[Reader-list] Re: [Urbanstudy] Field Notes from Marine Drive

[solomon benjamin]

..whether centralized systems are
homogenizing? Is control about homogenization?.... 

....nowadays, the guards are able to wield more
authority and take actions as if they were law
enforcers and policemen themselves.....

Bombay was once the enterprising city – a city where
no one went hungry because there was business for
everyone to do. Gradually, new government regimes are
taking away conditions of freedom. Everyone is being
pushed into jobs. Freedom of enterprise is freedom of
the individual. Gradually, this enterprising city is
turning into a service economy.....

Hi,
I think Zainab'd posting and in particular the three
excerpts show us a way to think about power, economy
and locality. These seem to be central elements in the
way we 'read' cities -- what they do to people in the
opening up of complex social space, but also in ways
in which these very mechanisms are shaped. I was
reminded of a recent statement by hawkers being asked
about the impact of urban renewal in central
bangalore: To the local police constrable, they did
have problems but that was nothing as compared to the
higher up police circuits and the BATF! For the
curropt local constrable, he was seen as being part of
local trading network and interestingly the squatters
used the term: "Bribe as a Right". Thus, once they had
paid a bribe, through waht is a sophisticated system,
they are assured a location and in a sense, a 'right'
over it. what turned out to be really problematic for
them, was the 'clean and neat' and 'un-curroptable'
police commissioner circuit. Obviously curroptable at
a higher level, this group with the BATF would plan
out road extensions, and also 'clean out' the hawkers.

The point here being that centralized and
non-centralized is about control, as Zainab usefully
points out, but also about 'entry and influence'. 

What interests me however, is the way cities also
allow sort of 'hydras' to erode a system of
centralization. One can call this 'bleeding' as Sarai
does, as erosion, enchroachments, or subversion. I am
not saying that there are no human costs involved. The
point here is if the urban experience is a
transformative one both ways?,
Cheers
Solly  


--- zainab at xtdnet.nl wrote:

> 
> 
> This week has been interesting in terms of field
> work. I began doing the
> rounds of Marine Drive regularly this week. Migrants
> from Azamgadh, on the
> border of MP and UP, form the main hawker community
> around Marine Drive.
> Most of their co-villagers have established
> businesses here. The younger
> people from the village then come and join their
> relatives in the
> business.
> 
> Patrolling at Marine Drive has become very strict.
> Nowadays, the MCGM van
> does not come regularly, but a plainclothes cop does
> the rounds to catch
> hold of hawkers doing business on the promenade.
> There are more private
> security guards at Marine Drive than usual. Two
> guards patrol at equal
> intervals on the promenade. The private security
> guards have acquired the
> status and power equivalent to that of a policeman.
> Earlier, the guards
> used to be afraid of the hawkers because hawkers
> would beat up the guards.
> But nowadays, the guards are able to wield more
> authority and take actions
> as if they were law enforcers and policemen
> themselves.
> 
> An interesting thing which occurred on Tuesday was
> when Manoj Kumar, a
> stall owning hawker started saying to me, “I want a
> job. It is getting
> difficult to survive here. Policemen and
> municipality don’t let us do
> business. Things are becoming stringent.” Manoj
> Kumar’s remark is
> pertinent because it describes the character of the
> contemporary city of
> Mumbai. Bombay was once the enterprising city – a
> city where no one went
> hungry because there was business for everyone to
> do. Gradually, new
> government regimes are taking away conditions of
> freedom. Everyone is
> being pushed into jobs. Freedom of enterprise is
> freedom of the
> individual. Gradually, this enterprising city is
> turning into a service
> economy. Freedom is traded for security of jobs –
> and interestingly, there
> is no security in jobs either!!!
> 
> Finally, another interesting event took place last
> evening. I met Santosh
> Yadav after a long time. I asked him that he was not
> to be seen since
> quite a few days. He narrated a story to me, “There
> was a man who had a
> licensed food business. He decided to go to his
> village for a month. So I
> asked him to lease his licensed stall to me for a
> month. I paid him
> Rs.20,000 and took over the business. I made a
> profit for Rs.60,000. The
> person came back yesterday. I handed over his
> business to him and he gave
> me my deposit of Rs.20,000 back.” What is
> interesting here is the
> negotiations which take place between people without
> government
> interventions and how these negotiations define the
> character of the city
> in a larger perspective.
> 
> I am still thinking whether centralized systems are
> homogenizing? Is
> control about homogenization?
> 
> 
> 
> Zainab Bawa
> Bombay
> www.xanga.com/CityBytes
> http://crimsonfeet.recut.org/rubrique53.html
> 
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