PUKAR is an innovative and experimental initiative that aims to contribute to a global debate about urbanization and globalization.

PUKAR takes Mumbai as its conceptual base and laboratory for cross-disciplinary research projects. PUKAR organizes seminars, workshops, talks and film screenings in English, Marathi and occasionally other Mumbai languages, and focuses specifically on producing a new space for critical engagement. Its goal is to generate new urban knowledge by encouraging maximum participation of Mumbai’s citizens in this process.

PUKAR’s team consists of a group of scholars, social and cultural activists and professionals in the fields of art, journalism, film, architecture, urban planning and social sciences. The organization was founded in 2001 by Professor Arjun Appadurai (Senior Vice-President for Global Initiatives, New School University, New York, USA), who serves as the President of its Board of Trustees.

PUKAR has an innovative transnational structure that allows PUKAR to tap into transnational circuit of scholarship and activism in creative ways and to bring respective concerns of Mumbai to these global circulations.