Neoliberalising the 'Urban': New Geographies of Power and Injustice in Indian Cities

Author(s): Swapna Banerjee-Guha

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 44, No. 22 (May 30 - Jun. 5, 2009), pp. 95-107
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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Neoliberalising the 'Urban': New Geographies
of Power and Injustice in Indian Cities

SWAPNA BANERJEE-GUHA

1 Introduction
An adequate understan
neoliberal urban order has come to ruleproce
urban since post-_97os
coinciding with the crises of the Fordist-Keynesian
politico-economic ideo
accumulation regime and breakdown of the Bretton
institutional
Woods system. It forms, d
was a time when the world capitalist system
multiple became increasingly neoliberalised, subsequently taking a domi-
contradiction
nant form, impacting social and economic spaces of countries
engagement of neolib
across the world, especially those of the Global South and finally
the concept of "urban
their entire developmental system. Having a multifaceted and
unevenness in it inter-u
multi-scalar framework, was characterised by universal back-
tracking of the welfareIt
development. state, dismantling
focus of institutional con-

Mission, straints upon marketisation,

the official increased commodification, shrink-
ca
ing of organised jobs and hyper-exploitation of workers, down-
various implications. T
grading of democratic rights earned through long-drawn strug-
restructuring inuncertainty.
gles and a tremendous economic a few
Simultaneously,
despite deregulation and
importantly, in privatisation of state-owned and state-
Mumb
provided services, a new kind
"international of state intervention with a larger
financia
entrepreneurial capacity was brought in, to roll forward new
"development" projec
forms of governance that ostensibly suited a market-driven glo-
balising economy (Brenner and Theodore 2002a). The pattern
imposed at a range of spatial scales, varied substantially from
country to country, depending on their historical process of de-
velopment, politico-economic structures and standing in the in
ternational economy (Banerjee-Guha 2002a). The specificity of
the current neoliberal practices largely lies in the discursive and
organisational frameworks that arose out of developments of
the above nature.

Given the disjuncture between the ideology of neoliberalism

and its everyday political practices and societal effects (Mooney
and Danson 1997; Keil 2002), neoliberal projects, pursued at
diverse scales, are often found tangled with the contradictions
and tensions of everyday life. On the one hand, while its ideology
creates a "utopia" of free markets, liberated from all kinds of state
interference, in practice it entails a coercive form of state inter-
vention to facilitate market rule (Brenner and Theodore 2002a)
over a wider socio -spatial spectrum. At city level, it is character-
ised by increasing constraints in planning and the political
The discussion on Vision Mu
capacity of elected municipal governments, privatisation of basic
based on my paper "Shiftin
New services, withdrawal
Urbanism and of the state from urban development, esca-
Mumbai
of "Creative lating support for public-private partnerships, especially in infra-and
Destruction
Conference held at
structure projects, increasing the
gentrification to expand Cent
space for
University of New York, 15
elitist consumption and a growing exposure to global competi-
Sambuddha Guhathakurta f
tion reflecting the power of a disciplinary finance regime and a
Swapna Banerjee-Guha (sba
hegemonic cultural framework. Cities have become crucially
Institute of Social Sciences,
interrelated to the process of reproduction, reconstitution and

Economie & Political weekly __S5_ may 30, 2009 vol xliv no 22 95

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SPCIAL ARTICLE _^^^=EEEEEEE^^

Hence, an adequate understanding of the contemporary neo-

mutation of neoliberalism as an ideology (Brenner and Theodore
2002a) across the world. liberal urban process, especially in these countries, not only
requires
Metropolises located in the Global South deserve special men- a grasp of its politico-economic ideological framework,
tion in this respect as they show signs of intense conflictbut equally
due to importantly, its multi-scalar institutional forms
the imposition of the above framework (Banerjee-Guha(Brenner
2002a),and Theodore 2002a; Banerjee-Guha 2002a, 2002b), its
reflecting contestation between the global and the local.diverse socio-political links and multiple contradictions.
Charac-
In this paper I intend to examine the active engagement of
terised by the demand of market and its priorities, a belligerent
neoliberalism
urbanism is found promoted in these countries, advocating multi- in the current urban policies in India that is not
scalar "creative destruction" at various politico-economic scales.
only moulding the entire concept of "urban", but simultaneously
intensifying
In recent decades, in many such countries, including India, cities unevenness in inter-urban and intra-urban develop-
ment almost
have been undergoing drastic transformations in their form and as a structural component. The material manifesta-
governance to become equipped to function as incubators tion of neoliberal urbanism in contemporary Indian urban policy
of neo-
liberal strategies in the Global South. With rescalingis resting
of the on an aggressive strategy of politico-economic restruc-
"global" and recasting of the "urban" (Smith 2002), they
turing are
of space and regulation of basic services through upscale
governance that itself has become an essential component of
increasingly emerging as embodiment of the current imperatives
of capitalist production achieved through "flexibilisation" and
capitalist expansion. Section 2 will examine the recently launched
disaggregation (Banerjee-Guha 1997), reflecting a wider Jawaharlal
restruc- Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (jnnurm,
henceforth
turing of their respective national and regional economies. Pro- mentioned as National Urban Renewal Mission
jected as "champions of urbanity" and epitome of a worldwide(nurm)) of the central government, the official carrier of neolib-
eral urbanism
vision of urban planning, in reality these cities link capitalist po- in the current time, and its various implications.
litical strategies to the contemporary urban imaginations Section
of glo-3 will illustrate the process of restructuring in few cities
bal capital, contributing largely towards the construction(following
of he- nurm prescriptions) in different states, ruled by politi-
gemony (Lefebvre 1991) and dominant culture, characterised by of different ideological stripes and colour but marked
cal parties
competition, modernity and exploitation, all in a singleby an uncanny oneness in pursuing the said strategies. Section 4
frame-
willnet-
work. They produce two conflicting forms, the first being the discuss the existing and emerging spaces of neoliberalism in
Mumbai, the country's budding "international financial centre"
work of interactions and flows that does not necessarily represent
with
any specific urban unit but a hyper-modern urban form a focus on specific "development" projects. Section 5, while
repre-
senting contemporary capitalism and the market economy;concluding,
the will examine the imperatives of neoliberal urbanism
in the
second one characterises specific structures/architectures of Indian
a context and the associated contradictions.
gigantic nature that lend a commonness to the conception of the
2 Neoliberal Urbanism: The National Urban
current "urban" (Banerjee-Guha 2002b), irrespective of the eco-
Renewal Mission
nomic environment at the macro level. In India, they simultane-
Indian
ously reflect the contradictions of the state institutions that arecities of various sizes are being remodelled in recent times
essentially a crystallisation of uneven development and as
in "world
total class cities" to function as nodes of circulation of global
finance
sync with the larger process of neoliberal restructuring of con- and hi-tech activities of a diverse nature. Apparently the
temporary times (Banerjee-Guha 2008). It partly rests on exist- objective is to make these cities sufficiently investment
essential
ing inequalities but largely on the reproduction of newer friendly,
areas of acceptable to the credit rating agencies and help them
decline and growth, based on the current forms of economic
emerge as geostrategic points to further neoliberalism in the
momentum and the regulatory framework. Global South. To achieve this, a homogenised planning vision is
The consolidation of the worldwide regime of "disciplinary
being floated at the behest of global capital, ushering in a new era
neoliberalism" (Gill 1995) at the urban scale has been examined
of remapping the "urban" by intense gentrification of the urban
space
substantially by scholars (Amin 1994; Harvey 1989; Smith and recasting of the urban form and governance. Re-
1996;
2002; Mitchell 2001; Brenner and Theodore 2002a) from the
constructing a new geography of centrality and marginality, the
North. Few, however, have originated from the South andsaid vision has aggravated the contradictions of "concentration"
fewer
from south Asia on the specificities of policies, institutional
and "dispersal" in the existing institutional landscape and refor-
framework and consequences of urban neoliberalism. Works arethe relational character of specific locations for new users,
mulated
also extremely scanty on the contemporary city-centred for
strate-
which a process of place-specific valorisation and de-valorisation
(Banerjee-Guha
gies of international financial institutions (ifis) like World Bank, 2007) is found to set in. The overall character
International Monetary Fund (imf), Asian Development Bank a gradual fragmentation of territories, economic decline
represents
(adb), that in recent years, have been systematically redirecting
and displacement of a large majority, increasing socio-spatial in-
investment from "region" to "urban" in a big way, to promote
equality and a simultaneous emergence of new/modern activities
neoliberalism in these countries, as a part of their ideological
in specific
and locales, implying an aggravation of "spaces of differ-
functional sustenance. It is evident in the extraordinarily
ence" (Banerjee-Guha 2006). In the process of reconstructing
spacethe
renewed metropolitan bias in urban policy of these countries, as a part of the above re-conceptualisation of the contem-
porary
predatory nature of growth of large cities and finally, the vigo- "urban", displacement and dispossession of the poor and
weaker
rous pursuit of their economic regeneration in the current time. sections have surfaced as a fundamental aspect, aided by

