Abstract
In this chapter, the author tries to show how kinship networks have come to be entwined with the networks of capital . She looks into the caste networks that were at play in the urban villages of south Delhi by focusing on how the dominant caste (the Jats) have come to establish their dominance over the real estate market. Her argument regarding the transformation of an agrarian pastoral community into an entrepreneurial community is premised on the story of the urban development of Delhi. The author brings out the oxymoronic nature of ‘urban villages’, as neither have they been able to remain rural, nor have they been able to become urban and it is not merely a case of transformation from one to another. Urban villages of Delhi, she opines, are thus caught in the state of exceptionality, in the state of eternal contradiction almost as a part of their very existence and this peculiarity of its nature itself has lent to the curious modes of accumulation that are operative in these villages today. She states that these processes of accumulation are largely mediated but not subsumed by the processes of accumulation taking place in the city of Delhi.
A version of this chapter has appeared as ‘The Making of the Rentier Jat: Land, Rent and Social Processes of Accumulation in South Delhi’, part of a working paper series titled Policies and Practices: Accumulation under Post-Colonial Capitalism IV—Mobile Labour and the New Urban, Mahanirban Calcutta Research Group. It is reproduced here with permission. Another version of this chapter has been presented at the Centre for Modern Indian Studies, Geörg-August Universität in Göttingen on 20 June 2014. I am grateful to Rajarshi Dasgupta, Srirupa Roy, Ravi Ahuja, Debarati Bagchi, Mithilesh Kumar, Sharmin Khodaiji, Shruti Dubey and Shivani Kapoor for their comments on this chapter.
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Notes
- 1.
The land earmarked for village abadi and the agricultural land of the village were duly demarcated in the land settlement of 1908–1909 and the abadi site was circumscribed in the village map in red ink; therefore, the name lal dora (lit. red ink). It still is in use with lal dora as the village residential land and the extended lal dora land which was left outside the village as vacant land, but has now seen massive mushrooming of buildings. The borders between lal dora and extended lal dora are extremely amorphous and, therefore, a source of confusion, and it is this confusion which makes a property legal or illegal.
- 2.
It remains a question, however, whether one should dismiss it as a matter purely of a utopia gone wrong or as a question of economising on compensation costs as a complete displacement would have put a higher financial burden on the state for compensation.
- 3.
The story of this migration is extremely sketchy and vague and beyond the scope of this research to establish.
- 4.
A great deal of these developments were a direct result of infrastructure such as Ring Road that was right next to Munirka and The Asiad Village that started being built around early 1980s right next to Shahpur Jat.
- 5.
All names have been changed to protect the identities of the respondents.
- 6.
Panchayat refers to an older, pre-modern system of local government which have been modified and incorporated into the modern governance system through the 73rd and 74th Amendment in the Constitution of India in 1992. The Jats of north-west India have had a caste-based panchayat, referred to as khap panchayat, whereby they have taken up quasi-judicial responsibilities by pronouncing harsh judgements for going against caste norms which do not have any legal or constitutional recognition. See Chowdhry (2009), Yadav (2009). However, since urban villages of Delhi do not come under the purview of the Panchayati Raj Act, nor do they exist in rural spaces where khap panchayats can be made effective, these panchayats inhabit a liminal space the nature of which is elaborated in this piece.
- 7.
Kunba refers to a family structure up to 2–3 generations which encapsulates the larger familial unit.
- 8.
Here, I am using the term ‘North East’ as a short hand for the people from Manipur, Sikkim, Darjeeling, Nepal and other states which are in the north-eastern part of India who live in Munirka, for the lack of a better terminology. People from Manipur, Darjeeling and Nepal, however, are a majority in terms of numbers.
- 9.
Only in 2016 were women allowed to vote after Youth Brigade Munirka took this issue up and filed complaints with the Delhi Commission of Women and Delhi Police.
- 10.
Unknown Author, Munirka (1999, pp. 8–9).
- 11.
Stephanie Tawa Lama-Rewal writes that RWAs have existed since the 1970s and that there are a number of RWAs which run without any registration. The Bhagidari scheme of Delhi Government which only includes RWAs in middle class and legal colonies has been trying to attain citizen participation in matters of civic infrastructure. She argues that RWAs have been largely undemocratic and seem to have no clear overall charter to adhere to which allows every RWA to formulate its own. See Tawa Lama-Rewal (2007).
- 12.
‘One does not know which caste or religion they would be from’.
- 13.
‘Initially, the villagers thought that “foreigners have come to live here”’.
- 14.
A derogatory term for people with mongoloid features.
- 15.
Here, of course, it needs to be understood that only certain castes within the Dalits have been able to do so. Mostly, Jatavs among the Dalits have been able to make use of opportunity.
- 16.
Youth Brigade, Munirka Pamphlet, dated 13 October 2013.
- 17.
Do not worry about tenant verification; rather, contemplate about it.
- 18.
Are you renting out to a tenant or to a troublemaker?
- 19.
‘Dada Jungi Lane: This is not a thoroughfare.’
- 20.
A covered courtyard kind of a place in the house, where the men would traditionally meet, chat and smoke tobacco. Baithaks have traditionally been a marker of social and economic capital as only rich Jat farmers could have baithaks in their houses.
- 21.
Many famous designers like Suneet Varma and Manish Arora used to have huge factories in Shahpur Jat, which have now moved to Noida.
- 22.
‘…and the work that the Jats do.’.
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Pati, S. (2017). Accumulation by Possession: The Social Processes of Rent Seeking in Urban Delhi. In: Mitra, I., Samaddar, R., Sen, S. (eds) Accumulation in Post-Colonial Capitalism. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-1037-8_5
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