‘As Delhi becomes a global city, people cling to caste, religious identities more’
The Hindu
The kind of social and spatial segregation that is there for the Muslim community at present, it’s hard to imagine it will unravel soon, says Neelanjan Sircar
NS: Throughout the book, you realise that you have to cross-reference space, a social attribute or demography and the outcome you are interested in. For example, we find that even if you control for the wealth of a person, natives of Delhi have the first-mover advantage. They live in places that have better infrastructure than migrants.
SC: For me, what it underlined was the information bubbles we all live in. We all ‘knew’ Delhi and it turned out that we didn’t really know Delhi. And that’s because our social networks are limited. There were two important things. First, how traditional Delhi is. There is this idea that people in cities are more advanced and liberal. But it turns out that it is not true in Delhi. It may not be as stuck in time as say, villages in Rajasthan and U.P. But it certainly isn’t a modern, cosmopolitan city as far as say getting along with other communities and marriage practices and eating practices are concerned. The village transferred to the city and the village habits really have not gone away. So marriage is conducted roughly the same way as it was 30 years ago. People don’t eat with outsiders, they don’t share meals with other communities. The very first time we presented this at an event at the Centre for Policy Research a couple of years ago, a lot of people were upset with us and said you are wrong. I would have not expected this myself because we don’t meet people from different social classes. Yes, there are casual interactions with auto drivers or service providers, but you don’t get to know what happens at home. At the same time, Delhi is very modern. There are RWAs, the politics, the engagement with politicians at all levels, dharnas and road blocks. Delhi is at the forefront among Indian cities in terms of overt politics, visible politics. The second thing that stood out was the multiple levels at which privilege, inequality and dominance work. For example, in access to drinking water and police services.
SC: Urban planning in India is not a democratic process, it never has been. Urban planning in the world in general is the upper middle class and the elite planning the cities that they want to live in. The master planning process is being dropped pretty much everywhere in the West in favour of citizen advocacy. Talking to citizens is the core of planning, but we are not there. There is a top-down nature of policy-making, probably more so today even more than 10 years ago. Very big decisions are being taken without any consultation.