Cultures of Commuting: The Mobile Negotiation of Space and Subjectivity on Delhi’s Metro

Abstract

As part of Delhi’s redevelopment, aimed at creating a ‘global city’, new public transport infrastructure is being built. The Metro, in particular, has become iconic of what city authorities and developers refer to as Delhi’s ‘cosmopolitan’ and ‘world city’ status. Authorities have attempted to change commuting practices embedded in the culture of Delhi, a crowded, economically and culturally diverse city, in line with desired new behaviours including an emphasis on cleanliness, order and quiet. To explore these developments this paper presents findings from a qualitative study (conducted in 2009) analysing the urban mobility of a diverse group of young people. Their experiences of the Metro revealed interacting fields of power in the city, between passengers, and between passengers and those in control of the network. These relationships were situated within wider processes of urban reconstruction that intersect with global flows of capital, technology and ideologies of ‘modernity’ and development. The findings also highlighted the contestation of cosmopolitanism: its use to describe a desired urban imagination and its deployment as everyday competencies of negotiation and flexibility designed to manage change, unfamiliarity and inequality.

Key Words:

• Delhi
• identity
• culture
• commuting
• public transport

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Vrinda Chopra for her research assistance for this paper. Also to the DMRC and Delhi Capital for their kind permission to reproduce Figures 1 and 3.

Notes

1. From the DMRC website, http://www.delhimetrorail.com/about_us.aspx#World_Class_Metro

2. It is estimated that 90% of public transport passengers in Delhi relied on buses, Pucher & Korattyswaroopam, 2004).

3. Deccan Herald (n.d.). Care needs to be taken with these statistics however as they are disputed. Metro representatives argue that the whole network, including feeder buses need to be in place before accurate rider‐ship figures can be assessed.

4. Eleven young women resident in a resettlement colony in north‐east Delhi took part, however, social expectations in this community circumscribe limited mobility. Therefore using street directories was not appropriate. Instead many of the women drew ‘maps’ of the streets in the Colony in which they lived and moved through.

5. Lofgren’s (2008, p. 346) list of ‘dos and don’ts’ for conduct on Denmark’s rail network includes comparable bans on ‘noisy or troublesome behaviour’. Transport for London has a similar list of contraband activity including minimising noise, not eating ‘smelly’ food, and keeping feet off seats.

6. Discussion based on the 2009 research project ‘Remapping leisure: A gendered Exploration of third space in Delhi’, Delhi University. Findings as yet unpublished.

7. The chador is a loose cloak worn by some Muslim women.