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^E^EEEFEEE^^^

other methods of marginalisation, like closureurban

Simultaneously, of poverty
small-scale
was identified as the prime cause
manufacturing and retail units, anti-poor legal order,
for unregulated regulations
urban growth, environmental damage and grow-
against informal workers, hawkers, waste pickers,
ing crime privatisation
rates in cities. The raison d'tre for the Mission echoed
of basic services like water, sanitation, housing,
the rationale of health
neoliberaland edu-
policies in general: that the reforms
cation, and, last but not the least, restricting
would leadaccess to open
to economic spaces
growth assisted with a higher rate of
for making available more arenas for elitist consumption.
urbanisation, Ideology,
that cities covered by the Mission would emerge as
armed with power, is found to bring "engines
about of patterns of
growth" for thedomina-
respective urban systems, would be
tion and repression in many Indian cities (Banerjee-Guha
more liveable, 2004)
secure and, of course, global in character, materi-
in current times. alising the concept of a modern homogenised urban society. That
the premise
Since independence, externally assisted urbanof the above
sector homogenisation rested on an acute
projects
in India have accounted for more thancontestation
$230 million. In the
of the urban mid-
space (Banerjee-Guha 2002b) and a
selective
1990s, following the introduction of the new "first worlding"
economic of certain
policy, theareas (Katz 2001), remained
hidden. A careful examination
pro -liberalisation lobby identified modernisation shows that Indian cities are fast
of the infra-
structure of cities as a major panacea emerging
to get asrid of urban
critical deca-
zones of contestation (Banerjee-Guha 2008),
with
dence. Consequently, in 1996, the Expert a minuscule
Group on but exceedingly powerful global society and a
Commerciali-
sation of Infrastructure estimated ahuge majority of theof
requirement marginalised
around and dispossessed poor,
Rs 2,50,000 crore as investment in urban infrastructure
standing for
spatially anchored the
that goes to create backgrounds of
coming 10 years. This made the entryintense conflict and
of private utterly an
capital contradictory/competitive
im- urban
landscapes.
perative in the urban development scenario, withThe timing of the introduction
the public sec- of the nurm juxta-
poses with that
tor, as announced, lacking funds. Accordingly, of a number
a major of anti-people policies at the macro
overhaul-
andframeworks
ing of the administrative and legislative micro levels that of
are the
essentially
gov-part of the New Economic
Policy the
ernment was suggested, which smoothened (nep) of 1991. In of
process case involv-
of urban policy, rebuilding cities
became
ing iFis like the World Bank, adb, United an ongoing
States Agencyleitmotif.
for Inter-
The total cost
national Development and the United Kingdom's of the nurm was
Department forestimated at Rs 50,000 crore
for a period
International Development in the drafting of the of seven
urbanyears beginning in April 2005. The Mission
reforms
mandate. It marked the beginning of a aimed
new atregime
developing
of63 regulation
Indian cities into "world class" sustaina-
blethe
in the Indian urban sector that cleared cities.ground
Since the early
for1990s, as the concept of "liveable Indian
vigorous
cities" has disappeared
implementation of state-sponsored neoliberal from the Indian
programmes in aplanning lexicon, getting
number of cities in subsequent years, impacting municipal fina-major thrust of the Mission
replaced by "world class cities", the
nce, infrastructure, basic services, the went
landtoand
infrastructure,
housinglike wide roads, flyovers, tunnels, sky-
market,
ways, airports, mega
land use, urban form, etc, and most importantly, commercialand
the shelter complexes, real estates, and
livelihoods of millions of urban poor. Reproduction
open spaces for recreation,of urban
all with an aspiration to achieve inter-
national standards. Cities
space in this manner reflected the contradictions of economic of all size classes are targeted: seven
globalisation at a local scale (Sassenfrom
1999), exposing
category a deep
A or mega cities, 28 from category B or metro cities,
and and
structural imbalance in which modernity the remaining 25 of the 28 listed
post-modernity are in category C are urban
agglomerations
marked with "ephemerality" and chaotic (uas) with less
flux (Harvey than one million population
1990;
(Mahadevia 2006). The Mission
Banerjee-Guha 2006). With the urban built environment having is classified into two parts: Sub-
production and consumption relations, mission-A, entitled urban infrastructure
the "superstructural" im- and governance (uig)
accounts
pacts of the above restructuring surfaced for 65%
in the of the total
political and funds,
cul-to be administered by the
tural life of these cities (Banerjee-GuhaMinistry
2004).ofAUrban
pointDevelopment.
that needsProjects on roads, transport, as-
to be mentioned here is that since the sociated
1990s,infrastructure,
the ifis havewater vigor-
supply, sanitation and beautification
(read gentrification)
ously taken part, more than before, in drafting have come
the policy under this head. Sub -mission B,
frame-
work of several nations. The agreements
havingand treaties
35% of signed
the total funds, at earmarked for providing
has been
Basic Services
their behest at cross-country levels have enforced to theaUrban Poor (bsup), which is being adminis-
mandatory
tered
"opening up" of the governance of these by the Ministry
countries thatofhas
Urban Employment and Poverty Allevia-
drasti-
tion (muepa). Items
cally gone to replace the state and democratic like slum improvement, rehabilitation of the
policymaking
displaced,
framework by non-state bodies, sacrificing access to
general basic services
welfare, and housing projects for the
labour
security and environmental protection urban poor comelevels.
at various under this head.
Although a classification
Holding the process of unrelenting urbanisation of reforms into "optional" and "man-
responsible
datory"
for the acute urban crisis in the country, inwas theoretically2005,
December made, essentially,
the in practice, all nurm
Indian central government launched itsprescribed
largesturban governance reforms seem to be mandatory for
post-independence
cities undertaking
urban planning initiative, entitled the jnnurm, the Mission
henceforth programmes. In addition, all
men-
urban local
tioned as nurm, aimed at pursuing urban bodies (ulbs)
reforms and need to prove financial stability for ac-
putting
cessing
the cicies on a fast track of development. Thecapital market funds
primary evil (Jamwal
identi-2006). A further precondi-
tion for
fied by the Mission was the gap between thethedisproportionately
states to access funds is that they need to set up para-
statal, non-elected nodal
fast pace of urban growth and urban infrastructural agencies that will be made responsible
development.

