Chatterjee - Displacement, Revolution, and the New Urban Condition

Displacement, Revolution,
and the New Urban Condition

Displacement,
Revolution, and the
New Urban Condition

Theories and Case Studies

Ipsita Chatterjee

Copyright Ipsita Chatterjee, 2014

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or by any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

First published in 2014 by

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Chatterjee, Ipsita.

Displacement, revolution, and the new urban condition : theories and case studies / Ipsita Chatterjee.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Forced migrationSocial aspectsDeveloping countries. 2. UrbanizationDeveloping countriesSocial aspects. 3. Economic development projectsDeveloping countries. I. Title.

HB1951.C43 307.2dc23 2014 2014001964

eISBN: 9789351504207

The SAGE Team: Shambhu Sahu, Vandana Gupta, Rajib Chatterjee and Rajinder Kaur

Cover image by Dr Waquar Ahmed

For Waquar

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Contents

Makeshift Stage Celebrating Ratha Yatra (Chariot Procession in Honor of Hindu Gods) in the Courtyard of the AMC, Ahmedabad, India

Saffron Arches with Pictures of Government Officials Constructed as a Part of the Celebration of Ratha Yatra (Chariot Procession in Honor of Hindu Gods) All over the City of Ahmedabad, India

Elephants Rented by the AMC Stand in Readiness for the Impending Chariot Procession

The Concept Plan

SRFD Project in 2006, with the Poor Still Inhabiting the Banks in Flimsy Huts Seen in the Distance

SRFD Project in 2010

The Enterprising SlumSlum-dwellers Using the River to Serve the City with Informal Laundry Facilities

Inhabitants of the River, Khanpur Basti (Slum) along the River Sabarmati, Photograph Taken from a Bridge, 2010

A Muslim Home in Khanpur Made of Discarded Wood and Rope, 2010

Khanpur Basti (Slum) along the River Sabarmati; Snaking Lanes Barely Wide Enough for One Person Serve as a Sewage Disposal Artery as well, 2010

The City and the Slum Blend into One Another

Sabarmati Nagrik Adhikar Manch Business Card Displaying the Hindu Om, Muslim Star and Crescent, and Christian Cross phasize the Need for Intercommunity Cooperation in the Sabarmati River Front Resistance Movement

Original Concept Plan Showing Rehabilitation Housing for Slum-dwellers Was Supposed to be Constructed in Close Proximity to the Slums along the River Banks

Over a Thousand Homes Have Been Removed and Constructions Are Underway, 2010

Vivekananda Mill Resettlement Site Is CompleteMuslim Families Who Went to Take a Look at Their Prospective Homes Were Chased Away

Wadaj Resettlement Site, Where a Few Muslim Families Find Themselves Uncomfortably Placed among a Majority Hindu Population

Ajit Mill Complex Has Been Resettled and Here Hindus Find Themselves in the Minority

T his book was made possible because of the cooperation and support of the poor and courageous people on the banks of the Sabarmati River who write this book every day in the day-to-day context of their everyday life. The reality of their existence, their constant struggle, and resilience inspires meI want to acknowledge that I have merely attempted to conceptualize the concreteness of struggling peoples everyday life, they do the hard work of living it and altering it. I am grateful to the South Asia Institute, University of Texas at Austin, for supporting me financially for my 2010 field trip to Ahmedabad. I am infinitely grateful to Paul Adams for walking me through the labors of book proposal writing and advising me in his own quiet way on life and work. Dick Peets constant encouragement and loving presence egged me on when the going became tough. When I felt that I could not do it any longerthe material and conceptual struggles are too hard and it would be easy to give up, Dicks encouragement and faith in me kept me going. I am grateful to my parents who tolerated me and supported me even when they were not quite sure what I was up to in hundred degrees heat in AhmedabadMa and Baba in their own little ways have always stressed the importance of deep understanding, analysis, and respect for the difficult realities that surround us. Waquars ability to tolerate me baffles me, especially during this book-writing project when I was also balancing motherhood for the first time, and was not dealing with either of the tasks very wellno other person could have supported me the way he did. Waquar is an intellectual inspiration, a kind and generous human being, and a fantastic father. Little Nadia was six weeks old when I started writing this book, now she is two years old, in many ways, this book and Nadia are my two little ones who grew each day, I learnt so much from the book writing process and the motherhood process, I will never be the same again. I am also grateful to the Department of Geography, University of North Texas for graciously offering me a position that allowed me to intellectually and personally transit to a better place as I completed this book.

T his book attempts to conceptualize the contemporary urban condition. I wanted to stress the importance of conceptualization, because it is a very hard thing to do, but it is the most important thing that a human being can do after eating. This may sound outrageous, but allow me to explain, eating is important for survival, it involves the complex act of putting food into the mouth, chewing it, and then digestion, which involves multiple acts of intestinal juices breaking up the food and converting it to energy. Conceptualization is the intellectual act of digestion, it involves the complex act of observing, feeling, touching, smelling, understanding, and recording the reality in which one is imbricated, and then synthesizing the heterogeneous, disjointed, scattered perceptions into a coherent theory that will allow someone else situated and imbricated in a different reality to understand and explain his/her world. Conceptualization allows us to build connections so that we can understand, explain, and ameliorate difficult realities with which we may not be immediately connected. Conceptualization is, therefore, an intensely political act, it is also very democraticit enables us to be empathetic toward other peoples realities, it allows us to explain those realities, share those realities, and participate in overhauling the oppressiveness of those realities. Without conceptualization there would be no democratic politics, because we would be stuck in our individual realities unable to share, act, and be agents of change for a more global context than the specificity of our very own lives. Conceptualization, therefore, forms the body politic of the global digestive process.