people’s homes and interviews with Dharavi residents. Chapter 6 is about Dharavi’s organization and sustainability. It describes local organizations and how they work (for instance, the Mahila Milan groups within Dharavi); also the lives and livelihoods of various Dharavi residents. The book ends with details of what is currently happening with regard to plans for Dharavi’s redevelopment – including the black flags protest in June 2007 and the support for Dharavi residents from a group of well-known civil servants and professionals.

This is a book that deserves to be on the reading list of all courses that deal with urban development. It also deserves to be read by all professionals engaged in urban redevelopment, including those involved in discussing Dharavi’s redevelopment.