[Reader-list] the urban evangelists by sugata srinivasaraju

[lalitha kamath]

http://www.outlookindia.com/full.asp?fodname=20080226&fname=sugata&sid=1

						Web| 
						
						Feb 26, 2008
						


						
						
						
						Bangalore Byte


						
						
						Urban Evangelists
						

						

						
						Are they really "converting" men at key places? Is it a real threat that they may "takeover" Bangalore? Who are they? What language do they speak? What do they do? Where did they come from?
						


						
						SUGATA SRINIVASARAJU
						
					
				
			
			
		
			
				
						  
The conversation
post-lunch, the other day, veered around how 'urban evangelists' were
trying to
"takeover" Bangalore. I offered a small correction by saying that they
have repeatedly tried to
"takeover" the city since circa 2000 AD, but have somewhat failed. A
friend at the table cautioned me not to be so optimistic after all. The
way things are moving,
he said, they may actually be in-charge in the near future. They are
converting men at key places, he warned. It is not important to know
how we went about sticking to our positions in the debate, as much as
to profile the ones we had, with incredible ease, labelled as 'urban
evangelists'.



So who are these urban evangelists? What language do they speak? What
do they do? Where did they come from? The answers to these questions
cannot be precise, but let's hazard a rough construction of their
persona. These are people who have a very clinical and
economically-viable, but acultural and ahistorical idea of an urban
space. For them the city should naturally homogenise, individualise and
universalise itself. Essentially, the city for them is
a place where you work. And every infrastructure you build should help
you to work more and earn more. So you need big airports, metro rail,
malls, expressways etc. This idea is so much different from living and
living well. 

These urban evangelists
are an established creed abroad and are fast spreading across India. 
But it is important to understand them in the context of Bangalore
because they have been delivering doomsday messages about the imminent
collapse of the city's 'infrastructure' on national television, on
frontpages of friendly English newspapers, at five-star seminar halls
and even at Page 3 parties. Their voice has now reached a shrill pitch
because the road that leads to the new airport at Devanahalli, is not
exactly clutter-free. Earlier they had raised an alarm when the roads
to the Electronic City and the software parks were narrow and bouncy.
Bangalore has crossed their earlier date of doom, but then there is a
new date to grapple
with: March 30 is the day when the new international airport near
Devanahalli will be inaugurated. Airplanes will land and take off, but
will people be able to catch the flights is the panic question that
these evangelists have spread in the city. 

Their presumably
well-intentioned panic comes with an impractical solution. They have
been arguing for keeping the old airport
as well, though it is in the diagonally opposite direction. They don't
mind reneging the contract that the government has entered
into with the European consortium building the new airport to shutdown
the old one. They have also been cribbing about the pre-determined user
fees that the new airport would be charging for both domestic and
international passengers. These arguments are puzzling, given the fact
that
they come from those who otherwise support the PPP-schemes (the new
airport is one); press for sound revenue models and swear by the
sanctity of a contract. Expanding the scope of their arguments, they
have also raised technical issues related to the ability of the new
airport to handle growing traffic with just one runway. 

The blogs with a focus
on the city, as usual, have picked up these arguments and asked one
consuming question:
Why didn't these people, who are known to have a futuristic pair of
eyes, raise these arguments earlier? Has one of those ancient,
despicable Indian ailments affected these people too, who not long ago
were fresh, dreamy-eyed 'returnees' from prosperous Western
cities? The other rather exaggerated suspicion on blogs is that these
people may be taking up the cause of those who 'inhabit' the
Electronics City and the international tech park in Whitefield,
situated
far away from the new airport.In essence, it is made out to be a battle
between South Bangalore, with a predominantly IT crowd (Jayanagar,
Koramangala, BTM Layout, J.P. Nagar, Sarjapura) and North Bangalore,
where the new airport is located.

The government has no
doubt woken up late to clear the clutter on the roads that lead to the
new airport. But, the commissioner of the city's municipal corporation,
Dr. S. Subramanya, has come up with innovative ideas like 'magic box'
underpasses and overpasses that can be installed in less than a month's
time and at less than ten per cent of the traditional costs. When was
the last time you heard a government servant thinking lateral and
taking a risk? Instead of fine-tuning these ideas and offering
constructive support, why are the 'evangelists' throwing the whole
thing out of gear? Is it primarily because they shoot with borrowed
expertise?



Perhaps, the 'doubt' about 'urban evangelists' on the blogs would have
been less had they even occasionally spoken about the crowded central
bus-stand, where ordinary citizens fear being run over by speeding
buses; the approach road to the railway station; the congestion on
Balepet, Tharugpet, Fort Area, City Market, Magadi Road and Avenue
Road. Perhaps they never use the bus-stand or the railway station and
their cars never cross the areas mentioned above, but that too is
Bangalore. Not the outskirts, but the nerve-centre. They would surely
agree that building Bangalore's infrastructure is not simply about
building elevated roads, ring roads and six-lane expressways. They may,
for all we know, be concerned about all these issues, but in the public
eye they are never associated with these concerns and
this perception does not augur well for them.

I recently drove down to
the site of the new airport and the one thing that surprised me was the
number of houses, government buildings, farms, small factories,
roadside automobile workshops, petty shops etc. that have been ripped
and nudged out by earth-moving equipment to build the six-lane
expressway to the new airport. The exposed bedrooms and bathrooms of
what were once homes seemed to be eagerly waiting to tease the first
riders to the airport on March 30. For a moment, I wondered if a bombed
road in Bush's 'shock and awe' Iraq would have a similar eerie feel. It
is enormously difficult to build homes and livelihoods, but why have
these displaced people never become news in our city? Where have they
gone? Something similar will soon happen with the route being carved
out for the Metro rail. Development has always posed difficult
questions and here again they were lining up to haunt. Should or
shouldn't the 'evangelists' weave these people into their power-point
presentations?

Does this serious
problem of inclusion arise because these 'evangelists' think they are
not shackled by 'ideology' and are 'apolitical,' except of course
when it comes to advising governments that can converse with them in
English. But can simple utilitarian pragmatism create the inclusiveness
that today's India badly
needs, not just between the rural and the urban, but also to bridge the
growing fissures within our
cities?


				
			





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