Spaces of Colonialism Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Pagei—#1 RGS-IBG Book Series The Royal Geographical Society (with the Institute of British Geographers) Book Series provides a forum for scholarly monographs and edited collections of academic papers at the leading edge of research in human and physical geography. The volumes are intended to make significant contributions to the field in which they lie, and to be written in a manner accessible to the wider community of academic geographers. Some volumes will disseminate current geographical research reported at conferences or sessions convened by Research Groups of the Society. Some will be edited or authored by scholars from beyond the UK. All are designed to have an international readership and to both reflect and stimulate the best current research within geography. The books will stand out in terms of: • the quality of research • their contribution to their research field • their likelihood to stimulate other research • being scholarly but accessible. For series guides go to www.blackwellpublishing.com/pdf/rgsibg.pdf Published Forthcoming Geomorphology of Upland Peat: Erosion, Form and Politicizing Consumption: Making the Global Self in Landscape Change an Unequal World Martin Evans and Jeff Warburton Clive Barnett, Nick Clarke, Paul Cloke and Spaces of Colonialism: Delhi’s Urban Alice Malpass Governmentalities Living Through Decline: Surviving in the Places of Stephen Legg the Post-Industrial Economy People/States/Territories Huw Beynon and Ray Hudson Rhys Jones Swept up Lives? Re-envisaging ‘the Homeless City’ Publics and the City Paul Cloke, Sarah Johnsen and Jon May Kurt Iveson Badlands of the Republic: Space, Politics and Urban After the Three Italies: Wealth, Inequality and Policy Industrial Change Mustafa Dikeç Mick Dunford and Lidia Greco Climate and Society in Colonial Mexico: A Study in Putting Workfare in Place Vulnerability Peter Sunley, Ron Martin and Corinne Georgina H. Endfield Nativel Resistance, Space and Political Identities Domicile and Diaspora David Featherstone Alison Blunt Complex Locations: Women’s Geographical Work Geographies and Moralities and the Canon 1850–1970 Edited by Roger Lee and David M. Smith Avril Maddrell Military Geographies Driving Spaces Rachel Woodward Peter Merriman A New Deal for Transport? Geochemical Sediments and Landscapes Edited by Iain Docherty and Jon Shaw Edited by David J. Nash and Sue J. McLaren Geographies of British Modernity Inclusionary Geographies? Mental Health and Social Edited by David Gilbert, David Matless and Space: Towards Inclusionary Geographies? Brian Short Hester Parr Lost Geographies of Power Domesticating Neo-Liberalism: Social Exclusion and John Allen Spaces of Economic Practice in Post Socialism Globalizing South China Adrian Smith, Alison Stenning, Carolyn L. Cartier Alena Rochovská and Dariusz Swia´ ˛tek Geomorphological Processes and Landscape Value Chain Struggles: Compliance and Defiance in Change: Britain in the Last 1000 Years the Plantation Districts of South India Edited by David L. Higgitt and E. Mark Lee Jeffrey Neilson and Bill Pritchard Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page ii — #2 Spaces of Colonialism Delhi’s Urban Governmentalities Stephen Legg Blackwell Publishing Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page iii — #3 © 2007 by Stephen Legg BLACKWELL PUBLISHING 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK 550 Swanston Street, Carlton, Victoria 3053, Australia The right of Stephen Legg to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs, and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. First published 2007 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd 1 2007 Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Legg, Stephen. Spaces of colonialism : Delhi’s urban governmentalities/ Stephen Legg. p. cm. — (RGS-IBG book series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-1-4051-5633-2 (hardcover : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4051-5632-5 (pbk. : alk. paper) 1. Delhi (India)—Politics and government—20th century, 2. New Delhi (India)—Politics and government. 3. Delhi (India)—Historical geography. 