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Abstract
This article looks at the growth and expansion of Delhi during the eventful period 1936–59. It examines how the sovereign state came to acquire vast new legal powers to regulate the city, the economy and the polity through the course of managing World War II, the Transfer of Power and finally Partition. In the case of urban planning, the process of increasing state control over land, urban development and the built environment started specifically in 1937 with the establishment of the Delhi Improvement Trust and culminated with the formation of the Delhi Development Authority in 1957. At the same time the article also shows that despite this, Delhi's actual growth in this period often sidestepped state plans with the city's urban expansion being moulded by the impact of global events; emerging through the everyday actions of a vastly increased urban citizenry, especially following Partition, and also by the unexpected playing-out of increasing and exaggerated institutionalised state power itself, as described in the article.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank the anonymous reviewers of this article for their very helpful comments and inputs in improving the essay, as well as Douglas Haynes and Nikhil Rao for their editorial suggestions and support. The author would also like to thank Awadhendra Sharan for initial insights into researching Delhi's history, and the Centre de Sciences Humaines, New Delhi for supporting this project.
Notes
1 Nayantara Pothen, Glittering Decades: New Delhi in Love and War (Delhi: Viking, 2012), p.70.
2 A. King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment (Boston: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1976), p.274.
3 Timothy Mitchell, Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-politics, Modernity (Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 2002), p.4.
4 Delhi Province also included numerous villages and towns such as Narela, Mehrauli and Shahdara in the rural hinterland (Delhi-Rural), the Notified Area Committee or Civil Lines (the colonial seat until the building of Lutyens’ Delhi), and two cantonments with their own governing bodies.
5 King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment, pp.231–74.
6 Stephen Legg, Spaces of Colonialism (Oxford: Blackwell, 2007), p.29.
7 King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment, p.237.
8 Douglas Goodfriend, ‘A Chronology of Delhi's Development 1803–1982’, in Design (Oct./Dec. 1982), pp.35–50.
9 For a detailed description of this process see Jyoti Hosagrahar, Indigenous Modernities: Negotiating Architecture and Urbanism (New York: Routledge, 2005), esp. Chapters 2 and 5.
10 King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power, and Environment, p.237.
11 A.P. Hume, Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi, Vol. 1 (Shimla: Government of India Press, 1936), p.3.
12 Legg, Spaces of Colonialism, pp.159–63.
13 Goodfriend, ‘A Chronology of Delhi's Development 1803–1982’.
14 Legislative Assembly Debates, 26 Feb. 1941, p.688.
15 Hume, Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi, Vol. 1, p.10.
16 Ibid., p.30.
17 Ibid., p.4–5.
18 Ibid., p.25.
20 Ibid., p.57.
19 Ibid., p.14.
22 Ibid., p.68.
21 Ibid., pp.67–8.
23 Ibid., Chapter IV.
24 Ibid., p.21.
25 Ibid., p.9.
26 Administration Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust for the Years 1937–1939 (New Delhi: Delhi Improvement Trust, 1940).
27 Hume, Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi, Vol. 1, p.39. Hume however expressed doubts about being able to adequately provide housing for the poor. An entertainment tax was introduced to cover these costs.
28 Legislative Assembly Debates, 24 Feb. 1940, p.588.
29 Legislative Assembly Debates, 27 Mar. 1946, p.2973.
30 Hume, Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi, Vol.1, pp.54, 63–5.
31 Administration Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust for the Years 1937–1939, p.iv.
32 Legislative Assembly Debates, 8 Apr. 1946, p.3642.
33 According to the Birla Committee Report set up to enquire into the activities of the DIT, 42 schemes had been initiated up until 1951; 19 were ‘completed or practically completed’, while the remainder were categorised as ‘under execution’. In terms of development schemes for housing which had been planned on 1461.23 acres, by 1951 only 77 acres had been ‘completed or practically completed’. See Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 2 (Delhi: Government of India, 1951), pp.83–92.
34 Legislative Assembly Debates, 27 Mar. 1946, p.2975.
35 Ashley Jackson, The British Empire and the Second World War (London/New York: Continuum International Publishing, 2006), p.195.
