ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the canal offers novel heuristics on two aspects: first, the way that large hydraulic infrastructures figure in urban governance, and, second, the socio-spatial formations and transformations of the city since the early 19th century. As heritage, the Buckingham Canal functions ironically, throwing a rather dark light on the city’s urban—ecological trajectories. As infrastructure, the canal presents several ambiguities and conundrums. The canal as vantage point also highlights the shifting morphologies of land and water, and the associated dynamics of value ascription implicated in Chennai’s histories of urbanisation and settlement. By 1960, a Census study found that the banks of the canal were the single most concentrated site of slums in Madras, accounting for 10 per cent of the city’s slums. The canal, as it snakes slowly down the city, offers a map—albeit rather schematic—of the changing economic geography of Chennai’s urbanisation.
