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The London School of Economics and Political Science Political Determinants of Municipal Capacity: A Study of Urban Reforms in Ahmedabad and Kanpur, India Praveen Kumar Priyadarshi A thesis submitted to the Department of International Development of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy London March 2018 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the MPhil/PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 82,980 words. For Keyasha ABSTRACT This thesis asks why major urban reforms in India between 2005 and 2015 were more successfully implemented in some cities than in others. It undertakes a study of the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM), launched in 2005 by the Indian government, which aimed to implement governance reforms and urban infrastructure renewal across 65 Indian cities, but finished with only modest success. The implementation outcome of the mission also varied across cities. This thesis focuses on the differential implementation outcomes of the reforms in two Indian cities, Ahmedabad and Kanpur, and identifies historically constituted political capacity - located in municipal organization at the city level - as the key determinant of divergent trajectories in the JNNURM implementation. The study adapts John Kingdon‟s framework of „policy windows‟ to explore the formation of municipal capacities and municipal organisations in the two cities. The research identifies two historical „windows‟ that were crucial in the shaping of municipal organizations in Ahmedabad and Kanpur: the first episode was the colonial formation of municipal organisations; the second episode was the period of neoliberalisation. Following Kingdon, in each window, the problem, the policy and the politics have been identified and spelled out. The process of “coupling” between the problem and the policy has then been analysed by looking at the nature of politics and the principal political actors. The analysis demonstrates that while in Ahmedabad, the coupling was achieved during the two historical episodes, the problem and the policy remained unattached in the case of Kanpur. This variation led to two different architectures of municipal organisations in the two cities, resulting in different levels of municipal capacities at the time of the inauguration of the JNNURM. The thesis concludes that the specific histories of urban governance systems matter, and a policy insensitive to this, is likely to fail. i ACKNOWLEDGMENTS In the course of this work, I have received a great deal of support- financial, academic and personal- without which its completion would not have been possible. The Commonwealth Scholarship Organisation, UK deserves a mention right at the outset. This work would not have been possible without the commonwealth scholarship, which supported my tuition fee and subsistence. The Tata PhD Fellowship of the Asia Research Centre, LSE, and financial assistance from the Department of International Development were also immensely helpful in meeting research related expenditures at different stages. Nansen Village, London provided us affordable accommodation, but more importantly, a community of international researchers during our stay in London. My employers Zakir Husain Delhi College, Evening, Delhi University granted me leave to carry out this work. I acknowledge the contribution of these organizations and thank them for their support and contribution to this work. I express my sense of deep gratitude to Professor James Putzel, who has supervised this work. Professor Putzel has guided me in conceptualizing and conducting this research and has spent great amount of time going through the drafts of this dissertation at various stages. He, as the Director of the Crisis States Programme, engaged me in its research process giving me the opportunity to learn about comparative research across cities and countries. I would also like to thank the examiners of this thesis for their invaluable feedback and suggestions, which have gone a long way in clarifying the conceptual design and presentation of the empirical findings of this work. It is impossible for me to adequately express the contributions made by Professor Neera Chandhoke, and Professor John Harriss in this research process. Professor Chandhoke has been an academic mentor since my days in the Department of Political Science, Delhi University. She has been my „go to‟ person for frequent help and guidance that I needed in the course of this research. Equally important has been her personal friendship, trust, support and encouragement through out my association with her. Professor Harriss is the reason I first got interested in researching urban politics, when he involved me in his research on changing modes of representation of the poor in Delhi. He has guided and ii supported me at critical stages of this research with his invaluable inputs. I express my deep sense of personal gratitude to both the professors. Professor Stuart Corbridge and Professor Jo Beall were involved as co-supervisor and supervisor respectively, before moving from the department to take up the positions of academic leaderships elsewhere. I thank Professor Beall for helping me with initial conception, and Professor Corbridge for helping me identify the cases and the method for the research. Professor Barbara Harriss-White also read one of the initial drafts of the research synopsis. I thank her for her feedback. In the Department of International Development, I would like to thank the academic and administrative staff as well as other PhD candidates. Among the administrative staff, Stephanie Davis, Susan Hoult and Drucilla Nelson need special mention for their consistent support. Among friends and colleagues Charmaine Ramos, Tom Goodfellow, Dominik Balthasar, Mahvish Shami, Sean Fox, Alyson Smith, Holly Potter have been particularly supportive. There is a long list of people who helped in the course of field research. To begin with I would like to thank all the respondents who spared their time and provided me with information and insights that has made this research possible. The officials and staff of the two municipal corporations and Urban Development Authorities in Ahmedabad and Kanpur deserve a special mention for their cooperation and support. Other government departments in the two cities, in the capital cities of Lucknow and Gandhi Nagar, and Delhi were equally cooperative. In Lucknow, Rekha Gupta, former Director of the urban local bodies in the government of Uttar Pradesh, showed keen interest in this work and extended all the possible help. In Kanpur, members of the group Kanpuriyam showed enthusiasm towards this research. In Kanpur, Dhruv Pandey and his family members were most kind to me in welcoming me in their home for extended periods of time. Among others in Ahmedabad, I would like to thank the staff of CEPT University, especially Rutul Joshi, for all the support. Several libraries and their staff have been immensely helpful in the process of this work. In London, the LSE, SOAS and the British Library were especially helpful. In Delhi, the Nehru Memorial Library, the Delhi University Library System, including the Zakir Husain Delhi College, Evening Library and the CSH Library deserve special iii mention. In the CSH library, Priyanka, who is also a personal friend, was always ready to help. She provided some of the most difficult to locate material in the course of this research through her professional and personal networks. My friends, colleagues and students at Zakir Husain Delhi College Evening deserve a special mention. The colleagues, especially Amreen, Shubhra Pant Kothari and Ranjan Anand have been helpful in various ways including in locating books and material relevant to this work. My interactions with students are a constant source of motivation to express my thoughts with ever more clarity. Hopefully, some of that has gone into the writing of this work as well. I have had the privilege of friendship of an amazing group of people who have been a source of both personal and academic support as and when I needed them. Kaveri Qureshi and Kumar Nilotpal read numerous versions of my research proposal and helped me shape it. Prashant Sharma, Jayraj Sunderesan, Saurav and Saloni Gupta, Deepak Nair and Mallika Shakya have constantly encouraged and supported me through the process. Ritanjan Das read through the entire draft and gave his invaluable inputs. Above all else, these friendships have kept me going and helped me complete this work. I thank each one of them deeply. Members of my extended family, especially my parents, have always supported me in my academic pursuits often going beyond their means. My elder brother was the first one to notice my interest in politics and made sure that I developed this interest. I wish to express my love and gratitude for them. My wife Neha has lived with this work as much as I have lived with it. An endevour such as this one develops its own idiosyncrasies and Neha has dealt with her usual sense of humour and kept the environment jovial and happy even during very tense phases of this work. I cannot even begin to thank Neha for this, and everything else that she has given me. Our daughter Keyasha arrived at a time when I needed a renewed source of strength to continue with this work. The news of her imminent arrival, and then her presence has been a source of constant inspiration and happiness.