36 Nandan Prasad, Expansion of the Armed Forces and Defence Organisation, 1939–45 (Calcutta: Combined Inter-Services Historical Section India and Pakistan, 1956).
37 ‘Police Swarm in Delhi’, New York Times (11 Sept. 1942), p.8.
38 Delhi State Archives Chief Commissioner's Office (hereafter DSA CC) F.No. 77/42 Confidential 1942 Part B, Delhi State Archives, New Delhi.
39 I. Kamtekar, ‘A Different War Dance: State and Class in India 1939–1945’, in Past and Present, Vol. 176, no. 1 (2002), p.214.
42 William Chaplin, ‘A Yank's Life in India’, Mt. Adams’ Sun (16 Apr. 1943), p.5 [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1392&dat=19430416&id=PUBlAAAAIBAJ&sjid=qZMNAAAAIBAJ&pg=649,3215528, accessed 29 Sept. 2012].
40 ‘A Mass Act of Faith’, Sydney Morning Herald (27 Feb. 1943), p.9 [http://trove.nla.gov.au/ndp/del/article/17838534, accessed 29 Sept. 2012).
41 Legislative Assembly Debates, 17 Mar. 1947, p.2041.
43 A Report on the Census of Industrial Units in the Union Territory of Delhi (Delhi: Directorate of Industries, Delhi Administration, 1969), p.2.
44 Arun Joshi, Lala Shri Ram: A Study in Entrepreneurship and Industrial Management (New Delhi: Orient Longman Limited, 1975).
45 A Report on the Census of Industrial Units in the Union Territory of Delhi, p.2.
48 Legislative Assembly Debates, 17 Mar. 1942, p.1201.
46 Furthermore, the Birla Committee Report suggests that the fear of requisitioning itself also deterred building activity. A large number of notices for requisitioning of houses were issued even if not all the houses were actually taken over. See Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 2, p.22.
47 Legislative Assembly Debates, 17 Mar. 1947, p.2042.
61 History of the Services of Supply, China-Burma-India, 5 Nov. 1943–2 Oct. 1944, Appendix 33 Intermediate General Depot #1, RG 493, Box No 159, National Archives at College Park MD, USA.
49 See for example DSA CC F.No. 77/42 Confidential 1942 Part B.
50 For the introduction of individual ration cards see DSA CC F.No. 115/43 Confidential 1943 Part C.
51 For the motor spirits rationing office see DSA CC F.No. 28/5/42 Confidential 1942 Part C.
52 For brick requisitioning see DSA CC F.No. 93/1/42 Confidential 1942 Part C.
53 For discussions on an inspector for electricity rationing see DSA CC F.No. 69/8/44 Confidential 1944 Part C, for inspection of petrol pumps DSA CC F.No. 28/5/42 Confidential 1942 Part C.
54 For requests for electricity connections see DSA CC F.No. 69/4/44 Confidential 1944 Part C, and for motor spirit coupons see DSA CC F.No. 28/2/42 Confidential 1942 Part C.
55 In relation to ‘forged permits’ for wheat see for example DSA CC F.No. 161/42 Confidential 1942 Part C.
56 For selling motor spirit coupons and forging bogus applications see DSA CC F.No. 28/13/44 Confidential 1944 Part C.
57 For allegations against CPWD officers see DSA CC F.No. 114/43 Confidential 1943 Part C.
58 This also included the control of labour. Thus in Delhi, the Essential Services Maintenance Order was extended to municipal civic utilities and transport services. See DSA CC F.No. 46/2/43 Confidential 1943 Part C.
59 See DSA CC F.No. 121/43 Confidential 1943 Part C.
60 Prevention of Corruption Act, 1947, Statement of Objects and Reasons, Gazette of India, Part V, 23 November 1946, p.374.
66 Legislative Assembly Debates, 27 Mar. 1944, p.1563. See also Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 1, p.5.
62 Legislative Assembly Debates, 6 Feb. 1940, p.48.
63 In 1947 it was reported that the price of land in Delhi had risen by 1000 percent during the war. See Legislative Assembly Debates, 17 Mar. 1947, p.2028.