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SPECIAL ARTICLE eee===-=

for evaluating cities. Based on subtle forms of competition, place-marketing

projects, releasing and f
managing the regulatory undercuttingfunds
same for attracting investment, it is tangled
and mon
private sector by a range of conditionalities at state and city government levels. are
participation to
submitted by The key itemsULBs/parastatal
the are: (i) privatisation/commercialisation of basic u
government services through ppps with the introduction of userheaded
committee fees; (ii) lib- by
earlier justifiederalisation
the of land and real"inability"
estate market through repeal of Urban of t
frastructure Land Ceiling Acts and change in Rent
projects in Control Acts; (iii) develop-
which sub
investment (fdi)
ment ofwas invited.
a stronger mortgage market alongside 100% fdi in housing At th
the Eleventh and real estate; (iv) easier
Plan draft,land use conversion norms; (v) reforms
public-p
already been accepted as
in property tax and reduction in stamp duties; the
(vi) financial and prim
structure administrative restructuring
projects. From of municipalities through implemen-
nearly R
frastructure tation of the 74th amendment
budget is of the Constitution;
expected (vii) rationali- to
crore sation and outsourcing; (viii) introduction
(approximately) in of e-governance;
2011-12
sector and (ix) valorisation of private sector
safeguard itsand private credit rating agen-
profit rate
ahead to cies over"viability
provide elected civic bodies; (x) co-opting the middle class
gap fun
capital cost of the
through projects.
high flown rules like the right to information, public dis- Simila
"geo-bribes" byclosureSmith
law, citizens' participation law, etc; (2002)
and (xi) bringing the in hi
provided by urban poor
the New in the orbit of pay-and-use
York framework, for example,
City ad
tions to make user fee for basicNew
the services, etc (casumm 2006).
York The sweeping Stock
ppp models for transformation
provision of urban governance is meant to create
ofa func- basic s
the ultimate panacea
tional impotence of democraticallyin
elected bodies nurm
and encroach too
central upon the constitutionally devolved areas
government's of state government
National Co
(ncmp), aiming at
jurisdiction. removing
Such modalities are often eulogised by the country's all
housing markets. Interestingly,
business and industrial tycoons while justifying the need for hav- n
Mission for public debate
ing chief executive officers on
(ceos) for modern city administration any
The above direction in
in place of state urban ministers the
or municipal commissioners. urban
growth and I will take up two of the above issues a little more in detail to
competitiveness not on
economic expose the diverse
regime pathways of neoliberal localisation. They
introduced in 19
global regime reflect, besides also
but the politics of the projects,
emergedtheir context and in- as a
change in the teraction with the socio-economic set-up. First, the Urban Land
country.
In order to be Ceiling and Regulation Act (ulcra). It was passed
eligible, in 1976 to re-
the munic
prepare City strict the concentration of land in the hands of a few as wellPlans
Development as its (cd
defining the direction of
speculation. A ceiling was introduced on the ownership of vacantdevelop
idea to have urban land plans
the in order to make more land available for the economi-
chalked ou
tion" was in cally weaker sections. The
reality acentral Act was repealed by the union
hypothetical m
were ready in agovernment
month'sin 1999. Still with the state governments
time, it was a hur
ies, following vital piece of legislation for makingwithin
which, surplus land available at thre
ment disbursed affordable
Rs prices. The nurm made it mandatory to repeal the
86,482.95 crore
All previous entire Act in order to access
central Mission funds and thereby brought
government fu
schemes, such aas
huge quantity of urban land into the
the market. With 100% fdi
National Slu
Swarna Jayanti Sahakari
allowed in real estate in early 2005, fdi in real estate as a per- Rozgar
Aawaas Yojana centage
(for housing
of total fdi inflows increased from 4.5% in 2003-04 to the
poor), the 26.5% in 2006-07, making
National Transportslums in large cities exceedingly Policy
Mission. vulnerablethat
Projects as a future source of land were
for these activities. In Delhi, given p
ture projects, since the late 1990s more than 1,00,000 families
gigantic have been
commercia
cultural evicted while
facilities andin Mumbai duringurban
2004-05, more than 90,000 spectac
joining the slum units were demolished (casumm 2006).
bandwagon and All these were pledge
tal for transforming
being planned when a series of studiestheir
were bringing out facts on physic
With the the shortfall ofgovernment
central urban housing. National Building Organisation ret
progress of estimateddevelopment
the that 24.7 million people would be rendered homeless pro
catchword that in 2006 of which 97% would be constituted by the urban poor
systematically went
capital in (Singh 2006). Repeal
running the of the ulca in several cities is found to
projects. Sev
isations in have created havoc by making
different land of different naturewere
cities and co-
size readily available for speculation. Second, the mandatory
etficacyofppps.
A careful look requirement
at fornurm
the ulbs to become financiallyproves
self-reliant th
linked essentially means aprogramme
investment reduction in their budgetary allocation and of p

