The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi

SELINA ABRAHAM
The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi

B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Kashmere Gate, New Delhi
Image Source: Author (2010), Chirag Delhi
B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013
UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
Kashmere Gate, Delhi
RESEARCH PAPER, 2012-13
THE HETEROTOPIC SPACE OF CHIRAG DELHI

A Study of an Urban Village
Selina Abraham
00890701609
Fourth Year, 2012-2013
GUIDE Rekha Bhaskaran
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UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University
Kashmere Gate, Delhi
APPROVAL
Research Paper title:
The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi: A Study of an Urban Village
The following study is held by approved as a creditable work on the approved subject, carried out and presented in a manner sufficiently satisfactory to warrant its acceptance as a pre-requisite to the degree for which it has been submitted. It is to be understood that by this approval, the undersigned does not necessarily endorse or approve any statement made, opinion expressed or conclusion drawn therein, but approves the study for the purpose of which it is submitted and which satisfies the requirements laid down by the Research Paper Committee. Date: January 2nd, 2013
Submitted by: Selina Abraham 00890701609 2012-2013
Guide: Rekha Bhaskaran
Research Paper Co-ordinators
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
A lot of thought and work has gone into this dissertation and would have not been possible without the input of many persons and the availability of certain resources. The following have been instrumental in this dissertation: I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my guide Prof. Rekha Bhaskaran for her inputs and the discussions that we had have been quintessential for the development process. I would like also to thank Prof. Archana Gupta for many reasons, firstly for introducing the urban village of Chirag Delhi into my coursework and for introducing me to the works of Michel Foucault and Henri Lefebvre. Also for her constant encouragement and support without whom this dissertation would not have been possible. I would also like to thank Prof. Rajiv Bhakat for the wealth of information that he had to offer, his insight has been of great help. Discussions with him have been highly thought provoking and enlightening. In addition I would also like to thank my college USAP and the Prof-in-charge Rajat Ray for giving me the opportunity to undertake this research project. I would also like to thank Dr. Suptendu P. Biswas for his initial encouragement to continue the topic. I would also like to thank the residents of Chirag Delhi for their enthusiasm and their willingness to help my dissertation with their cooperation, this paper would not have been possible without them. Also, I would like to thank former Architecture students of TVB School of Habitat Studies, School of Planning and Architecture (New Delhi) and the London Metropolitan University whose work on Chirag Delhi and Urban Villages provided as a base for my study. The work done by the INTACH in this field has also been crucial as the base for this dissertation. I would also like to mention the coordinator Prof. Taniya Sanyal for her role in this studio. And most importantly I would like to thank my family and friends for their support and guidance.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
APPROVAL ACKNOWLEGEMENT TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES 1 ABSTRACT 2 INTRODUCTION 2.1 Overview 2.2 Research Questions 2.3 Background and Significance 2.4 Site Justification 2.5 Methodology 2.6 Limitations of Study 2.7 Preliminary Findings 3 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 3.1 Heterotopias Other Spaces 3.1.1 The Origins of Heterotopias 3.1.2 Heterotopias in Social Space 3.2 Third Wave 3.2.1 The Three Waves 3.2.2 Chirag Delhi: A Clash of Waves 4 Chirag Delhi: The Lal Dora Effect 4.1 Urban Village 4.2Inverted Character 5 Physical Morphology 5.1 The Settlement 5.2 The Street and the Chowk 5.3 The Dargah 6 Social Morphology 7 Conclusion
Annotated Bibliography
APPENDIX-A APPENDIX-B
References and Bibliography
LIST OF FIGURES
Fig 1. Fig 2. Fig 3. Fig 4. Fig 5. Fig 6. Fig 7. Fig 8. Fig 9. Fig 10. Fig 11. Fig 12. Fig 13. Fig 14. Fig 15. Fig 16. Fig 17.
Relationship between Chirag Delhi and the city of New Delhi Chirag Delhi and its Surroundings Representation Diagram of the Expansion of Urban Limits Chirag Delhi: Urban Morphology Saomi Nagar: Neighbourhood Study Chirag Delhi: Street Morphology Saomi Nagar: Street Morphology Chirag Delhi: Past Introverted Character Chirag Delhi: Present Extroverted Character Transformation of Landuse and Physical Morphology Section through Main Village Chowk Section through Main Bazaar, Chirag Delhi The Dargah of Sheikh Naseeruddin Chirag-i-Dilli, Plan, Section Chirag Delhi Dargah The Streets of Chirag Delhi Unemployment: Playing Cards Chirag Delhi: Land Use Distribution main axes
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ABSTRACT
In the last few decades, the cityscape has been transformed by modern urban needs drastically changing citys urban form. Delhi has witnessed rapid urbanisation that has resulted in an urban sprawl. This dissertation proposes to study the urban morphology of an urban village with reference to its heterotopic character with respect to the rest of the city. In order to study this heterotopic phenomenon, the urban village of Chirag Delhi has been chosen as the object of this case study. Chirag Delhi is an urban village in Delhis South District. Like most urban villages it is seemingly chaotic and vaguely organic but at the same time intricately structured in its own right. The dissertation will primarily use the framework of Michel Foucaults Other Places to understand the concept of Heterotopias. The dissertation will also study impact of Chirag Delhis Heterotopic character on its social structure and how it differs from the mainstream city. It also aims to study the relation between the physical structure and the social structure of Chirag Delhi. Further, it will address role of the Dargah as a Heterotopic space in Chirag Delhi.
OVERVIEW
Space is a social morphology: it is to lived experience what form itself is to the living organism, and just as intimately bound up with function and structure.
(Lefebvre, 1991:94)
Chirag Delhi is an Urban Village, one of 135 such settlements in Delhi. Some may understand Urban Villages as an urban design concept in the late 1980s, born in Britain under the late Urban Villages group.1 In Delhi however, urban villages are a phenomenon, a product of rapid urbanisation marked by a large increase in population. (Refer Appendix - A) Since Indias Independence in 1947, Delhi has been expanding its boundaries and has engulfed smaller adjoining villages into its territories, thereby transforming rural areas into urban areas. As a result these villages are forced to adapt to urban needs and have undergone rapid transformation. This has resulted in an uncontrolled invasion of non-compatible landuses and elimination of traditional interrelationships by external superfluous forces leading to the disintegration of the community. Without proper development controls, the village is subjected to speculative development. (Agarwal 2003)
Modern city planning may be seen as an attempt at 'expressing a series of utopias' which aims at providing order to society through ambiguous spatial arrangements. Heterotopias on the other hand are spaces of alternate ordering. Heterotopias organize their social world in a different way as compared to what surrounds them. (Hetherington 1997)
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It was in the late 1980s that the Urban Village Concept was born in Britain with the establishment of the Urban Villages Group. Ever since the ideals of urban villages have been applied to new fields of green developments, housing experiments and urban renewal projects all over the world. According to this, an urban village is an urban planning and design concept at work within the urban limits. It refers to a planned space in an urban area which has certain characteristics of a village, with typical features like mixed use zoning and good public transit and promote pedestrianization. It seeks to reduce to car reliance and promotes walking, cycling, transit use and provide spaces for people to live, work and recreate in the same area. Source: Gangmei G (2009) Delhi Urban Villages: Reality or Gem of a Sham, M.A. Students of Journalism, Jamia Milia Islamia, Fotonix, Blogspot, New Delhi Available From: http://fotonix.wordpress.com/2009/11/05/delhi-urban-village-reality-or-gem-of-a-sham/ [Accessed 18 December 2012] The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi
As Delhi grew in importance, its boundaries expanded and new residential areas sprung up, simultaneously leaving behind pockets of difference in the form of urban villages and abadi areas.
Amongst a series of modern spatial arrangements, Chirag Delhi is the other space characterized by difference. This spatial difference is marked by the physical morphology of the city and the social structure. As an urban village, rent is cheap in Chirag Delhi, making it favourable for new immigrants. This property allows it to stand out against the less affordable communities of Panchscheel Enclave, Malviya Nagar and Saomi Nagar. The unique character of Chirag Delhi's social spaces stems from this heterotopic difference. (Refer Appendix B) As with all of the citys urban villages, Chirag Delhi remains physically isolated from the rest of the city (by a buffer area called the phirni) but integrated to the citys functions. This character is comparable to what Foucault calls heterotopic spaces - as in it shares relationships with the rest of the city but remains in isolation. Despite this difference it maintains a symbiotic relationship with the rest of the city.
This dissertation aims to understand the difference of Chirag Delhi and establish its heterotopic character. It also aims to understand the impact of this heterotopic space on the social morphology of the settlement. This dissertation will further explore Foucaults framework by the study of this phenomenon.
A Representative Diagram of the Relationship between Chirag Delhi and the city of New Delhi Image Source: Author (2012), New Delhi
Fig.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
- What are Heterotopic Spaces and what makes Chirag Delhi a heterotopic space? - How does this heterotopic character affect the social space of Chirag Delhi and the rest of the city? - What is the spatial relationship between Chirag Delhi and the city of Delhi? How is space socially produced in the Chirag Delhi? What are the signifying elements that constitute a socially active space? - What role does the Dargah play in this heterotopic character?
BACKGROUND AND SIGNIFICANCE Topic Significance

