[Reader-list] Response to Ratish re: Nizamuddin Basti

Mon Apr 9 21:42:04 IST 2007

As someone who has, as a reporter, covered demolitions in Delhi for
the last two years, i can completely understand the suspicion with
which the residents of Nizamuddin ( and people like Sudheshna and
others on the list) treat "conservation" restoration and
beautification drives.  i also did some work on post-tsunami
rehabilitation - and found that relocation of coastal villages -
ostensibly for safety purposes - was nothing more than a ploy to
remove them and hand the land over to developers under the marina
beachfront beautification project. Else where a 50 year old settlement
in bhatti mines and indira nagar was demolished to protect the delhi
ridge while the vasant kunj malls were finally sanctioned inspite of
protests.

While it comes as a relief to hear that no demolition is planned, i
would urge the Aga khan people to commit in writing that no demolition
would be carried out, and as sudheshna suggests, carry out an outreach
programme that clearly lays out the extent of the plan.

Regards
A.

On 4/8/07, Sudeshna Chatterjee <sudeshna.kca at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>  Dear Ratish,
>   It was great to get a reply from you from far off Kabul. I appreciate your speaking up on behalf of the Aga Khan Trust for Culture on the "potential project" in Nizamuddin. This potential project has caused much widespread fear among residents. Indeed anyone, as Yousuf suggested,  visiting Nizamuddin truly feels the heat of resident discontent and fear. Some of my students were stopped from doing fieldwork because they too were accused of being Aga Khan Trust or MCD people taking stock for demolition!
>
> You ask how I got the impression that anyone was going to be moved. Well, I was approached by a group of 6/7 women and later men, as I walked down Nizam Nagar on April 3, who came up to me on their own accord and shared their deep fear of being demolished on April 10. I am a familiar stranger in these parts as I had done my dissertation fieldwork in the Basti for nearly a year in 2005. I know rather too well that it is not only the city, but also many within the Basti who want Nizam Nagar demolished because of the negative stereotypes associated with the residents of this precinct of Nizamuddin.
>
> I don't know what MCD and its allies are hoping to achieve in the Basti. It certainly does not appear to be a people-friendly plan. For example, two vital open spaces have been taken away from the people this year. One open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road had been walled off by DJB. This was a fantastically vibrant space for the community, and the only open space where young boys were allowed to play sports. The other is the raised dumpyard playground/scrap-sorting yard/space for community functions. This has been leveled and proposed as a parking lot for the Inayat Khan Dargah. Nothing wrong with either an empty, locked up, walled off open space or a parking lot in the midst of a dense, congested settlement except that instead of rumors (as you suggest) these are the real reasons for ensuring that nothing good ever happens for the residents of Nizamuddin and that the people are further marginalized in their habitat.
>
> I am all for quelling rumors. I sincerely believe that without information, and sharing that with stakeholders no decision about urban space should be made. That is why I filed the RTI to get access to the potential project. For again, you see, the web url you write about has no information about the proposal even after running a search. I will visit your office in Bhagwan Das Road in the coming week. I could not do so over the extended weekend before sending my "alarmist" email because alarm bells did indeed buzz loudly in my head. I am relieved to hear from you that your proposal does not propose any demolition. But I am disappointed that you never mentioned anything about making the plan public. I would deeply appreciate you sharing the proposal with us all and more importantly with the people of the Basti for none of them has a clue or access to information, not even through their councilor who incidentally has won the election. So your theory of vested interests working against him (the supporter of the plan) spreading rumors about demolitions does not seem accurate.
>
> You may have wonderful visions for upgrading health, education facilities, providing micro finance etc. but unless you have the affected people endorsing that vision after having understood it, the project will only remain a potential proposal. For frightened people on the ground the most pressing issue is whether they will be able to save their habitat and not the commendable idea of better integrating monuments to the fabric of the Basti.
>