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zzr:-'- -j=

restrictio
Figure 1: Relationship between the New Economic Policy, New Urban Policy and the
National Urban Renewal Mission
without h
to admin
New Economic Policy * ~* New Urban Policy
parastata
structure
in Karnat
governme
Relaxation of Land-use
Privatisation
,'T
bursed
Zoning t
Urban Renewal and
projects.
Liberalisation Gentrification of Selected
funds fro
Areas
Withdrawal of State from
funding
Flexibilisationof
Urban Social Policy
labour market
society.
Private sector in Urban F
Development
year of t
Deregulation Mega projects and Urban
Rs 6,128 Spectacles
against t
strengthe
The urban
are a JNNURM
mat
mega pro
Privatisation of basic services
petitive
and Public Funds st
at all Liberalisation leve
of land and Real
Estate market
trating th
Repeal of urban Land Ceiling Act
post-Ford
100% FDI in Housing and Real
Estate
ernance a
Thrust on Infrastructure
scales.
Financial and Administrative Th
with Reforms the
of Municipalities
Entrepreneurial Governance
around re
Outsourcing of Municipal Work
organisat
and E-Governance
Large-Scale Gentrification and
entrepren
Mega Projects
posed by
Note: Developed from Swynqedouwet al 2002.
neously, t
the consu
douw
actually are in contradiction with each et
other. The globally funded
large infrastructure projects that are being
people wh artificially injected
in (Baran
differe 1958) into the existing socio-economic structures of several
viewcities for the benefit
of of a small section of the population th
have
already started impacting the poor in a negative manner by dis-
3 Neolibe
placing them from their occupation and homes that cannot be
It iscompensated by any rehabilitation package. Above all, the
quite
and ominous link
big between the nurm and global capital as a part of a c
larger neoliberal capitalist agenda is getting exposed by the
mentione
urgency of implementing such projects that have close involve-
forms, ar
like ment the
with ifis and global consultant firms like McKinsey in their W
formulation in several cities. Take, for example, Pune's deve-
Company
lopment plan. It was drafted by the Credit
(hdfc) for Rating Information
Services of India Limited (crisil) with technical assistance from
Hyderaba
the Financial Institutions Reform and Expansion-Debt
prises in (fire-d)
fromproject of the usaid. Or, for thatthe
matter, the formation of the
Municipal Association of West Bengal, a product of the same
ministere
fire-d project (Banerjee and Mukherjee
years afte 2008) . Along with the ifis,
either
key policymaking academic institutions notin the country that are
funded by international development organisations have alsoun
mained been
involved in formulating mission policies
exists bet to make the subsequent
process of intervention
ture and easier (Herman and Chomsky 1988).
on Let us consider the cases of a few more cities
the othand states. In

as and around Kolkata, abolition of the ulcra has opened

two in up

Economic & Political weekly ISSS9 may 30, 2009 vol xliv no 22 99

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sPMmSKimjE^^^^^^^^^^^E=^^^^^^=^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
possibilities of recreating hugeMission
space for(Varma 2008).
upscale What is
activities more,
for
which, similar to the mill landsin of Mumbai,
the city has former
come upindustrial
as a significan
areas are being chosen. For example,
on whichthe Calcutta
slums Riverside
were built. In addition
Project coming up in Batanagar, project coming
to the south of under the
Kolkata infrastruct
metrop-
lish huge
olis on a 262 acre of land, covering more pedestrian shopping
than 80% land areas
area of
Chawdi
the former Bata India and Batanagar that are almost
industrial historical
township. Due to land
outsourcing of production, a practice the
way, will factory
also defacehas been
about 27 fol-
of the 1
ofworkforce
lowing since long, the organised the city. Interestingly, the succes
has dwindled from
Navbharat-Maytas-ItalThai
15,000 to 1,600 workers in recent (itd -Thail
years. The Riverside Project
aims at housing a nine-hole golf
ingcourse (that Services
& Financial will use (il&fs)
an enor-consort
"viability
mous amount of water from the gap region),
surrounding funding", rather it
high-end
villas (where a duplex flat will Rs
cost about
30,311 Rs 1.11
crore crore),
to the statecondo-
governmen
miniums, hotels, it Park (for claimed
which an sez
that is being planned),
Hyderabad is going to get
with amall
hospitals and schools and a shopping "negative subsidy"
that would (Ramacha
be one of
"viability
the largest in eastern India. The gap funding"
1.2 km riverside cannot
is being matc
deve-
loped for recreational activities for residents
being and
offered to visitors.
Maytas. For
According
demand,
materialising the project, the Bata Real Estate
Company has setDevelopment
up River- (re
structure
bank Holdings, a joint venture with have
Calcutta been accepted
Metropolitan as a part
Group
(an alliance between Kolkata Metropolitan
ment Development
for which 538 acres in various
Authority and United Credit Bellani
over toGroup).
Maytas.Apprehension of
In case the state gov
these
the existing factory workers about lands,
the alternative
possibility sites
of the of compa
remain-
being
ing land and factory infrastructure kept
being ready.
sold off Local taxes will no
soon increases
everyday (Mukherjee and Banerjeewould receive all benefits
2008). under the Andhra
Similar Pradesh Infrastruc-
developmen-
tal activities are found to haveture
taken
Developmentover the
Enabling 400
Act, 2001. acre
Last but not Hindus-
the least, as
tan Motors land in Uttarpara located north
per the Competing of(cf)
Facility Kolkata.
clause, while theWith real
project will have
estate (Mukherjee and Banerjeemonopoly
2008) stepping
on passengers in,
in the three not
routes only
and may the
levy a higher
tariff during
former workers (Hindustan Motors haspeak hours, defunct
been the State Road Transport
sinceCorporation
long),
will notcommunities
but a whole lot of neighbourhood be allowed to introduce modern
havebuses on these routes
faced evic-
on factory
tion. Former Annapurna Glass which it carriesin
aboutJadavpur
three million passengers daily at a
(in south
much lower into
Kolkata) has been recently converted rate. Theahuge economic and
gigantic social costs that
residential
complex while the defunct Joy Engineering
thousands Works
of people displaced by the project nearby,
will have to bear is
in
housing eastern India's largest addition to the cost of
real estate land acquisitionwith
complex are also not mentioned
four 35
(Ramachandraiah
storey residential towers and a mall occupying2009). 10,00,000 sq ft
area. Large market complexes,The formerly owned
above story of inequitable byactivities
real estate Kolkata getting
Municipal Corporation, each occupying 3-4
intrinsically entrenched with acres, are being
urban infrastructure projects has
become a the
handed over to private capital under common feature in the
pretext ofcontemporary
lack ofIndianmain-urban
tenance and resource crunch. Theplanning scenario.
state In Bangalore, for example,
government hasunder the guise
declared
that within two years Kolkata and
of ppps,the adjoining
the current city
development policy of Howrah
is prioritising the con-
cerns of
will be having 12 more multiplexes the new middle class, especially
(Bandyopadhyay and it professionals,
Mukho-in
taking up huge real estate
padhyay 2009). All these "developments" that projects
are (Mukherjee
coming 2008). Even
up
under nurm projects have an underlying logic
smaller cities like Bhopal of
or Kochi use urban renewal
similar rhetoric of trans-
that aims to create economic regeneration in lifestyle,
forming cities with modern declining indus-
healthier environment
trial areas, promote a post-industrial international
and better quality city,
of life for the poor (Singh foster
2008). In reality, in
diversification of the urban sectoral
Bhopal slumsmix and
are being shiftedsupport job crea-
to distant peripheries and heavy
tion in presumably "dynamic" user
sectors iike
charges are levied on culture and
basic infrastructure leisure.
in the city slums.
To preclude resistance, systematically
The actual number
poorer
of slum-dwellers
affected
in this citygroups
has been re-
like petty traders, hawkers or
ducedvendors are (the
in the official statistics being labelled
slum population as
of 3.99 lakh
encroachers or illegal occupants of came
in 1991 public
down to spaces.
1.26 lakh in 2001) by which large sections
of the
Like Kolkata, in Hyderabad most ofurban
thepoornurm
are labelledhousing
encroachers (Singh 2008). Cities
projects
for the poor are systematically located in Ahmedabad
like Chandigarh, the outskirts
or Jaipur withof the popula-
an average me-
tropolis, contributing towards tion of 15 lakh are of
a process also hit. One-third of"slum
making the 300 newfree"
malls in
cities in India. The relocated settlements, devoid
the next five years are going to be of basic
located in theseinfra-
cities (toi
structure, have no socio-economic livelihood
2009) that base that
have started experiencing the
a tremendous poor
real estate
can depend on to continue/restart their
boom. A growing struggle
interest for
from peripatetic survival.
capital, which hopes
to reap profit from
Moreover, increase in the gaps between thethe comparatively
plan budgets cheaper land,
and labour
the and
actual expenditure incurred proves
infrastructure the real
cost of these purpose
cities, is evident. of the

100 may 30, 2009 vol xliv no 22 Q3S9 Economic & Political weekly

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-.!-'., .. ,.., .__" ' * ~ .,_.,~1'L--...'

