[Reader-list] I-fellow first post

[Kaushiki Rao]

Hi all,

Here's my input for the month: just a brief description of my project.

I've been trained in anthropology and political science, and although
much of my interest lies in governance, policy and social justice, a
chance visit to Bawana, an urban resettlement colony in west Delhi
sparked my interest in the aesthetic of such colonies.  Through
looking at resettlement colonies, I will explore how, aesthetically, a
space can come to be defined as urban rather than sub-urban or rural.

Bawana is located at the edge of NCR, in what can be called the
middle-of-nowhere.  Although good roads lead to the colony, it takes
about 40 minutes to drive there from Rohini.  All around is fallow
land, seemingly put to no use, seemingly owned by no private
individual or company.  Yet, Bawana has narrow streets, and small
houses constructed along narrow gullies.  It is extremely commercial
and has many dhabas and shops set up close to each other.  Its flavour
is reminiscent of the urban pockets of Bhagwan Nagar and Trilokpuri in
eastern Delhi.  Most buildings look like they've been built to go
higher rather than wider, even though it seems like there is enough
space for them to sprawl.  And unlike the village, of which its
pastoral setting reminds you, Bawana comes alive at night.  Even
Bawana village, closer to the city though it is, does not remind you
as much of the city as does Bawana colony.

Colonies where people are resettled from the center of an urban space
to the margins of a city seem to import a variety of physical and
social spaces from urban centers.  I will explore how and which urban
traits are retained.  I want to learn what hybrids – between an urban
center and an urban periphery – are formed.  I will explore the
constraints that determine these hybrids. Most people carry with them
an idea of what an inhabitable place should be like; in urban
resettlement colonies, this idea is very often similar to an idea of
what a city is.  It loosely imitates what a city looks, feels and
smells like.  It is on this imitation that I want to focus.

There are several resettlement colonies I'd like to compare with
Bawana.  These are: an older colony named Dindoshi in Mumbai, the
resettlement of several jhuggis in Jaipur, and tsunami-relief
resettlement colony in Pondicherry.  If anyone knows of other colonies
that might be interesting, please let me know!

Kaushiki