64 Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 2, pp.120–21.
65 DSA CC F.No. 137/1945 Confidential 1945 Part C.
68 DSA CC F.No. 69/11/44 Confidential 1944 Part C.
67 Legislative Assembly Debates, 27 Mar. 1946, p.2975.
69 Taya Zinkin, Challenges in India (London: Chatto and Windus, 1966), p.47.
71 Ibid.
70 These included the Restriction and Detention Ordinance, Requisition of Property (Rule 75A), Essential Service Maintenance Ordinance, Control of Prices (Rule 81), Hoarding and Profiteering Prevention Ordinance…Strikes and Lock-outs (Rule 81A), and Prevention of Hartal (Rule 81D). See DSA CC F.No. 93/44 Confidential 1944, Part B.
72 Ibid.
73 On ‘retail’ black marketeering see Delhi State Archives Deputy Commissioner's Office (hereafter DSA DC) 117/46, Delhi State Archives, New Delhi; and on bribery and corruption among government servants and contractors see DSA CC F.No. 51/46 Confidential 1946 Part C.
74 DSA CC F.No. 110/46 Confidential 1946 Part B.
75 DSA CC F.No. 48/46 Confidential 1946 Part B.
76 DSA DC 315/1946.
77 See ‘12 Persons Injured in Delhi Bazaar Riot’, New York Times (14 Aug. 1946) [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=9A07E1D91339E23ABC4C52DFBE66838D659EDE&scp=15&sq=delhi+riot&st=p, accessed 17 Oct. 2012].
78 ‘Curfew Imposed in Delhi Violence’, New York Times (12 Nov. 1946), p.18.
79 Legislative Assembly Debates, 17 Mar. 1947, p.2044.
80 ‘Five Years to Build and Not Finished Yet’, The Sunday Statesman (28 Dec. 1947), p.4.
81 V.P. Menon, The Transfer of Power in India (Bombay: Orient Longman, 1957), p.423.
82 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 29 Nov.1947.
83 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 23 Nov.1947.
84 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 18 Oct. 1947.
85 Raminder Kaur, Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants in Delhi (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2007), p.96.
89 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 14 Dec. 1947.
86 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 18 Oct. 1947.
87 V.N. Datta, ‘Punjabi Refugees and the Urban Development of Greater Delhi’, in R. Frykenburg (ed.), Delhi Through the Ages: Selected Essays in Urban History, Culture and Society (Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2002), pp.442–60.
88 Tan Tai Yong and Gyanesh Kudaisya, The Aftermath of Partition in South Asia (London/New York: Routledge, 2000), p.199.
97 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 1 June 1948.
90 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 26 Nov. 1947.
91 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 5 Apr. 1948.
92 DSA CC F.No. 1/48 Confidential 1948 Part C 4 Mar. 1948.
93 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 8 May 1948.
94 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 28 June 1948.
95 DSA CC F.No. 1/48 Confidential 1948 Part C Report for 1st half of May 1948.
96 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 22 May 1948.
98 DSA CC F.No. 68/47 Confidential 1947 Part B 25 May 1948.
99 Quoted in Suparna Chatterjee, ‘Refugee Rehabilitation and the Politics of Nation Making in India 1947–1962’, unpublished PhD dissertation, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, p.184.
100 S.K.D. Gupta, K.V. Rajagopalan, J.R. Dhurandhar, K.K. Hajara, R.P. Verma, T.C. Shrivastava, S.M. Lahiri, C.C. Coari, U. Chan Tun Aung, S. Namasivayam, R. Espitalier-Noel and C.E. Purchase, ‘Eastern Countries’, in Journal of Comparative Legislation and International Law, Vol. 31, nos.1/2 (1949), p.121.
101 Ritu Menon, ‘Birth of Social Security Commitments: What Happened in the West’, in Ranabir Samaddar (ed.), Refugees and the State: Practices of Asylum and Care in India, 1947–2000 (Delhi: Sage Publications, 2003), pp.152–82.
