[Reader-list] On Delhi

[Nagraj Adve]

Very nice piece Rana, thanks. I sometimes have this unspoken and somewhat
sinking feeling when I think of this segment of the capitalist class your
piece discusses. Fear may seem a strong word but I can't think of any other
to describe the emotion. As activists in this city for some years now, I
don't think we even grapple with the realities of this class; perhaps those
who are trade unionists do.

Just some specific reactions to parts of the piece, reactions that are
disjointed. I liked the bits with the therapist Anurag Mishra, an
interesting angle. And also MC at the end of the piece. And Tarun Tejpal's
comments sadly are not too bleak, though there's also a growing resistance
to the intensifying rape of resources.

Couple of observations: The absence of any line or comment on the working
poor of this city - women working as domestic help and increasingly as
construction labour who build the stuff that DLF makes its money from;
factory workers; adivasi migrants who leave their own homes and communities
to work in the homes of the rich here - was striking. I do realize that the
piece was about the very rich, but as EP Thompson said in his famous intro
to 'The Making ...", you can't have the one without the other. Also, a
mention of the destruction of jhuggis in 1996 and 2001 (30,000 homes along
the Yamuna Pushta) would have been relevant. And also the closure of
industries that happened at the time. Or the decline in real wages.

Finally, in passing: you refer about half a dozen times to India as being
'socialist' in earlier decades. It has never been even remotely so, not for
a single day. Gunnar Mrydal had some blunt stuff to say about that during a
visit to Delhi in 1958.

Thanks for the piece.
warmly,
Naga


On 29/07/2009, Sudeshna Chatterjee <sudeshna.kca at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Its a really good read! Highly recommended.
>
> Sudeshna
>
> On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 1:10 PM, Rana Dasgupta <rana at ranadasgupta.com
> >wrote:
>
> > My recent essay about Delhi, and the culture of its new rich, from the
> > current edition of Granta magazine.
> >
> > http://www.ranadasgupta.com/texts.asp?text_id=47
> >
> > Enjoy!
> >
> > R
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>
>
> --
> Sudeshna Chatterjee, PhD
> New Delhi, India
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: &lt;https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>