4. New Delhi (India)—Historical geography. I. Title. DS486.D3L37 2007 320.954’5609041—dc22 2006033545 A catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library. Set in 10/12 Plantin by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd, Chennai, India Printed in Singapore by Markono Print Media Pte The publisher’s policy is to use permanent paper from mills that operate a sustainable forestry policy, and which has been manufactured from pulp processed using acid-free and elementary chlorine-free practices. Furthermore, the publisher ensures that the text paper and cover board used have met acceptable environmental accreditation standards. For further information on Blackwell Publishing, visit our website: www.blackwellpublishing.com Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page iv — #4 Contents List of Figures viii List of Tables ix List of Abbreviations x Archival References xi Series Editors’ Preface xii Preface xiii 1 Imperial Delhi 1 Security, Territory, Population 2 Governmental rationalities 2 Limits of governmentality 14 Colonial Governmentality 20 The spatial differences of colonial governmentality 20 The temporal differences of colonial governmentality 25 New Delhi: Showcase of Sovereignty 28 A case for urban regicide? Beyond the capital 30 The tombstone of the Raj? 33 2 Residential and Racial Segregation: ASpatial Archaeology 37 Archaeology 38 Colonial Spaces of Dispersion 41 The Spatial Administration of Precedence 43 Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Pagev—#5 vi CONTENTS Visualisation: Objects of imperial discourse 43 Identity: Grids of specification 48 The conceptual landscape 54 The Spatial Dissolution of Order 59 Problematisation: Spaces and subjects of dissension 59 Identities: Enunciative modalities 66 Re-visioning the conceptual landscape 75 3 Disciplining Delhi 82 New Delhi: Policing the Heart of Empire 83 Policing: From government to discipline 83 Policing the capital 85 The Keep: Protecting the core 90 Picket and patrol: Protecting the glacis 94 Anti-colonial Nationalism and Urban Order 96 Sovereignty, law and discipline 97 Identity: Civil Lines 99 Visibility: Disciplined space 101 Techne of discipline: Towards a ‘moral effect’ 103 Problematisations 111 ‘Religious Nationalism’ and Urban Diagrams 119 Diagrams, communalism and policing festivals 119 Sketches of urban order: 1886–1923 122 From urban violence to the CRS: 1924–34 125 Diagrams through festivals: 1936–46 135 4 Biopolitics and the Urban Environment 149 Population Expansion and Urban Disorder 149 Domains of government 149 Planning without vision 151 The disease of darkness: Tuberculosis and failing urban technologies 156 The ‘Delhi Death Trap’: Problematising urban governance 159 Congestion Relief, Calculation and the ‘Intensity Map’ 164 Visualisation, the intensity map and the imperial ethos 164 The improvement techne 174 Ongoing problematisations 181 Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page vi — #6 CONTENTS vii The Western Extension, Protest and Failed Relief 183 Administrative deadlock and the call for expansion: 1912–36 183 Improving the Western Extension: 1937–47 187 Slum Clearance and the Strictures of Imperial Finance 190 The Delhi–Ajmeri Gate Slum Clearance Scheme 190 ‘A tale of two cities’: Delhi’s aesthetic and political landscape 193 Imperial finances and local resistance 200 Re-housing and welfare biopolitics 204 5 Conclusions: Within and Beyond the City 210 Interlinked Landscapes of Ordering 211 Practised connections 211 Analytical connections 212 Beyond Colonial Delhi 216 Space 216 Time 218 Notes 221 Bibliography 233 Index 247 Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page vii — #7 Figures 2.1 Sanctioned layout of New Delhi and the use of land as in 1914 44 2.2 Actual layout of New Delhi and the use of land as in 1938 79 3.1 Police patrols in New Delhi, 1943 89 3.2 Pickets and patrols on 12 August 1942 116 3.3 Policing for Id, 1927 127 3.4 CRS, Appendix A 130 3.5 CRS, Appendix B 131 3.6 CRS, Appendix C 133 3.7 CRS, Magistrate’s Patrols 134 3.8 Map from the CRS booklet 136 3.9 Moharram processions and policing, 1935 137 3.10 Id pickets, 1940 139 3.11 Pickets along the Guru Tegh Bahadur Commemoration Route, 1940 141 3.12 Time–space Routes for the Guru Tegh Bahadur Commemoration Procession, 1940 142 4.1 1912 sketch map of Delhi. Reproduced with permission of the National Archives, New Delhi 155 4.2 Population intensity in Old Delhi, 1931 167 4.3 Trust schemes, 1937–9 177 4.4 Trust schemes, 1939–41 180 4.5 Ajmeri Gate 192 4.6 Slums inside the city wall 197 Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page viii — #8 Tables 1.1 Analytical chapter structure 14 1.2 Colonial Indian governmentality 21 3.1 Relation of police, population and area in Delhi 87 4.1 Census returns: Population increase in Delhi City, 1881–1931 166 4.2 Expenditure (lakh Rs) from the Trust account, 1936–41 178 4.3 Expenditure (lakh Rs) from the Nazul account, 1936–41 179 4.4 Accumulated Trust expenditure, 1936–41 184 Stephen Editor: Lydia: “FM” — 2007/2/9 — 16:04 — Page ix — #9 Abbreviations