From Populations to People: Reclaiming the ‘Urban’ in 21st Century New Delhi

• In Event: Comparative Issues in Global Urban Politics

Abstract

This paper seeks to assess the impact of urban redevelopment policies in the lives of the marginalised, conceived as population in twenty-first New Delhi. The starting point of the paper is taken from a well-articulated line of argument that sees an extension of the colonial state in the post-colonial-in the case of New Delhi-manifest most visibly in urban morphology (Legg, 2007), but uses a similar line of reasoning to shift focus onto people not populations. It is the contention of this author that while the existing canon of urban studies literature is well stocked in tracing the history of urban local bodies for instance, the endeavours that centralise people as the subject of enquiry is of recent import-especially vis-à-vis a non-Western City. The present article, aims at remedying the lacunae by proceeding along two main axes, viz. the re-reading of history of urban Delhi and through interviews, focus group discussions and testimonials of the people affected by the urban policies of today. Foregrounding the essay in the lives of people has potential to configure many meanings on the term ‘urban,’ yet by retaining its people-centric approach, the discipline broadens its horizons not as a menagerie of power politics, but as spaces of hope and a first step to make the cities equitable, just and above all accessible to people.

Author

• Rajarshee Narayan Chowdhury, Jawaharlal Nehru University