In spite o
workers and indirect jobs to 2,50,000 more - Mumbai started ex-
another a
periencing industrial decline. Following the nep, organised em-
ployment drastically fell in many otherth
ments, industries (Banerjee-
the ideolo
Guha 2002a). During the same time, however, a new identity for
relationsh
the city was getting reconstituted: Mumbai as the country's fu-
projects h
ture international financial and service centre. Actually, the in-
nents is
dustrial decline was not an isolated t
phenomenon but an indicator
and of direct
many other changes that were going to come, subsequent to
the official implantation of neoliberal policy armed with its
oriented a in-
ing. tense "flexibilised"
In model of planning. With
mo the changing image
to change
of the city, the elected municipal body started being overpow-
creating n
ered by powerful corporate consultant groups in terms of shaping
In almost
the future course of urban development. The previous planning
on the
perspective with a focus on extension and pr
up-gradation of basic
faced as
services, was replaced by competitive strategies that promoted a
cost competitionvary
their through fiscal conservation, tax incentives,
deregulation of land use planning, growing role of consultant
entrepren
of firms, ppps, and last but not the least, privatisation and marketi-
bringin
sation of the local state
nates the (Harvey 1989). In the following para- f
graphs, the above trajectory of neoliberalism
omous inst in Mumbai, inter-
ers twined with the theme of entrepreneurial governance, economic
having
regeneration and interventionist control of urban space will be
governanc
discussed. All these issues are not only interrelated, but deeply
representa
conjoined in shaping the future expression of citizenship
through c
tory(MacLeod 2002)
envirand social justice in the city.
The task of reconstituting the
Going bystatus of Mumbai as a globalised
city was initially achieved through production disaggregation and
reiterated
"flexibilisation" of labour (Sassen 1991; Banerjee-Guha 2002b)
creasing s
the that reflected a wider restructuring of the economy. Together, it
society
tal reconstructed a new image of Mumbai as a "world class"o
core finance
centre, seemingly more attractive than
(many res its former identity of be-
ing the industrial capital of the country.and
clusive Interestingly, way back
a in 1993, McKinsey, the international consultancy firm, better
thorough
tate known neolib
as a universal catalyst for private capital in urban projects,
who
had made a strong have
case for developing Mumbai as a global finan-
cial centre. For improving the business environment of the city, it
restructu
had two suggestions: relaxation of land acquisition
remade ur rules and
lawsstrict control of and
labour. Even if one overlooks the knotty link be-
onlytween improved business environment and easy land acquisition
stren
(for making upscale commercial and residential space easily
expresses
available), the issue of labour management
private ma(read disciplining
labour) should not be
ever, ignored. On the same line, Bombay First, a
varie
hallowed ngo of the Bombay Chamber of Commerce and Indus-
production
try, set up in 1995, with directors of big corporate houses
systems (B on its
Board, came up with flamboyant
gional com ideas about Mumbai's crucial
role in the country's progressneo
wider in the liberalisation process and
In offered support (Bombay First 2003)
the aboin helping the city emerge
at as a finance and service centre. Such
the con groups, promoted by finance
and business capital, have become
global city ever more instrumental in
recent times in reformulating the development policies in several
4 Neoliberalism in Mumbai: Accumulation and Exclusion cities (Banerjee-Guha 2004) in India.
For Mumbai, however, the story of state machinery, business
Since the wave of liberalisation formally swept the country in
and commercial capital forming a nexus to influence the imple-
early 1990s, efforts of the public and private sectors, to make
mentation of anti-poor projects and appropriation of public land
Indian cities competitive, became stronger. Since the 1980s, with
the closure of the cotton mills - the city's economic backbonefor
till private use is nothing new (Banerjee-Guha 1995). The inter-
the early 1980s, providing direct employment to 2,50,000
esting part is that in the post-NEP years such practices were found
101
Economic & Political weekly E2SE3 may 30, 2009 vol xliv no 22

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'^0^.1^!^.^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^=^^^^^^^^^===^^^^^^^^^
Table 1 : Mumbai's Growth Potential As PerWsjon2013_' entertainment/telecom for the coming years, the plan advocated
Sector Potential GDP Potential Employment
either total privatisation or ppp for projects in all these services
(one must recall that the maintenance of Mumbai-Pune Express-
way (Chaware 2004) was privatised for 15 years in 2004). The
Financial service^

