Want to create an interactive transcript for this episode?
Podcast: New Books in Technology
Episode: Leo Coleman, āA Moral Technology: Electrification as Political Ritual in New Delhiā (Cornell UP, 2017)
Description: We take electricity for granted. But the material grids and wires that bring light to homes and connect places are also objects of moral concern, political freedoms and national advancement, suggests Leo Coleman in his new book A Moral Technology: Electrification as Political Ritual in New Delhi (Cornell University Press 2017). The book is structured around three historical and ethnographic case studiesāthe pomp and show at Viceroy Curzonās 1903 Imperial Durbar that ultimately left no trace on Delhiās physical landscape; Constituent Assembly debates on nationwide electrification legislation; and anti-privatization consumer activism pursued by New Delhiās neighborhood associations in the m...