Most of Modernist architecture has been criticized for being independent of its context. The last few decades have seen a series of buildings that stand alone, each choosing out of convenience to disassociate itself from the urban context. Modernist cities have reduced the concept of typology to repetition. Settlements like Chirag Delhi create more organic space and respond primarily to a social need as opposed to a functional need. They belong to a different era, built according to different needs and requirements.
"The fundamental purposes of modern architecture are thus limited to such right quadrant concerns as shelter, security, function and so on all of them important, but not enough for a truly sustainable architecture because they ignore what sustains us psychologically and culturally." (Buchanen 2011)
Similarly Modern-day cities have similar characteristics where roads are about transportation and not about street life. Open spaces are statistically determined according to master plans as green spaces. Development of cities is determined by statistical requirements for shelter, function, security etc. Delhi is one such city that has forgotten about our old cities leaving them as heterotopias pockets of history and culture in its rapid growth. Delhi has
chosen to treat these urban villages as problems instead of using them as a contextual parameter.
Furthermore, the Heterotopic character of these urban villages has left them in a grey area. Without a solid identity, one must ponder the future of these villages. This dissertation will study its virtues as well as its negative characteristics. It will also try to understand what is it that sets it apart from the rest of the city and whether one must celebrate this difference or abolish it altogether.
B A C K G R O U N D: C H I R A G D E L H I
Chirag Delhi is an urban village south of the Outer Ring Road. On plan, it has a distinct square form which is enforced by status as a Lal Dora2 area. Under the Lal Dora, it is under only partial jurisdiction of the Delhi authorities and offers very attractive rental rates for the citys immigrants. (Refer Appendix B) As a result, it is very densely packed with irregularly shaped buildings, and a network of narrow streets. It retains its shape from an ancient fort, a neat square whose gates still remain. The fort walls were built around the Chirag Delhi Dargah which houses the Dargah of Naseeruddin Mahmud or Chirag-i-Dilli3 (c. AD 1274 AD 1556) which continues to be a religious pilgrimage, but perhaps not as popular as the Nizamuddin Dargah. The wall was built under the rule of the Mughal Emperor Mohammad Shah Rangeela (r. AD 1719 - 48). (World Monuments Fund, INTACH 2008)
Lal Dora - The metropolitan town of Delhi has grown on agricultural lands acquired from the villagers. Initially, in building up of Lutyen's Delhi, the villages were relocated; later only their agricultural lands were acquired and the residential areas were circumscribed by a red line and that is how the term Lal Dora came into use. The process of urbanisation over the years has been engulfing the villages. Urban Delhi grew fast around them while the villages remained within the confines of their Lal Doras. For more details refer Annexure-I 3 Roshan Chirag-I-Dilli roughly translates to The Illuminated light of Delhi. The story is that during the building of Tughlaqabad there was a shortage supply of oil for lamps for the worker to build the Sheikh Naseeruddin Mohammads residence. The saint is said to have turned water from the nearby stream into oil for his workers. Thereby, earning the title Chirag-I-Dilli. The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi
Site Justification
In terms of this dissertation topic, this is an appropriate site particularly because of its location and its Lal Dora status. This Lal Dora status makes it stand apart from the rest of the city. The village is bordered by two very busy roads, to the north the Outer Ring Road and to the East B. R. Ambedkar Road infamous for its BRT system. The village also neighbours fairly newer districts like Saomi Nagar, Panchscheel Enclave, each with their own social and physical morphology contrasting that of Chirag Delhi. The square village is divided by two axes with the Dargah in the centre. One of the axes lead to the Dargah, and the other is a more commercial stretch. The streets open up to small public chowks at certain intervals which act as social hubs. By virtue of its narrow streets, Chirag Delhi is predominantly a pedestrian dominated village. Its streets and chowks are predominantly social spaces as opposed to a passage for vehicular movement. Hence, the social activity contrasts that of a newer settlement which has wide traffic oriented roads.
Fig. 2 Chirag Delhi and its Surroundings Image Source: ed. Author (2012), Chirag Delhi: Aerial Imagery, Google earth 2012, Google Inc. [Accessed 29th October 2012] Considering its context and its own unique character, it seems an appropriate site for the study in question.
METHODOLOGY
To pursue this topic, one must first understand the physical morphology of Chirag Delhi, in order to get a grasp of its relation (if any) to its social morphology. This can be studied by the following methods.
First-hand Observations The study will use first-hand experiences of the author and observations of usage patterns and social activities. It will also include documentation of experiences of other visitors and the residents of Chirag Delhi. A lot of research data is available as many architecture students have used it as the base for a project. The primary step would be to research and collect this existing databank.
Figure Ground Drawings, Street Sections and Sketches will be used to explain the character of these spaces and their usage. To understand the spatial morphology, a framework needs to be developed based on an extensive study of existing material on social space and spatiality.
Furthermore, in order to grasp the heterotopic character it is important to study the cultural and historical evolution of the community of Chirag Delhi. This will help understand the factors that shape the social structure of Chirag Delhi.
LIMITATIONS OF STUDY
Although this research was carefully prepared, I am still aware of its limitations and shortcomings. First of all, the research was conducted in a span of 3-4 months and justice was not given to potential of the topic. Second, research data available on Chirag Delhi are dated to the late 1990s and more current data was unavailable. Time restrictions did not allow for the upgradation of this data. Also, most interviews were the viewpoints of small portion of the village residents and may not accurately depict the entire picture. Lastly, it is unavoidable that in this study, certain degree of subjectivity can be found. Many viewpoints are those of the author and may considerably vary amongst my peers and seniors.
PRELIMINARY FINDINGS FIRST IMPRESSIONS