Healthcare

relevant chapters of nurm almost echoed the heightening need

Information technology/IT-enabled services 13,311

Media/entertainment/telecom 11,715 13 73,000 for privatisation. The Vision identified job potentiality in con-
Construction
struction, hotels/tourism/recreation and modern format retail
Hotel/tourism
that would create 5,00,000 jobs in the next 10 years in upgraded
Retail_ museums, multi-purpose indoor stadiums and convention cen-
Manufacturing 20,771 12 tres (in line with Madison Square Garden), in cafs and restau-
Transportation/logistics 1,942 10 4,000_ rants on the western and eastern sea-fronts, restaurants and
Total*
bars, in supermarkets and hypermarkets to be located inside
* Excludes rnfg in the hinterlan
** Additional jobs by 2013. the city and on highways. Nowhere there was a mention of
Source: Business World, Decemb
Mumbai's potential as a strong production centre or the million
more jobs it had lost. The basis of "Vision Mumbai" was a shift ofint
vehemently capi-
Regionaltal Plan
from production to built environment for which the city was
(1996-
identified as the future consumption
Development Author centre of the country.
Growth of its
tradicting the city, targeted at former
8% to 10% a year, was envisaged
dispersal,through
thesome specific sectors. Develop
First was the services market -
the financial services were to gear up based on the already
metropolis as existing t
services and hi-tech industries and advocated more centralised network of financial institutions, law firms, investment banks,
investment (mmrda 1995) in the metropolis. The Plan hadetc.
an More than 1,00,000 jobs were envisaged to be provided by
this sector. The second thrust was on the health sector and enter-
eerie semblance to the 10 year "Vision Plan" of Bombay First
published in 2003, two years prior to the of- tainment. With its creative class, pro
Table 2: Funding Mumbai 'Vision 2013' (Rscrore)
ficial announcement of the nurm. The rea- houses, financiers and distributors an
son why I elaborate the features of the "Vi-Total investment required _00,000 the overseas market accepting the
Private investment _ __Ji50,000_ stream Indian cinema, Mumbai was
sion" in the following paragraphs is that
Available funding with municipality 5,000
through this Plan the notion of neoliberal- nated as the chosen Indian city to
User charges, better tax collection 30,000
ism as economic regeneration and govern- Government equity 15,000 90,000 more jobs in entertainmen
mentality was legitimised in Mumbai, fol-Source: Business World, December 2003,healthcare.
pp 44-45.
The "Vision" further inte
lowing which the distinctions between state, put the city back to its premier statu
capital
civil society and market (MacLeod 2002) got of information
considerably technology (not industrial!). Upcoming
blurred
localities
and the city space, in the name of planning, was of north-eastas
mobilised Mumbai
an near Andheri, emerging as the
arena for both market-oriented economicfuture it hub,
growth wereelite
and the forerunners
con- (Business World 2003: 45) of
such designs
sumption practices. It was undauntedly arrogant (Tablessupport-
about 1, 2 and 3). The state government endorsed
ing the claim of the affluent for a larger the Vision
share ofPlan in totality
city and came out with its Mumbai Trans-
space and
accordingly suggested several methods offormation Project inof
capitalisation 2003 to transform Mumbai into an "Interna-
space.
tional Financialyears
The official cdp and nurm projects in subsequent Centre"thor-
(ifc) with world class infrastructure,
citizen-friendly
oughly integrated it, in both letter and spirit, services and
with a singular business-friendly environment. Ne-
fo-
cus on corporatisation of city space. oliberalism thus became an overarching frame of reference for
contradictory
The plan document, prepared by the same McKinsey discursive
& Com-events that linked livelihoods and eve-
pany in "active collaboration" with state ryday aspirations of
government individuals to a new conceptualisation of the
organisa-
tions like the mmrda, and the Municipal urban, legitimising
Corporation ofthe integration of the urban bourgeoisie into
Greater
Mumbai (mcgm), benchmarked Mumbaicompetitive
with 10 city
other cities,
governance through the "revanchist" (Smith
1996) methodology
namely, London, New York, Singapore, Hong Kong, Saoof urban restructuring. The process was
Paulo,
Sydney, Bangkok, Rio-de-Janeiro, Torontopredicated on an aggressive
and finally, Shanghai. rescaling of the State and ensuing
In its preface, the "Vision" stated to have
Table 3: Boosting Land Supply for Realisation of Mumbai 'Vision 2013'
conducted interviews with more than 30 key stakeholders of Mumbai,
Levers ' _ Land Supply (%)
holding more than 10 brainstorming workshops with major govern
Floor Space Index increase 30-40
ment institutions, business groups and ngos, researched and devel-
oped case studies of five international and fiveMumbai
domestic trans-harbour
city transfor- link Jl~?0_
Coastal
mations. ..and consulted works done by McKinsey in Regulation
other partsZoneof
II and
theIII relaxation _ J^"?
world in order to develop a framework and Urban
database for
Land benchmark
Ceiling Act/rent control^ _ __ 5-10

ing Mumbai with other international cities (Bombay FirstNo-Development

Salt pan, 2003). Zone, Port Trust, N
Corporation Mill Lands

Targeting four "high-end services" for the city, namely, finan-

Total

cial services, healthcare, iT-enabled services and media/

Source: Busines

102 may 30, 2

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"^^^^^^

Figure 2: Vision Mumbai Location of the poor areas by

Golden intensifying
Triangle militarisation of the city space and
increasing ghettoisation.
The primary source of land was identified in the heart of the
city that roughly takes the shape of a triangle (Banerjee-Guha
2004). The northern point of this "golden" triangle is located in
the emerging it hub of Andheri (east); the right arm stretches
from Andheri to the dock area in the south and touches its south-
eastern point; the base goes west and joins the south-western
point in the mill areas of Parel and Matunga; the left arm
traverses north to reach Andheri through (a) sprawling mill
lands, now converted into upper class commercial-residential
areas, (b) Dharavi, the huge slum that is being made ready for
gentrifkation, and (c) Bandra-Kurla commercial complex built
on evacuated slum land and the bed of Mithi river (Figure 2). In
order to get to the heart of Mumbai's restructuring, it is extremely
necessary to understand the nature of transformation of these
areas inside the triangle. Together, they go to make the primary
source of land for the city's redevelopment, as indicated in the
cdp. The sheer quantity is enormous: 522 ha (600 acres) comes
only from the mill lands (from where 2,00,000 workers have
been displaced and many await it) with a sprawling working class
area and a low income neighbourhood. The original development
control rules had suggested that one-third of each (sold out) mill
land would be surrendered to the state government for the use of
workers. Subsequently, the clause was deleted. The estimated
land in the dock area (three and a half time bigger than the mill
lands) is 753 ha (1,860 acres) out of which 445 ha is reclaimed.
The Bandra-Kurla complex, coming up as an elite commercial
area as a "city within a city" (mmrda 1995: 15) has 370 ha located
near the international and domestic airports, to the north of the
mill lands where office space was sold in 1994 at Rs 2,800 per sq ft,
much higher than the prevailing rate. Then there is Dharavi,
housing more than 70,000 hutments on 174 ha. The redevelop-
ment costcoalition
reorganisation of alliances and of Dharavi has been estimated at Rs 5,600
partners of crore that
urban
development. would convert the entire area into a model township (the plan
The entire project was estimated to have a cost of $40 billion has been prepared by a us -based urban designer) with a large
(about Rs 1,82,600 crore) to be spent over 10 years out of which number of high rise buildings for free sale in the market and a
25% would have to be invested by the state government. The 75% proportionate number for housing the slum-dwellers. The state
private investment in housing, telecom and services sector would government has announced a modern sports complex for post re-
be based on market demand (Business World 2003: 44)- Again, development Dharavi. The second destination of the sports ac-
not without logic, "Vision Mumbai" in many sections ran identi- tivities is identified at Andheri, the it hub that is already crowded
cal with the 1996-2011 Regional Plan of mmrda and almost in with iT-enabled service units and real estate companies. Redevel-
totality with nurm. opment projects in all these areas are with the private sector with
The clientele of the Vision Plan was clearly earmarked. Up- the State acting as an abettor.
graded infrastructure and entertainment facilities were slotted The transmogrification of Mumbai largely depends on the rate
for a "high quality talented" section of the population. New urban and intensity of gentrifkation of the above areas and the surround-
programmes specially focused on modernisation of security pro- ings. McKinsey has identified mill areas in Dadar-Parel, Port Trust
visions (an eight-pronged programme) was chalked out for the lands in the Dock area, Bandra-Kurla Complex, bdd chawls in
same target group "in the face of economic decline, increasing Worli and increased fsi in already built-up areas as the source of
violence, crime and worsening of quality of life due to prolifera- land for redevelopment. By mid-2008 almost the entire mill area
tion of slums" (Bombay First 2003). Reiterating the notion of was shaped into a modern commercial hub with global chain
"spatiality of crime" the Vision Plan advocated a deeply interven- shops, corporate houses and hyper market complexes (D'Monte
tionist agenda in justifying the need for maintaining private 2002). Proactive pursuit of real estate mega projects has been a
police forces for gated communities, welfare reform, community primary component in the redevelopment endeavours in the area.
regeneration and designing public spaces with maximum surveil- For example, China Mills with 5,00,000 sq ft of land has been sold
lance. The objective of the Plan was to drastically segregate the to the Dosti Group Builders at a price of Rs 53 crore on which six

