Description
Cambridge University Press (Manohar) Colossus The Anatomy of Delhi by Sanjoy Chakravorty and Neelanjan Sircar
The National Capital Region of Delhi is a diverse and unequal space. Its more than 30 million people are sharply differentiated by economic class, religion and caste, education, language, and migration status. Its 45,000 square kilometres is a tapestry of spaces - ghettoes, slums, enclaves, institutional areas, planned and unplanned and authorized and unauthorized colonies, forests and agricultural fields. In some ways it is a dynamic society aspiring to global city grandeur; in other ways it is a bastion of tradition, sectarianism and hierarchy. Colossus details these realities and paradoxes under three themes: social change, community and state, and inequality. From the material condition of the metropolis - its housing, services, crime and pollution - to its social organization - of who marries whom, who eats with whom, and who votes for whom - this book unpacks the complex reality of a metropolitan region that is emblematic of India's aspirations and contradictions.Enlarges the coverage out of the usual focus area of central DelhiProvides insights from multidisciplinary perspectives, including economics, environmental science, geography, history, political science, sociology, and urban planningFocuses on social attitudes and relations, which is new in urban studies