The site can be approached by the Outer Ring Road or the Lal Bahadur Shastri Road. The entry to Chirag Delhi however, is further inside and is accessible only through the internal road network. What used to be a walled city is now reduced to a city with four crumbling gates a gate at each side. The fort walls have now been replaced with a different interface a commercial street that spills out onto the roads. These are mostly hardware shops with a few dhabhas. The entry into Chirag Delhi (from the Outer Ring Road) is graced with what seems to be an ancient gate. The crumbling gate makes one sceptical of the entry, covered with advertisements for local amenities; it leads into a narrow street way.
First impressions of Chirag Delhi are of the narrow streets and of the general urban decay. The streets are not the cleanest bits of garbage are strewn at places. The smell of food wafts into the street from the nearest dhabha. There are people shopping, walking by performing their daily routine. Traffic Movement is restricted by virtue of the small roads, though there are still cars and small tempos passing through. Apart from these occasional vehicles, the streets are mostly pedestrian. As one accustoms to the maze-like character, the streets become more friendly and navigable.
As the road widths reduce the streets vehicular movement, the primary function of a street its circulation, is reduced to a degree. The streets now cater to the spill out of commercial and household functions. The narrow widths of the streets also facilitate communal interaction, as there are always eyes on the road. So there is not only social activity at the base of the streets but at the upper floors as well.
Considering the density of Chirag Delhi, the streets compensate by opening into chowks, these chowks are the dense centres of social activity. Usually formed around a tree(s), they display both commercial (trade) and social exchange. The Dargah also plays an important role in the social production of the streets.
T H E O R E T I C A L F R A M E W O R K: H E T E R O T O P I A S
HETEROTOPIAS: Origins Michel Foucault introduced the concept of heterotopias in the field of cultural geography at a lecture for architects in March 1967. It was later published under the title Des Espace Autres (Of Other Spaces) by the French Journal Architecture /Mouvement/ Continuit in October, 1984. In his lecture Foucault describes institutions and spaces that disturb the everyday normality of ordinary spaces. He called these spaces heterotopic spaces. He gives examples of mental institutions, prisons, old age home, brothels, museums, holiday resorts implying the vast adaptability of the concept. (Deheane 2008) Though the vastness of term has also been criticized, it has been vital to the understanding of spaces of specialized character. For instance, cultural geographer Edward Soja describes the article as frustratingly, incomplete, inconsistent, incoherent but nonetheless devotes an entire chapter to it, in his book Thirdspace. (Cenzatti 2008) The term heterotopia however has its origins in the medical and biological contexts. It essentially implies a phenomenon in an unusual place indicating the spatial displacement of normal tissue by an abnormal structure. In medical terminology it implies a phenomenon that usually occurs as non-pathological heterogeneous condition that is present in a heterogenic composition of tissue that is not normal to the part. (Sohn 2008)
Medical heterotopias have no known causes, no secondary effects and do not affect the normal functioning of the overall organism in which they appear. (Sohn 2008)
Heterotopias as Social Space