Economic & Political weekly DDB9 may 30, 2009 vol xi.iv no 22 103

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SPECIAL ARTICLE ==

formed
residential high
come up. With
Committa
speedy conversio
high cour
banks are found
proper su
renewed sation is
infrastru
tion in in
thethe
so p
lo
2006). The segre
emblema
publicly restructu
subsidise
ing embodiments
image of
to ing
exclude chan
those a
class andtion, just
cultural
of the contentious issue.
new space.
To preclude social unrest that
promotion of may result due to dispossession,
sign
formidable interventionist
working class-ori strategies suggested by Bombay First
into a globally-o
are being implemented in the public and private domains in very
pened many ways. TheseToronto
in are done by integrating surveillance in urban
and in hundreds
planning, by cleansing the material space of pavement dwellers, o
down. hawkers, informal workers and thefor
Land homeless, relocating them in u
be "special housing zones" in peripheral
further made lands, disregarding not only
(relaxation of
the issue of social justice but ecological ru
considerations too. There
so far has been a recent state government decision to rehouse slum-
reserved a
marg dwellers in the salt pan areas
area for of Kanjurmarg that has so long
ho been
the city's for
Mumbai organic bulwark against nature'smak
fury. Simultaneously,
Dharavicontrol calls
of the urban space (Rajagopal 2002)for
by various power
Dharavi groups
is has increased.located
Singular identities of affluent citizens that
the had in the past remained fluid ortriang
golden fuzzy, are now found to take on a
of more aggressive
more collective form, redirecting urban development
than 10
debates onis
Dharavi class lines (Banerjee-Guha
a 2004), vibr
supporting strict zon-
ing laws against hawkers or waste pickers,
population of taking an active in
part in
leather elitistworks,
environmental movements having diverse "green" strategiesp
and for specific areas, and bringing in new hegemonic discourses
repairing, gar for a
With sanitised/aesthetised city space. A bourgeois
more than clientele is rapidly
nual turnover
engulfing the urban governance terrain. o
have remained
The contemporary urban restructuring in Mumbai is visibly be-in
becomecoming athe cent
part of the neoliberal reconstruction of the very notion of
"urban" at different layers of the society.
northward One of its primary mani-
expan
festations is the process of legitimisation
nificantly centra of a hegemonic concept of
finally urban
to planning with commodification
emerge of virtual space at the level
of image building, sharing a strong base in the commodification of
redevelopment. I
tive Financial
real urban spaces. The resultant contest over the rightInv
to reconvert
homogenised urban spaces intoProjec
formation lived places and the planning en-
of the deavour to recommodify them happensbe
city to be the crux of the prob-
re
ment lem (Banerjee-Guha
of 2004). With increasing intensity of claims and
Dharavi
counter claims over the contested
according to city space that the
is significant to-
wards the construction of hegemony
converted into (Lefebvre 1991), innumerable a
which projects are being sanctioned by the government,pla
global recreating a
biddingtotally process.
new generation of spaces in the future "slum free" city with T
to each heritage
househol
architecture, theme parks, info-tech parks, golf courses (in
in 40% adjoining
of New Mumbai), sprawling
the commercial areas with perma-
ex
sold in nent
theexhibition grounds, water-front
mark development promenades
viding and several other signature projects. tenem
free Together they exude a mod-
ing ern, homogenous, one-dimensional vision
ignored is of Mumbai, symbolise
wh
space an extreme segmentation of communities of the underclass and
requiremen
nomic activities.
thoroughly undermine the complexity of urban life of this multi-
layered interactive city where 68% of
compliance ofthe population live in th
slums.
the The repressive andof
cause ideological state apparatus
"volu(Althusser 1971) is

104 may 30, 2009 vol xliv no 22 DQE9 Economic & Political weekly

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 =====EEEE==^===r====^^ SPECIAL ARTICLE

found busy in combining disciplinary

develop infrastructure and
of large cities (identified as gemautho
-- gener-
(MacLeod 2002) to misappropriate
ating economic momentum). urban space.
The above focus on large cities actually fitted the bill of a larger
5 Underlying Logic,neoliberal
Polarisation and
world order in which economic Resista
changes had huge or-
In the above aggressive vision
ganisational of redesigning
and spatial implications for cities, characterised by aIn
can see embedded therescaling
concept of
of their functions, "new
activities urbanism
and relations (Smith 2002).
central element resting on
The first issue the alleged
thus gets interconnected withshift
the second, i of
e, the c
primary circuit of ascendancy of neoliberalism
production to the as a capitalist
secondarymodel of accumula-
cir
vironment (Harvey tion and its
1985; umbilical link1991),
Sassen with the entrepreneurial
precisely model of
financial manipulations as thrust
governance, sources of profit.
on economic regeneration Th
and urban restruc-
can be seen in the increasing focus
turing (Brenner and Theodore on
2002b). Its hyper
authentic form, besidesfo
construction activities, increased
economic relations, includes a speculation
diversely patterned hegemonic an
vestment in land and structure.
realTightening
estate (the
of control real
of the ifis like Worldestate
Bank, adb,
India is estimated to grow
dfid, and the
from
like on urban$12
development
billion
in India with in
a renewed
200
in 2015), service focus on
sector, mega cities is a part of
signature this hegemony that rests
projects, mega on a
and a reduced focus complex
on the ensemble of institutional, social and political
employment generat relations
process, affordable and practices. Forging
housing, and a link with a wider process sharing
collective of capital ac-
and resources. A largercumulation, the above global-local nexus
restructuring of in the
the contemporary
econo
a resultant transformation of the
urban development urban
praxis under form
nurm succinctly and
symbolises a
ronment constitute the basis
State-supported urban of this
neoliberalism new
initiated urban
as a market imper-
Guha 2006). ative. Its spatial logic is entangled with the need to restructure
For understanding cities
the on all fronts:
logic of land remaking
use, infrastructure, governance
Indian and so
to look at four basic on, to enable them
issues. The to be efficient
first and marketable
is the in the new geo-
chang
the Indian economy graphical
with axis of global
the competition that pits citiesof
introduction againstthe
cities
of the "urban" (Smith
therein. In 2002)
theand facilitates
Seventh accumulation.Plan (1985-
put on private Connected to the in
investment above two issues, comes the
urban third - the mate-
developm
against the previous policy
rialisation of urban
of an entrepreneurial decentr
city that will represent the praxis
National Commission of theUrbanisation
on neoliberal at the local scale. The
incontemporary
1985Marxian
help
the concept of interpretation
"urban" in India,(Harvey 1989) ofheralded
the entrepreneurial city
asuggests
maj
urban policy that the present-day
by advocating concentration neoliberal urban political arena gets and
ever
(Kundu 1989) and more influenced
activated by powerful business interests
a discourse through ppps. It
in favour o
entry in the is much less
provision of concerned
urbanwith wealth distribution
services, and welfare. cost
charges, and Further, it is particularly interested
most importantly, efficiencyin "signature projects"
of to se
The Commission's enhance the
Report wasimage offollowed
the city and is driven by
bythe political
the econ-74t
Amendment Act in 1992 that
omy of "place" brought
rather than in
"territory". The current politic
entrepreneur-
tion, made the urban ial regime inbodies
local India is all set to revive
more the competitive position of
"independe
weaker and urban economies
functionally restrictedthrough privatisation,
with de-municipalisation
reduced and b
cations and shrunken re-commodification
economic of social and economic lifeTheir
base. (Leitner 1990) at add
sibility of raising an unprecedentedly
funds from large scale.
the capital mark
debatable issue The fourth issue represents
(Banerjee-Guha 2002c) the regional component
as itof led
the t
on pro-poor projects. global
The strategy of the post-Fordist
urban economy operatingrate
growth through of
that there was alreadyfragmentation and distribution of production
an increasing and services, more
population co
the relatively larger importantly, financial
cities. The services
300 at wider spatial scales in
urban the form
agglom
population of 1,00,000of interrelated
and above, sub-processes. By this, several cities are assigned
accounted for
of the urban population in 1991 when for
specific roles in the hierarchical system themaking number
the capital
tan cities rose to 23. Six from
accumulation them
process more efficient. (Mumbai,
It is not only the cities like K
Chennai, Hyderabad,New York, Chicago, London or Tokyo,
Bangalore) within other words, the global
a popula
eight million were financial command
termed as centres
"mega that are important
cities" for this(Unite
system,
The earlier objective but given
of the current operational strategy of
strengthening thefinance econom
capital, it
and medium towns is also thebackstage
went cities of the Global South,with
in Africa, Asia and Latin
renewe
large cities and America that are considerably,
metropolitan regions if not equally, important for the
becoming of
No anti-monopoly functioning of (Bagchi
measures the above regulatory1987)
and competitive
wereregime. tak
consequent Here lies
inter-urban the significance of cities
disparity like Mumbai,
or the thestress
financial
capital
infrastructure in large of India, geared
cities that to take up
thethe mantle of the country's
above proce
wing the future City
nep, the Mega ifc, failing which serious implications are anticipated
Programme of the
ment (Banerjee-Guha (hpec 2007). "India'swas
2002c) financial services
launchedindustry will not become
with

