Exploring Urban Change in South Asia. New Delhi: Springer India, 2015. xi, 233 pp. (Illustrations.) US$129.00, cloth. ISBN 978-81-322-2153-1.
Surajit Chakravarty and Rohit Negi have put together empirical essays that examine how neo-liberal policies are materialized in specific contexts to highlight “the complex of ideologies, institutions, and political practices” that interact with the weight of global capital (5) in transforming Delhi. The editors focus on what they label “interstitial spaces,” defined as “the ordinary spaces that exist alongside centers of consumption, megaprojects, special economic zones, gated communities, high-end apartment complexes and large infrastructure installations” (6). Thus, they include “markets, resettlement colonies, industrial areas, urban villages, public transportation” as interstitial spaces against what they call the “winners-and losers” of urban transformation. Including the editors’ introduction, the book has eleven chapters, which I discuss below.
Seth Schindler explores how street hawkers negotiate with a fragmented state at various sites, thereby making a case for the state as amenable in multiple ways beyond a framework of benevolence and malevolence. He also delineates the arrangements the street hawkers have established with a range of non-state actors to avert raids and disciplining protocols encoded in zoning laws. In a meticulously documented history of land claims in the formation of heterogeneous communities, Shruti Dubey examines the contentious issue of “participation” in the various designs for in-situ resettlement of the puppeteers of Kathputli colony under the public-private-partnership policy currently in vogue. The unsettled contention between the communities of artists, non-artists, and lepers in the 1980s and 1990s was aided by what can be argued as the politics of preferential endorsement of artists on behalf of the civil society that largely invoked a neo-traditionalist argument. However, as Dubey argues, recently the unity of artists and non-artists in resisting the might of state and capital has influenced the claims over land in the city.
Kavita Ramakrishnan examines everyday corruption through patronage and brokerage networks on the part of the residents of Bawana resettlement colony in procuring rations and infrastructure. Tracking a particular case of “corruption” over time could have served her purpose better in providing nuanced arguments about various actors, arrangements, and tactics.
Ursula Rao explores how the residents of Savda Ghevra resettlement colony maneuver their environment by turning barren land into aesthetically and sensually pleasing gardens/landscapes in efforts to restore moral and salubrious physical order. While I am not absolutely sure if these efforts constitute “small-scale urban gentrification,” there is merit in treating gardens as “serendipitous spaces that permit different values, desires, and needs to coexist” (84).
Rolee Aranya and Vilde Ulset explore “incipient informality” and “insurgent space making” in Savda Ghevra to underline the processes of entrepreneurship and service provisioning. While they allude to the underside of these acts of survival practices primarily in innovations with respect to physical mobility, mobilizing social networks, entrepreneurial initiatives, and livelihood flexibility, one could have learnt more if the authors had provided analysis of varied forms of exclusion, relative advantages of communities, and difficulties with the host population. Surajit Chakravarty, in an insightful analysis of the transformation of Mahipalpur village, explores the tensions between “bureaucratic categorization,” state interventions, and “opportunistic entrepreneurship” (113). He gives a much-needed account of the evolution of the policies that defined the inhabited areas (abadi) and the agricultural farmland in the colonial and postcolonial periods. Thus, while the colonial state demarcated farmland from abadi areas for taxation purposes, the postcolonial statecraft of land acquisition created a rent gap between the villages and the newly acquired land, thereby propelling opportunistic entrepreneurship, involvement of developers and elected representatives, and also the establishment of unauthorized colonies. In the specific case of Mahipalpur village, this led to the mushrooming of budget hotels and logistics firms, warehouses, mixed-use commercial spaces, and professionalized housing services. The author has provided a nuanced analysis of state informality and indecision, though it would have been useful if he had delved into the dynamics of local politics in the transformation of the village.
Shahana Sheikh and Subhadra Banda, in their analysis of legal and policy protocols for the regularization of unauthorized colonies in Delhi, provide a historically rich description, which forms a significant backdrop for anyone researching the subject. In masterfully documenting the case of Sangam Vihar, they analyze the transfer of agricultural land to low-income residents via various intermediaries, the ambiguity of the Delhi Development Authority in laying out policies, the contentious struggles of Resident Welfare Associations, and the disputable role of police and political parties in regularizing the colonies and implementing the gradual provision of services.
Sumangala Damodaran explores the expectations and experiences of migrant workers and the shaping of industrial landscapes in Delhi. She provides an analysis of shifts in industrial policies, migration networks, and the preference for industrial work as compared to farm work, as well as living conditions and the changing landscape and lifestyle of the host communities. However, the chapter could have gained traction if she had dwelled more on the aspirations and identity constructions of industrial workers along regional origins and community lines. In analyzing the “rules and relationships” that underpinned the development of Metro Rail, Bérénice Bon points out that the “real estate component” (182) became grounds for conflict among various state, parastatal, and non-state bodies. Thus, the excluded institutions vie for power over legal and planning precepts by further excluding the local stakeholders who primarily remain the most affected people in these projects. In addressing the case of the Shastri Park project, Bon explores the residents’ recourse to local political structures in order to thwart imminent risks and effects and the consequent responses and politicking.
Sonal Sharma’s research on women domestic workers highlights a range of vulnerabilities that women experience, including the lack of safety in their places of residence, crumbling of social networks, dismal transport upon eviction and resettlement, and lack of toilets and the implications for paid domestic work. She explores how women navigate issues of “shame” and “responsibility” and how they evaluate the relative benefits of living in “servant quarters” while coping with forms of dependency and exploitation. One can also add the vulnerabilities they experience from state authorities and police officials, especially in the areas of South Delhi where Sharma has carried out fieldwork. Finally, Tara Atluri describes the sequence of events concerning the infamous Delhi gang rape case by interspersing it with quotes from philosophers. She takes up many issues, including capitalist individualism, neoliberalism, Rosa Parks and public parks, Occupy struggles, labour struggles in Los Angeles, the Pink Chaddi (panties) Campaign, and so forth, to analyze the production of postcolonial gendered subjects and the right to public space/streets. Some of her analogies are not entirely convincing, as she discusses many issues including the failure of governance, the right to the city, new social movements, and the parallels between the political and artistic events in the same breath.
The editors insinuate that the middle-ness of interstitial spaces can be mapped in a continuum, though they do not adequately explain how the concept of “interstitial spaces” has more analytical purchase. The concept is deficiently theorized and not directly engaged with in most of the chapters. The book could have gained in its logical consistency if the editors had laid out the primary features of interstitial spaces in order to test them out for empirical validation. However, the achievement of the book is in collating a range of interesting empirical essays that could serve as valuable backdrop research material for scholars working on Delhi.
Sanjeev Routray
Northeastern University, Boston, USA
pp. 178-181