Before proceeding further, it is essential to understand space as fundamentally bound with social reality as opposed to physical definitions of space contained by quantitative parameters. This theory follows that space in itself can never serve as an epistemological starting position. Space does not exist in itself, it is produced. (Lefebvre
1991:6) Everyday discourse serves to distinguish particular spaces, and in general to describe a social space. They correspond to a specific use of that space, and hence to a spatial practice that they express and constitute. This theory deviates from the common understanding of space thoroughly only its physical characteristics such as shape, form and colour. According to Lefebvre space is created by human beings by their sensitivity and imagination, their thinking and their ideologies; human beings who enter into relationships with each other through their activity and practice. (Schmid 2008:29)
A spatial code is not simply a means of reading or interpreting space: rather it is a means of living in that space, of understanding it, and of producing it. These codes will be seen as part of a practical relationship, as part of an interaction between 'subjects' and their space and surroundings. (Lefebvre 1991:16)
Lefebvre explains space as a three dimensional product or a spatial triad. A space is determined by its spatial practices (perceived), the representations of space (conceived) and representational space (lived). (Lefebvre 1991:33) He sees space as these three moments that co-exist, interact and producing a relationship with one and another.
Heterotopias can be seen as a representational space, based on a set of specific relations in space. As soon as the social relation and the appropriation of physical space end, both space of representation and heterotopia disappear. (Cenzatti 2008) This spatial difference becomes very evident in post-Fordist cities like New Delhi, where the city is compost of different granules of smaller units.
Chirag Delhi is a space, whose structure can be understood by a set of spatial relations that it maintains with the rest of the city. Its social space can be understood as the notions of its residents as opposed to those of the residents living newer neighbourhoods. The heterotopic character represents a boundary that separates the city
For further information refer to Annotated Bibliography
T H E O R E T I C A L F R A M E W O R K: T H I R D W A V E
The Third Wave is a theory by cultural anthropologist and futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1960. It is the second in a trilogy preceded by Future Shock published in 1970. The book identifies the advancement of the human race as three waves. The first wave was the transformation of the human civilization from nomads into an agrarian society.
The First Wave economy was of an agrarian society where there was no differentiation between producers and consumers, with little or no trade between them. The land was the basis of economy, life, culture, family structure and politics all organized around a single village unit. Goods were predominantly hand-crafted and made and distributed at a custom scale. There were trade and commerce between different places, but they were primitive. The societies of the First Wave world were predominantly primitive; women had no say in major decisions of the community and were patriarchal in nature. (Toffler 1980)
The Second Wave was brought on by the Industrial Revolution and immediately accelerated the economy. It inclined toward a new technological and economic structure with a false illusion of the finite nature of these resources. This shift however allowed the mass production and trade of products. This brought about the divorce of consumers from producers.
Industrialization also required mobility from its workers. Workers could no longer be held behind by a large extended family. The nuclear family became an identifiable feature of all Second Wave societies which were built on a factory model, mass standardised education. Schools, hospitals, prisons, government bureaucracies and other organizations took on the characteristics of a factor the division of labour, its hierarchical structure and its mechanic impersonality. Even in the field of arts, artisans were no longer working under a patron but to sell their products in a market to a sea of anonymous consumers. While the first wave civilization was based on fixed permanent settlements, industrialization allowed its workers mobility to move from place to place. Industrialisation also saw the coming of women into the fore-front, the womens rights moment picks off with the second wave. (Toffler 1980)
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The Third Wave civilization is the post-industrial society. Most major cities today are post-industrial cities. Toffler says that since the 1950s most countries are moving away from their industrial roots and moving to an information age. The new technologies of the Third Wave will give rise to new industries based on quantum electronics, information theory, molecular biology, oceanic ecology and the space sciences. The Third Wave also opens up the field of space exploration. This impact is underestimated by the general public but it is the next frontier in the advancement of human civilization. The key to a Third Wave civilization is flexibility. People can work where they want, when they want and for whom they want all by virtue of the advancement in information technology. (Toffler 1980)
For further information refer to Annotated Bibliography
CHIRAG DELHI: A CLASH OF WAVES
In terms of Tofflers framework we can understand Chirag Delhis origins as a First Wave settlement. It was primarily an agrarian settlement with centric focus around the Dargah of Sheikh Naseeruddin Chirag-i-Dilli. It is mostly functionally independent of its neighbouring villages except the Nizamuddin village whose namesake Hazrat Nizamuddin was the mentor of Sheikh Naseeruddin Chirag-i-Dilli. (INTACH 1996)
New Delhi is a typical post-Fordist city, made up of smaller multiple towns or cities. Its features broadly identify it as a Third Wave city building up on information technology. Chirag Delhi on the other hand is still experiencing the Second Wave since its acquisition into the city half a century ago. Still many of its customs and morphology reflect those of a First Wave City. Simultaneously the rest of the city is a undergoing the symptoms of the Third Wave. Immigrants entering the city through urban villages like Chirag Delhi are also from First Wave and Second Wave Settlements where each migrant looks to make their mark in the Third Wave City of New Delhi.
The difference in these types of settlements is not just their physical characters or their economic status. They differ also in social status, women have yet to find their place in
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society, and education is still a matter of opportunity or status as opposed to a norm. A survey by the INTACH revealed that the level of education the wife of the head of the household (56.2 per cent illiterate) to be much lower than that of the head of the household. A large number of residents considered female education as a lower priority to male education. Education itself is dependent on the income of a particular household. In India, the quality of education comes with a price, a lot of families in Chirag Delhi are unable afford a higher standard of education. (INTACH, 1997)
For more Information Refer Appendix B
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C H I R A G D E L H I: T H E L A L D O R A E F F E C T Chirag Delhi, like many other rural villages was at one point completely dependent on agriculture and predominantly an agrarian economy. But, with the advent of Delhis urban sprawl Chirag Delhi and other urban villages have been swallowed into an urban fabric, completely transforming the villages morphology. During the colonial era, the city swallowed nearly 50 villages and another 50 post-Independence.
Under the 1961 Master Plan for Delhi-1961, rural villages that were located within urban areas of Delhi were declared as Urbanised Villages labelled as urban development. There were 20 Urbanised Villages in 1961 in Delhi, and at present there are about 135 urban villages and 52 census towns which form part of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCTD). Since the late seventies, schemes have been hatched to improve the civic services, initially by DDA and later transferred to the MCD. Since 1979-80, an amount of Rs. 366.09 crore of plan funds have been provided to the DDA/MCD and the Delhi Jal Board (DJB) for development of these urban villages. (Sehrawat, 2011)
Fig. 3 Representative Diagram of the Expansion of Urban Limits
Image Source: Narayan S. (2001), Study of Lal Dora as a Concept, TVB School of Habitat Studies, Unpublished B. Arch Thesis, New Delhi
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During their reign, the British cleared away entire villages for the construction of New Delhi, at times leaving behind only street names like Malcha and Raisina. The postIndependence government however expanded Delhis borders around these villages. So while Chirag Delhi might be an urban village, its immediate neighbours are posh, planned settlements like those of Saomi Nagar, Panchscheel Enclave etc. These villages have been stripped off their agrarian economy and forced to merge with citys urban economy. While the streets of the urban villages may be narrow and its houses small and cramped, there isnt a stark difference in wealth between Delhis urban and rural sprawls. However, there is a stark social difference felt in this status-driven metropolis.
(Soofi, 2008)
So an urban village may be defined as a traditional rural settlement which has altered and merged with the urban areas, change being actuated by industrialisation, migration and shifting paradigms. (INTACH, 1996) The Chirag Delhi village agricultural land was notified and acquired in 1953 by the Delhi government for the resettlement of Punjabi refugees. (Gupta 1993:36)
Chirag Delhi, like other urban villages, is an Administrative Heterotopia as the government has isolated it from the mainstream city. With this isolation of sorts comes other forms of heterotopias that will be discussed in further chapters.
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P H Y S I C A L M O R P H O L O GY The Settlement
The Chirag Delhi Settlement grew around the residence (and later Dargah) of Sheikh Naseeruddin Mahmud along the Satpallah tributary of the river Yamuna. And was originally a part the Jahanpanah Forest Area. The village grew along the stream with the main bazaar passing through it. (Gupta 1993) The Dargah is enclosed in a rectangular rubble-masonry fort built by Muhammad Bin Tughlaq (1325-51). The gates were built to emphasize the axis of the bazaar and the stream. The village grew along this axis and as it densified, the remaining areas became built area. After Independence the government acquire the remaining farmland for urbanisation.
The Chirag Delhi village slowly grew around the Dargah for two reasons disciples of the saint and the fort acted as protection from the surrounding wildlife. (World Monuments Fund, INTACH 2008) Originally the enclosed are contained only a few scattered havelis (private mansions) and hujuras (small single rooms) of the Khadims of the Dargah. (INTACH 1996)
As the settlement grew, one story house slowly added more storeys and extended retail shops on the streets, as a result of which the streets narrowed, changing the original morphology of the street. Now to increase opportunities for rent many have increased their houses up to four or five storeys. Hence, the quality of life is reduced in such places.
Inverted Character Roughly till Independence, Chirag Delhi grew as a traditional settlement around a central core within a restricted or perhaps protective shell. The core of the settlement was the Dargah and the settlement grew around it and the axis created Muhammad Bin Tughlaq within the fort walls. However, with the Urbanisation of the village, the core of the village has inverted. Chirag Delhi is now defined by the through roads that flank it the Outer Ring Road and the BRT Corridor. It no longer has a central core, the village now looks outward.
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Fig. 8 Chirag Delhi Past Introverted Character
Fig. 9 Chirag Delhi: Present Extroverted Character