Economic & Political weekly Q3S3 may 30, 2009 voi. xliv no 22 105

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SPECIAL ARTICLE

export-oriented, nor of enclosures

derive that ifs
significant both v
(int
cial services) export revenues, if inscribing
individuals Mumbai fails
an e
. . .For Mumbai to A proper
become an ifc,understanding
India's policym
cial operators need to form understand
fully and neoliberal
the urba
natu
ties in the global ifs not involve
market, the a discourse
activities on
und
financial ticulation
centres (gfcs), and the that
gap inthe proce
the cap
exists between Mumbai and
arises the
out of established g
it. This is bec
The imploring statement explicates
not only the impe
concentrate a di
restructuring in
countries like India
tal to become key and
sites its
fo
universal strategy. Associated
concentrate with the ent
an increasing
restructuring of the taged and
welfare marginalised
state into a more p
v
ventionist and market continuing de-valorisatio
friendly structure, aiding
above processes. where (Banerjee-Guha 200
There are several associated
ism turnssub-processes th
out to be increa
cant. Firstly, urban elites, composed
a stronger of to
abettor assorte
capit
from diverse entities lation
like normsindustry,
business, and initiati
me
increasingly and structed making
vociferously space for the pre
their be
discourse on "urban" and getting integrated
contemporary situation in
o
urban planning manipulations. Their engagem
ates a widespread erosion o
the city level and rights
impacts ofprevailing
the the dispossesse
spatia
peri-urban by drastically colonising
(Harvey 1989) the
of space ou
valorisati
ing the former concept
and
ofthe
city-hinterland
associated urban
symb
r
lishment of wealthy gated communities,
ing legitimisation offarm
the d
rious entertainment complexes (including
the city space spra
and regula
impinging on the livelihoods and
ting directly economic
linked to thea
like Karjat or Kasara inThe
the issue
Mumbai metropolita
of local and glob
of the above processwhereby
that has drastically
city inc
space is conv
years. For example, the number
economic of farmhouse
regeneration an
cational establishments, residential
flux. projects
The political an
econom
48 gram panchayats in Karjat taluka
ginalisation has incre
has been deftl
1997 to 1,247 in 2007.quant
The above bourgeois
(2000), Mitchell urb
(20
is systematically aided
is by the second
whether sub-proc
it becomes a s
of the urban imagery. Theand
claims previous role of
counterclaims.
poles and diffusion centres is being
corporate replaced
sector and theby
denationalised throughput node
revanchist of a global
urbanism (Sm
newly restructured cities,
quencesemerging as "space
of the redevelopm
(Banerjee-Guha 2002a)are
develop closer
claims made links wit
by the d
through global networks and gradually
and alternatives. It remainget de
surrounding region,tradictions inherent in the interaction between
disrupting the the two lead to a
organic
spatial economic arrangements. Neoliberalism,
more progressive, radical and democratic use of the city space
as a mode of (Brenner and Theodore
re-regulation 2002b) or whether
of cities and neoliberalism
their sits co
the former experiences several
deeper. Although contradictory
the patterns of the claims may reflect an over-
growth and decline, the
valorised periphery, by a the
and powerful corporate centre occupying smaller ter-same
arable land, open spaces, andperiphery
rain, and a de-valorised resource-based
with a large number of people ec
to get distortedly connected with
evidently marginalised, it the
goes without saying former
that this new politics of th
tracting chain of a transnational economic
claims and related struggles of the dispossessed will go to form the syst
Third is ecological modernisation,
most solid part of the neoliberal urbanism mentioned
in the coming days. In e
rating green strategies for
several cities both
and towns theon city
in India, depending and
the politics, cul- i
essentially facilitates ture
place marketing
and identity of the regions (Banerjee-Guha 2008),in the
such strug- ne
tive framework and gles, organised bytowards
works the dispossessed, are challenging
a greater the current con
privileged social groups. Within
displacement-based city
urban development. Theoriesareas
and praxis of this
urban agenda risks deepening socio-economic
neoliberal urbanism and the enforcement of the regulatory regime
social cleavages like
in cities class,
and their regions arecaste, gender
getting intrinsically associated with
(MacLeod 2002). The ensuing urban
such resistances and struggles, forms
signifying a radical politics of con-man
and uneven patchwork of
testation thatmicro-spaces that
would finally decide for whom the cities and their Soja
as the splintering "post-metropolitan"
spaces are meant for. landscap
106 may 30, 2009 vol xi.iv no 22 13321 Economic & Political weekly

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 =E=^~"~^::zz:i:r-^^t=rf^~ - " ' -^=zz=f-^=i^^
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