> I do not write this email in an adversarial manner, but as a concerned citizen who has too often witnessed what happens to poor people in the margins of society when well-conceived design/planning/conservation decisions about contested urban places are made. I would encourage you to play a leading role in allaying the fears of the people in the Basti by involving them in the making of the proposal as well as in putting rumors to rest that right now suggest that the proposed project is yet another expensive development project, which puts the interests of environment/heritage etc. ahead of life and liberty of directly affected citizens.   I have no doubt that with your stellar credentials you are the best person for the job. If you need any help to better understand the people's perspective and if I am able, you can count on that too. But do not think that I am engaging with the issue because I am swayed by rumor-mongering vested interest groups. I am doing this because I have indepth grounded knowledge about the place, its people, culture, heritage and its problems. I am asking questions about the potential project because the Basti means Soni, Abida, Zoheb, Zuher, Rashid, Firozina and several other feisty pre-adolescents who spent upto a year with me, and I am concerned about their future.     Finally I am inviting a larger dialogue on the complex human-environment issues in low-income settlements such as Nizamuddin Basti in a vibrant public forum such as the reader-list. I am doing so because it is my democratic right to express my views, and contribute to discourses. In the meantime, please do make the "potential project" and its implications for people public if you want to get people to endorse it out of choice and not out of fear.    I welcome your suggestion of taking the dialogue forward when you return in May.   Best regards,
>
>
>
> --
> Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD
> New Delhi, India
>
>  On 4/7/07, Rajat Ray <shalgram at gmail.com> wrote:
> > FYI
> > Forwarding as under
> >
> > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > From:  Ratish Nanda <ratishn at hotmail.com>
> > Date: 07-Apr-2007 08:21
> > Subject: RE: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah
> > To: shalgram at gmail.com
> >
> > Dear Rajat - could you please forward the following response to the sarai
> > reader list - many thanks, Ratish
> >
> > Dear Dr Sudeshna Chatterjee
> >
> > I write in response to your e mail - which I have been forwarded on another
> > chat group so I suppose it has been forwarded to thousands by the time this
> > gets back to you. I write as one of the consultants to the Aga Khan Trust
> > for Culture on a potential project - nowhere near finalisation!
> >
> > I read your e mail with great alarm until I realised you might be writing in
> > response to rumours about what we are hoping to achieve in Nizamuddin
> > together with the MCD. I cannot imagine how you got the impression that
> > anyone was going to be moved? The proposal does not envisage even a single
> > house to be demolished. I wish you had re-confirmed your facts with someone
> > before shooting off an alarmist e mail.
> >
> > In the Nizamuddin Bastri - all components of the project are aimed at
> > focussing on make the monuments - Chaunasth Khambha, Baoli, Atgah Khan's
> > Tomb more integral to the Basti. The programme there envisages upgrading the
> > health, education failities of the MCD; provide micro-finance and training
> > for jobs etc etc. Since the Basti is a close-knit community and since they
> > have had threats of eviction in the past - rumours are being fuelled by
> > worried residents; though we have spoken of intention to a handful of
> > residents - including the Pirzadas and the RWA - clearly rumours have not
> > subsided.
> >
> >
> > I am presently away from the country but am to return to Delhi in mid May
> > when I shall happily be able to brief you in more detail on the proposal -
> > which it is - only a proposal as we are hopoing to work in the larger area -
> > encompassing Humayun's Tomb etc - with various government agencies and are
> > yet to reach an agreement.
> >
> > We have earlier worked on the Humayun's Tomb garden restoration, which I was
> > responsibl;e for on behaldf of the Trust and I have been here in Kabul for
> > four years to do something very similar to what we propose in Nizamuddin. If
> > you had looked at our website - www.akdn.org  or visited our offices on
> > Bhagwan Das Road prior to shooting off the e mail - you would have realised
> > for yourself that vested interests are spreading rumours that will probably
> > ensure nothing ever happens in Nizamuddin and people continue to live in
> > deplorable conditions without access to basic services.
> >
> > May I now request you to kindly help quelling rumours and I assure you that
> > you will not have to mount a 'resistance' ; maybe you could use resistance
> > to save the 800 year old, yet unprotected, Lal Mahal in Nizamuddin to be
> > demolished by developers - if it has not already been!
> >
> > Thanks for your concern.
> >
> > Warm regards
> >
> > Ratish
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > >From: "Rajat Ray" <shalgram at gmail.com>