Image(s) Source: Author (2012), New Delhi
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Fig. 10 Transformation of Landuse and Physical Morphology Image Source: Author (2012), New Delhi Base Information: Gupta, M. (1993) Chirag Delhi: A Case Study of Urbanisation, Unpublished B. Arch
Dissertation, School of Planning and Architecture, IP Estate, New Delhi
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Fig. 4 Physical Morphology of Chirag Delhi

The grain of Chirag Delhi can be compared with that of Saomi Nagar shown below.
Base Image Source: Mitchell, M. (2010), Namaste Delhi Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce
Resources: Chirag Delhi, London Metropolitan University London, pg. 17
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Fig. 5 Saomi Nagar Neighbourhood Study

Image Source: Bhatia, S. (2011) Neighbourhood Study: Saomi Nagar, Housing Studio, Studio Coordinator: Gupta, R., USAP, New Delhi
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Fig. 6 Chirag Delhi: Street Morphology
Fig. 7 Saomi Nagar Street Morphology

A comparison of the street morphology of Chirag Delhi with that of its more modern counterparts Saomi Nagar. Image(s) Source: Author (2012), New Delhi
The comparison of street morphology reveals a similar plotted typology but largely differing in scale. And typically, Chirag Delhis modern counterparts are planned, its open areas defined and designed on the basis of the citys Master Plan. Chirag Delhi however displays an organic character. This has resulted in narrow streets, encroachment and poor lighting. But at the same time it creates a more interactive environment, the streets are predominantly active, open spaces are used to their full potential. These characteristics are not apparent in the neighbouring colonies.
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The Chowk
The chowk plays a very important role in the production of social space in Chirag Delhi. They are usually created at the intersection of two streets. Morphologically, they open up the streets, creating a contrasting environment as opposed to narrow inward character of the streets.
In order to identify socially active chowks, I identified five different spaces that showed characteristics of a chowk on the base plan and proceeded to observe these chowks. Of the five, two were formed around a tree and could be classified as moderately active mainly because of commercial activity. One was the backyard of a car workshop and two were the centres of a social activity.
Many chowks if not encroached by new construction, are used for parking or as garbage dumps. They also act as spill-over spaces because of the high density of people living in the area.
The Street
Over the last century, the traditional urban structures of our cities have changed drastically. And it is important to study this morphological transformation of our historical cities to understand the cultural and social implications of space. The modern city produces a functional street, which caters to elementary needs of movement. But it does not create space bound by volume. The significant meaning behind the street is lost to function of movement.
The streets of Chirag Delhi follow a hierarchical pattern. The primary streets are along the main axes of the village and are important commercial centres. There is partial vehicular movement on these streets. The secondary streets allow less or vehicular movement and predominantly pedestrian. Some streets barely allow light to enter because of the encroachment by adjacent houses.
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Fig. 11 Section through Main Village Chowk

The village chowk is the biggest chowk in Chirag Delhi after the Dargah Chowk. It is a part of the main axes, and activity observed here is predominantly economic based. This was the main central chowk of the village when the Panchayat was still intact.
Fig. 12 Section through Main Bazaar, Chirag Delhi

Image Source: USAP (2010), Chirag Delhi Study, II Year Design Studio, USAP 2009-2014 Batch, USAP, Kashmere Gate, New Delhi. Studio Coordinator: Gupta, A., USAP, New Delhi
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The Dargah
History The Dargah is the shrine of Sheikh Naseeruddin Mahmud, a 14th century saint-king, a disciple and later successor of Nizamuddin Auliya who was regarded as the Lamp of Delhi Roshan Chirag-e-Dilli. The Dargah complex encloses smaller tombs, a prayer hall and a masjid and has a gated entry. (World Monuments Fund, INTACH 2008)
Perhaps the most charming aspect of the dargah complex is its relatively untouched, non-commercial nature: its quiet and tranquil, with shady trees dotting the irregular rectangle of the compound. Worshippers come and go, but mostly in silence, and theres a serenity that would probably have appealed to Chirag-i-Dilli himself.
(World Monuments Fund, INTACH 2008)
Observations and Analysis
To reach the Dargah complex one must navigate through a series of narrow chaotic streets to arrive at a chowk bordering the complex. To enter the complex, one must cover their head and remove their foot-wear. Compared to the rest of Chirag Delhi, the Dargah has a calm and peaceful ambience which is contrasted by the busy streets outside. This difference or contrast in spaces helps further sanctify the space of the Dargah.
The Dargah could possibly be understood in terms of Foucaults heterotopic spaces or the other spaces. (Foucault 1967)The Dargah is a contrasting space; its value is in fact derived from this difference. It acts as an other space that acts along-side existing spaces. It is an object that exists in time, while at the same time it is reminiscent of a past time when the Dargah was more popular visited by many Sufi patrons. While Chirag Delhi continues to internally densify, the Dargah retains its immediate walls making it frozen in time. It also falls into the category of a religious heterotopic space. While it is a public space, it is not truly public as its entry is restricted. The ritual of removing ones footwear or covering ones head must be preceded before ones entry.
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In the same sense, perhaps Chirag Delhi could also be categorized a heterotopic space. Morphologically, its fabric differs from surrounding areas where it shows organic growth as opposed to a planned settlement. As a Lal Dora area, it does not fall under standard government regulations. Because of this character, the rent is cheap and Chirag Delhi is home to many of the citys immigrants. Hence, Chirag Delhi is in itself a space of difference. The Chirag Delhi Dargah could possibly be described as heterotopic space within a heterotopic space.
Fig. 13 The Dargah of Sheikh Naseeruddin Chirag-i-Dilli, Plan, Section Plan and Sectional view of the Chirag Delhi Dargah, the Mausoleum of Sheikh Naseeruddin Mahmud, Chirag Delhi, New Delhi Image Source: USAP (2011), Chirag Delhi Study, II Year Design Studio, USAP 2010-2015 Batch, Studio Coordinator: Gupta, A., USAP, New Delhi
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Fig. 14 Chirag Delhi Dargah Complex The Mausoleum of Sheikh Naseeruddin Mahmud
Fig. 15 Generic Street of Chirag Delhi Both images show the contrast between the quality of space in the Dargah and in the streets of Chirag Delhi. Image(s) Source: Author (2010), Chirag Delhi, Delhi
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SOCIAL STRUCTURE
The total population of the Chirag Delhi District according to the 1991 AD census is around 12,97,000. (INTACH, 1996)This figure however takes into account the entire district, which also includes neighboring areas such Greater Kailash, Khirki village, etc. The actual population of Chirag Delhi is 25,000 according to a MCD Electoral document. (Gaboli, 2012) INTACH has done intensive documentation work in Chirag Delhi and have produced a publication under their Process for Historic Development project.
According to the survey conducted by the INTACH team and personal interviews showed that the community has a wide spread problem of unemployment. INTACHs case study shows that more than half the population (59.3 percent) belongs to the age group 1860 years. However quite of them are unemployed.
Personal interviews with the residents revealed that unemployment is major issue. Many fall in to the trap of gambling, alcoholism and drugs. A primary cause for unemployment is a change in the major change in occupation as farmers due to the acquisition of farmland in 1953. Due to the loss of the traditional occupation, the villagers now survive on earnings from rented properties or seek jobs in the city. (Gupta 1993:36)
From interviews with the residents, it was observed that since many of the owners already have a fixed source of income by the rent they neednt loo k for jobs. Many of these men can be found playing cards in the main chowks throughout the village.
According to its residents there are many social evils in Chirag Delhi ranging from rampant unemployment, excessive alcoholism and gambling. Domestic abuse is also common here as well abuse of the elders. The residents feel that such an environment is not conducive for the upbringing of their children. (INTACH 1996)
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Fig. 16 Playing Cards Unemployment

