[Reader-list] Illegality and Cheaper Prices

[Zainab Bawa]

21st November 2004

This evening, a kind of public discussion and debate took place over the 
topics of my research. It was a gathering of precisely six persons. One of 
them asked me what I do and I spoke about my current research. “You should 
check out the scene at Churchgate Station,” one of them started telling me. 
“There are no hawkers around the station now. We have walk miles to be able 
to buy a cigarette which was earlier within the easy grasp and reach because 
of your paan-bidi seller right outside the station.” Another added, “I was 
craving to eat the vada-pav but I noticed that the hawkers were gone.” As 
the discussion gained momentum, it came out (in the open) that the residents 
around Churchgate area were apparently upset with the washing of utensils 
and the clutter-clutter, bang-bang of the hawkers which starts at night at 
around 12:30 AM and goes on till 4:30 AM, therefore the eviction. One of 
them protested, “But this moving away of hawkers seems to be this South 
Mumbai elite citizens’ phenomenon where those with clout want the hawkers to 
go away.” I added that hawkers were being moved away from all railway 
stations. In fact, in a newspaper report a few days ago, the Chief Minister 
expressed his concern (read apprehensive anxiety of currently mild nature) 
to the Municipal Commissioner Johnny Joseph to go easy on the hawkers’ 
evictions from the railway stations. “But come to think of it, the hawker is 
in demand because things are cheap when they are illegal. When you make 
things legal, you have to pay more and therefore charge more,” exclaimed one 
of the persons present.

I spoke of my concepts of Mumbai becoming a World Bank, clean and 
surveillable city and how our vision is to become Shanghai. One of them, 
playing Devil’s Advocate pointed out, “So, what’s wrong in becoming 
Shanghai? Is that not what people want? Would you say that people who enter 
the multiplexes are dumb?” “Obviously not,” I responded, “People going into 
multiplexes make a choice to go there. But the Shanghai vision is not my 
idea of Mumbai.” As I pondered on this point later (and even until now), I 
wonder whether we as individuals are actually ‘in control’, whether we are 
the ones who ‘truly make choices’. Perhaps this idea of free will and the 
rhetoric of the market economy of ‘the customer is supreme’ is only an 
illusion – I don’t think there is any free will. We are allowing ourselves 
to be guided by means of images which are being dished out daily by the 
media! That’s how it is perhaps. And therefore, I am afraid whether the 
Shanghai vision is what we actually want of this city or just some kind of a 
feel good phenomenon where we are allowing ourselves to be fooled yet 
another time! Is there a public man anymore?

The discussion continued. One of them said, “Actually, come to think of it, 
we in Mumbai are very used to the idea of going out on the streets and 
making our purchases at any point in time. Everything is within easy reach 
(given that spaces everywhere are little markets and stalls). The vegetable 
vendor comes to our door. The curd-fellow is around till 11:30 PM at night 
and right outside my house. With the mall culture, we are actually speaking 
of driving all the way to a mall and stocking the supplies we need!” “Yeah, 
that’s right,” another chipped in as if struck by the lightening of insight, 
“When I was in Africa, I actually learnt this Western concept of stocking 
groceries because otherwise, you have to drive down a long way in order to 
be able to procure something very little. Every night I would do my shopping 
and stocking.” Perhaps that is it – that is my problem with a structure like 
a mall. It is not local, within easy means of reach. What it creates is 
additional burdens – have to have a car to drive to the mall to shop, 
expending of fuels and resources and buying more than what you need because 
you have to ‘stock’ and ‘stocking is based on the idea of keeping more than 
you want as a speculation.

The conclusion for the day was that hawkers are important because they 
provide a cheap means for food to people who are otherwise unable to afford. 
Is it true that illegality comes with a cheaper price? For whom?

Hmmm … discussion spaces in the urban, a matter of get-togethers, a matter 
of dissent, consent, argument, negotiation and sometimes even bitterness if 
the debate is seen as personal attacks. For me, an enriching experience, a 
matter of knowledge and discussion venturing into the public domain! 
Exciting nah???





Zainab Bawa
Mumbai
www.xanga.com/CityBytes

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