Arpita Biswas, University of Manitoba

Fri. Nov. 28 02:30 PM - Fri. Nov. 28 04:00 PM
Location: 3BC55

"The Political Economy of Urban Restructuring in Delhi Since the 1990s: A Socio-Spatial Analysis"

Abstract: Motivated by the stark disjuncture between official claims and emerging lived realities of the dispossessed poor in the capital city of India, this paper asks why Delhi witnessed an acceleration in basti (low-income informal settlements) demolition and urban renewal measures since the 1990s and what have been the effects of those measures on different social classes. It utilizes the framework of socio-spatial dialectic which emphasizes that both the social environment and spatial organization of a place have causal significance on each other. It argues that a congruence of interests among the state, private capital, and urban professionals led to the widespread eviction of basti dwellers. Discourse analyses of public interest litigations filed by professionals against basti dwellers, judicial judgments, and private developers’ and real estate agents’ advertising campaigns are carried out to see how such congruence materialized in the city. In terms of the consequences of such spatial reorganization of the city, the paper finds that the poorest section of the working class (i.e., those who live in bastis) is rendered spatially estranged and poorer by the process, while the capitalist class is bestowed with windfall gains through commodification of public land. It uses primary data collected on the field and secondary data gathered from newspapers to elucidate these consequences.