The widespread unemployment is because of alternative sources of income (rent) and lack of job opportunities in the city.
Image Source: Author (2010), Chirag Delhi, New Delhi
In Foucaults understanding of Heterotopias, many of these spaces are assigned to or identified with individuals who do not fit into modern social order. (Cenzatti 2008) While Foucault talks about heterotopias in terms of prisons or mental hospitals, a similar trend can be seen here as well. The nullification of the agrarian settlement has left many without a secure source of income or income through rent. Such a phenomenon has left the occupants in isolation within their chowks, playing cards, gambling, resorting to alcoholism. The urban sprawl of Delhi has left villagers in and isolated realm; forcing them to abandon a culture and a way of life in order to merge with the city, making them anomalies in the normal social order. Therefore this represents a social heterotopia.
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C ONCLUSIONS
FINDINGS
It is apparent from the information gathered about Chirag Delhi and a comparative study with that of Foucaults framework of Other Places is that Chirag Delhi displays characteristics comparable to that of Heterotopias. It also needs to be mentioned that most of these characteristics are generic to those of most urban villages in Delhi.
Typically, observations and statistics lead to the conclusion that places like Chirag Delhi are slums.4 Furthermore it needs to be understood that Delhi is a city of migrants. The Delhi Master Plan predicts a 30% population increase from 182.0 lakhs in 2011 to 230 lakhs in 2021. (Refer Annexure-I) Most slums today are identified with urban decay. Amongst politicians and policy-makers, urban development correlates to slum-free cities.5 People tend to focus on the poor living conditions of the slums and urban villages. It is apparent that there is a static view of these urban conditions, a standard western interpretation. But these urban villages must be viewed as stepping stone to the city purely in terms of the citys migrators.
when property rights are clear, slums can upgrade themselves. Delhis Lal Dora villages are good examples. As the city has expanded, the farmers living in surrounding villages sold their land but continued to own their homes in the former villages. These were usually converted into slums for construction workers. When the construction activity drifted away, a new population of drivers, security guards and domestics moved in. Over time,
Chirag Delhi was declared as a slum under the DDA in 1976
Also, in this particular case, the term slum is defined as a Compact area of at least 300 population or about 60-70 households of poorly built congested tenements, in unhygienic environment usually with inadequate infrastructure and lacking in proper sanitary and drinking water facilities
5
This refers to the Delhi governments goal to make the capital a slum-free city by the year 2014. This has however led to unpopular displacement of slum dwellers over the last decade. Source: Bhatnagar G. V. (2012) Delhi Govt. Displaces Slum Dwellers Mindlessly, THE HINDU, New Delhi The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi
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B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 this population too got absorbed into the general urban landscape and we saw yet another wave of new residents students, salesmen and store clerks. Eventually, some villages became home to expensive boutiques, cafes and art galleries (as happened in Hauz Khas), clusters of cheap hotels (as in Mahipalpur) or a warren of small offices (Shahpur Jat).The point is that these villages have proved amazingly nimble and Delhi could not function without them. Since property rights were clear, the former farmers steadily invested in their property and became quite rich. Along the way, they routed thousands of migrants and created innumerable jobs. (Sanyal 2010)
So it is important not to consider these areas as static areas but, as Sanjeev Sanyal says (Sanyal 2010) property ladders. There remains the possibility that Chirag Delhi might in the future, become a rental accommodation hub with hostels and dorm rooms. Or even the possibility of becoming the epitome of small scale industries.6 Amongst industries the garment industry is the most prominent. The Dargah also plays an important role with the potential of historic and cultural hub
The leading trend is that the demographic and economic structure continues to change as younger financially sound families are being replaced by economically weaker, male labour population migrating from neighbouring states looking for work as cheap labour. These residents contrary to their older counterparts do not have a strong emotional connection to area. Like the rest of the city they are in a hurry moving on with their live. As they move up economically they will move out of Chirag Delhi looking for a better quality of life. This leaves the older residents in a static heterotopic state.
The Heterotopia of Chirag Delhi also represents certain nostalgia. It signifies a time in history but at the same time looking to the outside. The older residents are nostalgic and reluctant to leave but their children like the dynamic migrants are looking for possibility outside.
According the INTACH Report on Chirag Delhi, The Role of Chirag Delhi is 1. Provision of low budget rental accommodation. 2. Small-scale industries attracting its workforce from other parts of Delhi. 3. Building Material and supply shops along the periphery which serve the neighbourhoods around the area. For More Information Refer Appendix - B The Heterotopic Space of Chirag Delhi
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FURTHER STUDY
In the process of its urban expansion how should Delhi react to the small pockets of history in its path?
Currently Delhi has approached these anomalies by building boundary walls around its historic centers or tying metaphorical red threads around them (Lal Dora). Thereby, visibly distinguishing places like Chirag Delhi as the odd one out as opposed to integrating it to the citys functioning. And over the last few decades the MCD and the DDA have sought to bring these urban villages into the main stream urban condition.
But by virtue of its physical and social morphology Chirag Delhi would always remain out of place from the main stream city. So perhaps the best way of integrating a place like Chirag Delhi into the city is to celebrate its difference.
Urban planning should bring about building development controls that work specifically for Chirag Delhi and not standard controls the work for the rest of the city, or even standard controls for all urban villages. Building development controls must be identified recognizing the unique nature of each urban village, its surrounding context and its historic value. Developmental controls must determine or adhere to the traditional typology of the area appropriating for more habitable living conditions.
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Fig. 19 Landuse Plan of Chirag Delhi Main Axes Image Source: USAP (2010), Chirag Delhi Study, II Year Design Studio, USAP 2009-2012 Batch, Studio Coordinator: Gupta, A., USAP, New Delhi Base Information:
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A N N O T AT E D B I B L I O G R A P H Y 1. The Production Of Space, Henri Lefebvre

