| 
MAKE-OVER
MAKE-OVER.
It is one of the most popular themes that media created reality shows,
and programmes are made of these days. It is a process of transforming
a person, or even a thing like a house or a car into a sleeker, more
elegantly packaged entity. May be it is fun to watch, but only as
long as it remains within the realm of entertainment. And when the
repackaging is done to an individual who is willing to play the game.
But what if this make-over business creeps into real life? What if
it is forcibly thrust upon a group of people or a community that is
not ready for the change at all? And worse still, what if this make-over
is half-baked and incomplete leaving ugly scars in its wake?
Nightmarish stuff, right? Well, almost all of us who live in big cities
witness such transformations every day. I am talking about the urbanised
villages, or villages which have been forced to surrender their land
to the voracious cities with expanding borders. These have been ‘worked
upon’ by the urban make-over artists known as the city development
authorities, and borne the brunt of their botched-up efforts.
In this issue of Gobar Times we present our version of a Reality Show.
But its not a dark and tragic story. As the Gobar Times team went
around Delhi — which was used as the stage for this show — exploring
deep interiors of these urbanised villages, it met some amazingly
resilient people. Men and women who have managed to retain facets
of their uniquely traditional lifestyle, even while getting sucked
into the great urban whirlpool. Result: a canvas full of colours,
characters, and of course, squalor.
HISTORICAL
VILLAGES OF DELHI
Rural settlements mushroomed due to a variety of reasons:
Resource distribution: Most of the villages of pastoralist
communities like Gujjars came up on the Delhi ridge, as land
was required for grazing. The Jat villages sprung up in the
plains adjoining the Yamuna, becasue the alluvial land was
appropriate for agriculture.
Land: Munirka village is a colloquialism of Munir Khan,
the man who was donated the village by a monarch as a land
grant.
Religion: Nizamuddin and Chirag Dilli were named after
their creators, the saints, Nizamuddin Auliya and his disciple
Chiragh-e-Dehlvi.
Motels/Resthouses: Yusuf Sarai, Ber Sarai, Katwaria
Sarai were rest houses for travellers en route to Delhi.
Fortified villages: Mehrauli, Kotla Mubarakpur, and
Tughlakabad were villages, which came up on fortified settlements
deserted over a period of time. |
The tale of transformation...
Quest for space
Delhi has grown from a small, walled city to this giant metropolis
since the beginning of the 20th century. This inevitably involved
large scale acquisition of land and taking over of a great number
of historic villages. Many of these date back to the medieval period
(see box: Historical villages of Delhi).
The city has expanded primarily to make space for the continuous flow
of people, pouring into it at different times for different purposes.
Industrial growth; advent of the railways; shifting of the capital
from Kolkata to Delhi by the British; partition of the country in
1947, and ever-increasing immigration from rural areas have been critical
factors responsible for the city’s expanding footprints over the surrounding
country side.
After India gained Independence there was a major spurt, as refugees
from Pakistan came to settle here. Also, a huge number of skilled
and unskilled construction labourers came to the city, drawn by the
fledgling government’s construction drive. New offices, institutions,
residential colonies were being designed then as a part of its nation
building initiatives. The government begun acquiring land around Delhi
to settle the burgeoning population. Land of around 48 villages was
acquired in the period 1951- 61, to develop most of these refugee
colonies, which included Lajpat Nagar, Patel Nagar, Kalkaji, Malviya
Nagar and Tilak Nagar. These were stretches of agricultural land,
where the erstwhile inhabitants used to grow vegetables and other
crops...
|
