Public Space and Life in an Indian City: The Politics of Space in Bangalore.

Abstract

This dissertation examines the tension between state-driven urban development policies and societal responses to spatial transformations in Indian cities. At the same time that state actors have undertaken large-scale renewal projects to modernize cities, conflicting demands for land have triggered a rise in authorized and unauthorized encroachments on everyday public spaces in Bangalore. In the context of the 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 and other reforms that have strengthened the role of local governing bodies and citizens in urban planning and governance, this research examines contestations between state and non-state actors over Bangalore’s public streets, sidewalks, parks and playgrounds. Specifically this research asks, “What do the conceptualizations and claims of different actors of state and society to public space reveal about planning and governance in Indian cities?” This research examines three cases of contestations for public space in Bangalore. The first is a case of a subaltern bamboo-weaver community’s fight to retain access to a public sidewalk in the face of threats of eviction to accommodate a public rail project. The second case examines a middle-class environmental network’s activism against felling of street trees for a municipal road-widening project. The third case examines an elite neighborhood group’s fights against master planned changes to a local playground. This research reveals new forms of state-society engagement that prevalent literature on Indian urban spatial politics does not explain. In the first case, subaltern groups take recourse in dalit politics when state actors do not acknowledge their economic rights, instead relegating their claims to welfare schemes. The second case demonstrates that there are multiple bourgeois visions of urban public space and that middle-class actors are capable of engaging in uncivil conduct with unresponsive state actors. The third case shows that elite groups develop mutually beneficial connections with municipal officials and elected representatives to gain access to neighborhood public spaces. In sum, this research shows that different social groups in Indian cities find resolution for their claims to public space in electoral and caste politics, and not necessarily in official forums of participatory governance.