Henri Lefebvre, a French Philosopher, was born in 1901. His intellectual consciousness was shaped by his experience in the First World War, the Russian Revolution and an intellectual change, which he describes in his book. The Production of Space, around 1910 where a certain space, the space of common sense, knowledge, social practice and political power was shattered.
By Production Lefebvre does not strictly mean the economic production of things but also the larger philosophical concept, the production of oeuvres, the production knowledge, of institutions, of all that constitutes society.
Lefebvre posts a theory that understands space as fundamentally bound up with social reality. It follows that space in itself can never serve as an epistemological starting position. Space does not exist in itself, it is produced. He proceeds from a relational concept of space and time. Space stands for simultaneity, the synchronic order of social reality, and time denotes the dichronic order, thus the historic process of social production. In his book he explains that (social) space can be analysed in relation to these three dimensions. In the first, social space appears in the dimension of spatial practice as an interlinking chain or network of activities or interactions which on their part rest upon a determinate material basis (morphology, built environment). In the second, this spatial practice can be linguistically defined and demarcated as space and then constitutes a representation of space. This representation serves as an organizing
Schema or a frame of reference for communication, which permits a (spatial) orientation and thus co-determines activity at the same time. In the third, spaces of representation the material order that emerges on the ground can itself become the vehicle conveying meaning. In this way a (spatial) symbolism develops that expresses and evokes social norms, values, and experiences.
2. Of Other Places Utopias and Heterotopias, Michel Foucault

