Possessing the city : property and politics in Delhi, 1911-1947

Author/Creator:

Vanaik, Anish, author

Publication/Creation:

Oxford, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2020

Format:

Book

Edition:

International edition.

More Details

Additional/Related Title Information

Full Title:

Possessing the city : property and politics in Delhi, 1911-1947 / Anish Vanaik

Series Titles:

Oxford historical monographs
Oxford historical monographs.

Subjects/Genre

Genre:

Electronic books

Subjects:

Real property--India--Delhi--History--20th century
Land tenure--India--Delhi--History--20th century
Housing--India--Delhi--History--20th century
City planning--Social aspects--India--Delhi--History--20th century
Land use--India--Delhi--History--20th century
Delhi (India)--Social conditions--20th century

Description/Summary

Bibliography:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 235-240) and index.

Summary:

"This book is a social history of the property market in late-colonial Delhi; a period of much turbulence and transformation. It argues that historians of South Asian cities must connect transformations in urban space and Delhi's economy. Utilizing a novel archive, it outlines the place of private property development in Delhi's economy from 1911 to 1947. Rather than large-scale state initiatives, like the Delhi Improvement Trust, it was profit-oriented, decentralized, and market-based initiatives of urban construction that created the Delhi cityscape. A second thematic concern of Possessing the City is to carefully specify the emerging relationship between the state and urban space during this period. Rather than a narrow focus on urban planning ideas, it argues that the relationship be thought of in triangular fashion: the intermediation of the property market was crucial to emerging statecraft and urban form during this period. Finally, the book examines struggles and conflicts over the commodification of land. Rents and prices of urban property were directly at issue in the tussles over housing that are examined here. The question of commodification can, however, also be discerned in struggles that were not ostensibly about economic issues: clashes over religious sites in the city. Through careful attention to the historical interrelationships between state, space, and the economy, this book offers a novel intervention in the history of late-colonial Delhi." -- publisher website.

Language:

English

Physical Type/Description:

1 online resource (xii, 243 pages : : illustrations.)

General Note:

"India edition"--Cover.

Local Note:

Available to current Emory students, faculty and staff.

Additional Identifiers

Catalog ID (MMSID):

9937796886902486

ISBN:

9780191883132 (electronic bk.)
0191883131 (electronic bk.)