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Communities of Place, Not Kind: American Technologies of Neighborhood in Postcolonial Delhi

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 October 2011

Matthew S. Hull*
Affiliation:
Anthropology, University of Michigan

Extract

In 1956 the Indian Government invited the Ford Foundation to assist with a master plan for the Delhi region. Two years later, the invitation was extended to help with a separate urban community development program. Even though the master plan was a comprehensive project covering transportation, water, sewage, housing, industry, and zoning, the creation of community and communities was one of its main goals. The Draft Master Plan for Delhi (DMPD) declared “in all planning for man's environments,” it was “extremely vital” to “evolve a well integrated new community pattern that would fit the changed living conditions of the new age and promote genuine democratic growth.” Similarly, the primary objective of the urban community development project, as laid out by the Commissioner of Delhi, was that of “giving form to an urban community, which has been drawn from backgrounds varying from one another and trying to achieve a homogeneity.”

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2011

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References

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100 “Monthly Report of Pilot Project Shora Kothi Project I (November 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

101 DUCD, Organizing Citizens' Development Councils, 48.

102 Clinard, Slums, 292, 299.

103 “Monthly Report of Shora Kothi Project II (May 1960),” C-67/1960/CSD/MCD.

104 Clinard, Slums, 296.

105 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project IV (December 1960),” R-56/1960/CSD/MCD.

106 Ibid.

107 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project IV (April 1961),” R-56/1960/CSD/MCD.

108 Ibid.

109 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project IV (June 1961),” R-56/1960/CSD/MCD.

110 “Monthly Report of Shora Kothi Project II (June 1960),” C-67/1960/CSD/MCD.

111 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (June 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

112 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (July 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

113 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (November 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

114 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (January 1961),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

115 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project IV (August 1960),” R-56/1960/CSD/MCD.

116 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (October 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

117 “Monthly Report of Shora Kothi Project II (May 1960),” C-67/1960/CSD/MCD.

118 Clinard, Slums, 179.

119 Ibid., 322.

120 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (December 1960),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

121 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (June 1961),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

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129 Ibid.

130 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (September 1959),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

131 Clinard, Slums, 284. Clinard quotes this from a report of a community organizer. Though it is unclear from the citation, this is most likely a translation of a Hindi/Urdu poem.

132 Ibid., 56.

133 Ibid., 96.

134 Clinard, Slums, 252.

135 “Monthly Report of Project Shora Kothi Project I (August 1959),” T-150/1959/CSD/MCD.

136 Clinard, Slums, 252.

137 Ibid., 285.

138 This analysis showed, for example, a high correlation of apathy and a low “total activity level” (rs = .44) (ibid., 286.), no correlation between the “total activity level” and the number of formal organizational meetings of the vikas mandals, a high correlation between a high “total activity level” and the number of informal actions groups formed within a vikas mandal area (rs = .84) (Clinard, Slums, 299), and no correlation of the “total activity level” with the length of time required to initiate the vikas mandal (ibid.).

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145 Ibid., 186.

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