In this article, Foucault introduces the concept of Heterotopic spaces or other space. These spaces are created by contrasting character. They represent spaces that exist in isolation.
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B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 Foucault identifies six principles that can be used to determine heterotopic spaces. The first principle identifies crisis heterotopias - there are privileged or sacred or forbidden places, reserved for individuals who are, in relation to society and to the human environment in which they live, in a state of crisis: adolescents, menstruating women, pregnant women, the elderly, etc.
The second principle identifies the heterotopia of the cemetery. The cemetery is certainly a place unlike ordinary cultural spaces. It is a space that is however connected with all the sites of the city, state or society or village, etc., since each individual, each family has relatives in the cemetery. In western culture the cemetery has practically always existed. But it has undergone important changes.
The third principle identifies the heterotopia that is capable of juxtaposing in single real place several spaces, several sites that are in themselves incompatible. Thus it is that the theatre brings onto the rectangle of the stage, one after the other, a whole series of places that are foreign to one another; thus it is that the cinema is a very odd rectangular room, at the end of which, on a twodimensional screen, one sees the projection of a three-dimensional space, but perhaps the oldest example of these heterotopias that take the form of contradictory sites is the garden.
The fourth principle talks about the heterotopia of time. They are most often linked to slices in timethe heterotopia begins to function at full capacity when men arrive at a sort of absolute break with their traditional time. He gives the example of museums to support this principle as they represent an accumulation of time. Heterotopias of time can be explained by fleeting spaces like that of a fair ground.
The fifth principle talks about heterotopias of restricted places. Heterotopias always presuppose a system of opening and closing that both isolates them and makes them penetrable. In general, the heterotopic site is not freely accessible like a public place. Either the entry is compulsory, as in the case of entering a barracks or a prison, or else the individual has to submit to rites and purifications. To get in one must have permission and make certain gestures or perform a ritual.
The sixth principle talks about contrasting spaces. The last trait of heterotopias is that they have a function in relation to all the space that remains. This function unfolds between two extreme poles. Either their role is to create a space of illusion that exposes every real space, all the sites inside of which human life is partitioned, as still more illusory. To illustrate this principle, he gives the example of a brothel.
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B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 3.
Third Wave: The Classic Study of Tomorrow, Alvin Toffler
The Third Wave is a book by cultural anthropologist and futurologist Alvin Toffler in 1960. It is the second in a trilogy preceded by Future Shock published in 1970. The book identifies the advancement of the human race as three waves. The first wave was the transformation of the human civilization from nomads into an agrarian society.
The First Wave economy was of an agrarian society where there was no differentiation between producers and consumers, with little or no trade between them. The First Wave civilizations population could be divided into two categories the primitive and the civilized. The land was the basis of economy, life, culture, family structure and politics all organized around a single village unit. Their main source of energy was human and animal muscle power of direct energy from the sun, wind and water. Goods were predominantly hand-crafted and made and distributed at a custom scale. There were trade and commerce between different places, but they were primitive. The societies of the First Wave world were predominantly primitive; women had no say in major decisions of the community and were patriarchal in nature.
The Second Wave was brought on by the Industrial Revolution and immediately accelerated the economy. These societies derived energy from irreplaceable fossil fuels from the earths energy reserves. It inclined toward a new technological and economic structure with a false illusion of the finite nature of these resources. This shift however allowed the mass production and trade of products. This brought about the divorce of consumers from producers. The second wave brought machines under a synchronized system. Industrialization also required mobility from its workers. Workers could no longer be held behind by a large extended family. The nuclear family became an identifiable feature of all Second Wave societies which were built on a factory model, mass standardised education. Industrialisation also saw the coming of women into the fore-front, the womens rights moment picks off with the second wave.
The Third Wave civilization is the post-industrial society. Most major cities today are postindustrial cities. Toffler says that since the 1950s most countries are moving away from their industrial roots and moving to an information age. The new technologies of the Third Wave will give rise to new industries based on quantum electronics, information theory, molecular biology, oceanic ecology and the space sciences. The Third Wave also opens up the field of space exploration. This impact is underestimated by the general public but it is the next frontier in the advancement of human civilization. The key to a Third Wave civilization is flexibility. People can work where they want, when they want and for whom they want all by virtue of the advancement in information technology.
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APPENDIX A
The following is an extract from the Report of the Expert of the Lal Dora Committee.
Source: Shrivastav P. P (2007) Report of Expert Cte. On Lal Dora in Delhi (ECLD), Union Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi
THE BACKGROUND
2.1.1 As per the 2005-06 edition of the Economic Survey of Delhi, the total population of Delhi (2001 census) stood at 138,50507 out of which the urban population was 129,05780 (93.18%). Out of Delhi's total area of 1483 sq. km, the urban area was 924.68 sq. km. Thus the area of rural Delhi stood at 558.32 sq. km and the population was 9,44,727 (say 9.5 lakh) in 2001. Draft Master Plan 2021 has projected Delhi's population in 2011 at 182.0 lakh and 230.0 lakh in 2021.
2.1.2 While Appendix 1 of the Delhi Land Reforms Rules, 1954 lists 358 villages in the UT of Delhi, the Tejendra Khanna Committee Report has put the number of villages at 362. Possibly some Revenue Estates created subsequently by the Lt. Governor of Delhi have been included in the list of villages. 135 villages out of these have been declared as urbanized villages and thus the remaining 227 remain as rural villages. 15 out of these 227 villages stand recommended by MCD (since the year 2000) to the Govt. of NCT of Delhi for being declared as urban u/s 507 of DMC Act. The notification to this effect is yet to be issued by Govt. of NCT of Delhi.
2.1.3 The metropolitan town of Delhi has grown on agricultural lands acquired from the villagers. Initially, in building up of Lutyen's Delhi, the villages were relocated; later only their agricultural lands were acquired and the residential areas (abadi deh) were circumscribed by a red line and that is how the term Lal Dora came into use. The process of urbanisation over the years has been engulfing the villages. Urban Delhi grew fast around them while the villages remained within the confines of their Lal Doras. The close layouts and narrow lanes of old village abadis were conditioned by old (now outdated) historical compulsions of collective security, considerations of mutual interdependence and availability all-round of vast open agricultural fields. Now with agricultural fields (that provided the open environment) having been acquired by DDA or grabbed/colonised by market forces driven by skyrocketing land-values, on the one hand and with natural increase in village population on the other, the village abadis have become intolerably cramped. It has not been possible to extend even the basic-most civic services like water-supply and sewage-disposal in the narrow twisting streets and haphazard layouts within Lal Dora in all the 135 urbanized villages as on date. Most of the dwelling units are inaccessible to ambulances and fire-tenders to attend to emergencies.
35
B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 2.1.4 What is still worse is that the villagers have been deprived of their principal, if not the sole means of permanent sustenance - their agricultural fields and space to maintain cattle. A farmer's life is as inextricably linked with Report of Expert Cte. On Lal Dora agricultural fields as a tribal's is to the forests that have sustained his past generations. One-time compensation at government rates for land acquired tends to go as fast as it comes. It is hardly an adequate recompense for land (with everescalating value in the urbanization process) that is a permanent and perennial source of sustenance. Deprived of agricultural land and facilities for keeping cattle, the villagers were driven to opening shops, start small industries wherever they could; renting out their premises for godowns, offices and the like. With urban Delhi hard-pressed for dwelling units to house the flood of in-migrants from elsewhere, and consequent sky-rocketing of value of vacant land, many villagers were tempted to sell off their lands to colonizers and builders. The areas covered by extension of Lal Dora and agricultural fields around the villages - both acquired and unacquired - became favourite hunting ground of the middle-class - lower and higher - to satisfy their need of cheap housing. Thanks to the alleged collusion between colonisers and enforcement agencies, highly sub-standard unauthorized colonies mushroomed in these areas. A big list of 1432 such colonies is slated for regularization as of date and reportedly, a proposal to add 88 more to this list is under consideration.
2.1.5 In the shadow of these developments and with their age-old traditional means of sustenance taken away from them, can one blame the villagers for the shops and industries, godowns and showrooms that have come up in violation, technically speaking, of the laws and bye-laws, rules and regulations? In the struggle for survival and sustenance, it was either this technical violation or taking to violence and crime.
2.1.6 The solution to the problems of rural villages lies in finding ways that would inspire the villagers themselves, at least the younger generation, to demand that they be permitted to enhance the value of their property by making as intensive use of their lands as feasible through redevelopment. The Committee also feels, very broadly at the macro-level, that with our rural brethren (6.82% of Delhi's total population) living in 37.64% of the total land area of Delhi, it should not be difficult to adequately meet not only the present but also the future needs of our villages. Creation of good modern housing and commercial areas in multi-storey complexes would mean substantial enhancement in the value of their property. It would not be necessary for anyone to move away from their original area: all their non-residential activities could also be met in the vicinity itself. In fact, new markets could be created for fresh commercial and trading activity adding to the prosperity of the villages. That would also relieve the acute scarcity of commercial premises in Delhi which is causing so many problems for the traders. Further details of this strategy will be discussed elsewhere in this Report.
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The following is an extract from the INTACH Report: Process for Historic Site Development: Chirag Delhi, 1996
Source: INTACH (1996), Process for Historic Site Development: Chirag Delhi A Case Study, INTACH, Lodhi Road, New Delhi.
37
38
39
40
41
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[Accessed 22 August 2012] 3. Cenzatti, M (2008) Heterotopias of Difference, Deheane, M. Ed. (2008) Heterotopia and the City ,
Routledge, New York 4. Foucault, M. (1967) Of Other Spaces: Utopias and Heterotopias, Trans. Miskoviec, J. (1984),
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B. ARCH DISSERTATION 2012-2013 12. Mitchell, M. (2010), Namaste Delhi Architecture of Rapid Change and Scarce Resources: Chirag Delhi, London Metropolitan University London 13. Narayan S. (2001), Study of Lal Dora as a Concept, TVB School of Habitat Studies, Unpublished B.Arch. Thesis, Vasant Kunj, New Delhi 14. Sanyal, S. (2010), Reinventing Slums No Home Left Behind, India Today [Online] 20 Sept 2010 Available From: http://www.sustainableplanetinstitute.org/India%20Today%20Slums%20Sept10.pdf [Accessed 18 November 2012] 15. Schmid, C. (2008) Space, Difference, Everyday Life: Lefebvres Theory of the Production of Space: Towards a Three Dimensional Dialectic, Routledge, New York 16. Sehrawat, D. (2011) OPINION: Delhis Country Cousins, Tehelka [Online] 22 June 2011 Available from: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main50.asp?filename=Ws22062011Delhi.asp [Accessed 3 October 2012] 17. Shrivastav P. P (2007) Report of Expert Cte. On Lal Dora in Delhi (ECLD), Union Ministry of Urban Development, New Delhi 18. Sohn, H (2008) Heterotopia: anamnesis of a medical term, Deheane, M. Ed. (2008) Heterotopia and the City , Routledge, New York 19. Soofi, M. A. (2008) The Delhi Walla: Feature Delhi, The City of Villages, Blogspot, Google Inc., [Online] 11 July 2008 Available from: http://thedelhiwalla.blogspot.in/2008/07/feature-delhi-city-of-villages.html [Accessed 29 September 2012] 20. Toffler, A. (1980) The Third Wave A Classic Study of Tomorrow, Bantam Books, New York 21. Vagale, U. (2004) Thesis: Bangalore Future trends in Public Open Space Usage, [Online] Virginia Tech, Blacksburg Available from: http://scholar.lib.vt.edu/theses/available/etd-05172004-231956/ [Accessed 30 August 2012] 22. World Monuments Fund, INTACH (2008), Delhi Heritage Route Project: Chirag and Khirki, World Monuments Fund, New Delhi
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