> > >Reply-To:  2004cam at yahoogroups.com
> > >To: 2004cam at yahoogroups.com
> > >Subject: [2004cam] Fwd: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive
> > >Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to the Dargah
> > >Date: Fri, 6 Apr 2007 14:48:21 +0530
> > >
> > >CHECK IT OUT ! ! !
> > >
> > >---------- Forwarded message ----------
> > >From: Sudeshna Chatterjee < sudeshna.kca at gmail.com>
> > >Date: 04-Apr-2007 19:29
> > >Subject: [Reader-list] Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April
> > >10
> > >to Create Vistas to the Dargah
> > >To: reader-list at sarai.net
> > >
> > >*Nizamuddin Basti Faces Massive Demolition on April 10 to Create Vistas to
> > >the Dargah*
> > >
> > >* *
> > >
> > >As Delhi adorns herself for the appreciative gazes of visitors to the
> > >Commonwealth Games in 2010, several habitats and lifeworlds are being
> > >destroyed "in public interest" to make way for beautification projects in
> > >place of dense, unseemly residential areas.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >Nizamuddin Basti, the thriving, bustling, colorful settlement with over of
> > >800 years of recorded history of continuous human habitation, is going to
> > >come under the developmental bulldozer next week, on April 10 according to
> > >residents. The grand urban revitalization vision for this master plan
> > >designated heritage zone does not include anything in the foreground of
> > >Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya's Dargah.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >The thriving settlement of Nizam Nagar, a neighborhood populated by migrant
> > >labor for the last thirty years, will definitely be flattened to create
> > >lush
> > >landscaped foreground for beholding the monument from all three roads
> > >bounding the Basti—Mathura Road, Lodi Road, and Lala Lajpat Rai Marg. The
> > >Dargah however had never been a separate piece within the settlement but an
> > >integral part of the residents' lifeworlds. The next layer of colorful
> > >pucca
> > >houses with many floors will also be demolished as they too block the view
> > >of the dargah from all three roads. Several shops on Lodi Road have already
> > >been sealed. A major part of the open space on Lala Lajpat Rai Road has
> > >been
> > >walled up and residents said that it will be made into a parking lot for
> > >the
> > >Dargah tourist coming from that direction.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >The pucca house owners will receive deals for resettlement while the
> > >majority of the migrant settlers along the periphery will be evicted
> > >without
> > >rehabilitation. No one has any information as to what exactly has been
> > >proposed and by whom. There are rumors of MCD and Aga Khan Trust and ASI
> > >working together to create a beautiful tourist paradise with paved walking
> > >routes, lush landscapes and showcase remnants of the old village and way of
> > >life of people.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >I visited the basti yesterday and felt people's helplessness. I made
> > >several
> > >phone calls to everyone I knew to find out about the development plan. No
> > >one has a clue. Nothing is discussed in the public domain. But how come all
> > >the residents knew? MCD has really been smart about this one to avoid undue
> > >attention and therefore resistance to the beautification project with Aga
> > >Khan Trust's money. I did the only thing I could. I filed a RTI this
> > >afternoon with MCD. But as I am not a directly affected party the
> > >information will be made available in a month's time, long after the
> > >demolitions had taken place. I got the Hope Project, an NGO that works
> > >within the Basti, to mobilize the community to exercise their right to
> > >information and get it within 48 hours. But community mobilization is
> > >easier
> > >said than done. Moreover, this is a long weekend. The governmental
> > >machinery
> > >will be resting.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >If anyone has any advice on how to put up a resistance to an uncontested
> > >beautification scheme for a contested urban space, please email me. Some of
> > >us are working on first assessing what exactly will be demolished and what
> > >rehabilitation proposals had been made for displaced people to prepare a
> > >case for resisting the demolitions and demanding adequate rehabilitation
> > >for
> > >all displaced people. In addition I would encourage this forum to engage in
> > >a much stronger public debate on the future of the city and its quietly
> > >outrageous beautification/revitalization/development plans ahead of the
> > >Commonwealth Games.
> > >
> > >
> > >--
> > >Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD
> > >New Delhi, India
> > >_________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD
> Partner, Kaimal Chatterjee & Associates
> New Delhi, India
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