102 Kaur, Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants in Delhi, p.98.
103 ‘Four Townships for Refugees to be Set Up Near Delhi’, The Statesman (27 Jan. 1948).
104 Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 2, pp.38–9.
105 See for example RHB-89 (11) 54, National Archives of India (hereafter NAI), New Delhi.
106 Report of the Delhi Improvement Trust Enquiry Committee, Vol. 2, pp.38–9.
107 Government of India, District Census Handbook, Delhi State, Census of India 1951 (Delhi: Delhi State Government, 1953), p.lxiii.
108 RBD/B/12/3/1948, NAI.
109 RBD/B/12/3/1948, NAI.
110 U. Bhaskar Rao, The Story of Rehabilitation (Delhi: Department of Rehabilitation, Ministry of Labour, Employment and Rehabilitation, Government of India, 1967), p.61.
111 Kaur, Since 1947: Partition Narratives among Punjabi Migrants in Delhi, p.103.
112 RBD/B/12/3/1948, NAI.
113 RHB-101 (1) 54, NAI. The lease deed also contained various other conditions.
116 Ibid., 30 Nov. 1950, pp.1011–3.
114 Government of India, District Census Handbook, Delhi State, Census of India 1951, p.ixv.
115 Lok Sabha Debates, 1 Dec. 1950, p.1101.
117 S. Mullick, ‘Unauthorised Occupation of Open Land in Urban Areas of Delhi: A Note’, mimeograph, Albert Mayer Papers, Box 23, Folder 22, University of Chicago Special Collections, Chicago.
118 RHB-100 (7) 54, NAI.
119 Ibid. During the course of debates on the Delhi Premises (Requisition and Eviction) Amendment Bill in 1951, Minister of Works, Production and Supply N.V. Gadgil gave assurances that refugees would not be evicted if possible, and given compensation if removed.
120 See for example A. Bopegamage, Delhi: A Study in Urban Sociology (Bombay: University of Bombay, 1957); and V.K.R.V. Rao, Greater Delhi: A Study in Urbanisation, 1940–1957 (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1965).
121 See debates of the Delhi Control of Building Operations Act, Lok Sabha Debates, 7–9 Dec. 1955.
122 Ashish Bose, ‘Land Prices and Land Speculation in Urban Delhi 1947–67’, in Ashish Bose (ed.), Studies in India's Urbanisation (Delhi: IEG, 1973), p.168.
123 H. Damodaran, India's New Capitalists (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), p.284.
124 Mullick, ‘Unauthorised Occupation of Open Land in Urban Areas of Delhi: A Note’.
125 Delhi Control of Building Operations Act, 1955 [http://lawmin.nic.in/legislative/textofcentralacts/1947.pdf, accessed 17 Oct. 2012].
126 Lok Sabha Debates, 7–9 Dec. 1955.
127 Lok Sabha Debates, 7 Dec. 1955, pp.1722–8.
128 Lok Sabha Debates, 8 Dec. 1955, pp.1836–50.
129 Mullick, ‘Unauthorised Occupation of Open Land in Urban Areas of Delhi: A Note’.
130 Hassan Prasad and A.K. Damodaran (eds), Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, Vol. 35 (Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, 2006), p.227.
134 Quoted in Nayanjot Lahiri, ‘Delhi's Capital Century (1911–2011)’, paper presented at the Colloquium Program for Agrarian Studies, 4 Mar. 2011, Yale University [http://www.yale.net/agrarianstudies/colloqpapers/20lahiri.pdf, accessed 17 Oct. 2012].
131 Letter from Gerald Breese to E.G. Echeverria, 16 September 1957, Albert Mayer Papers, Box 23, Folder 9, University of Chicago Special Collections, Chicago.
132 The suggestion made by the brokers was that DLF's acquisition of agricultural land was done with the help of senior Delhi administration officials.
133 See S. Gopal (ed.), Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru, Second Series, Vol. 7 (Delhi: Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund, 1988), pp.31–2.
135 Lok Sabha Debates, 11–12 Dec. 1957.
136 Ashish Bose, Land Speculation in Urban Delhi (New Delhi: National Building Organisation, 1973), p.26.