Abstract
This article analyses how local political factors, the rural–urban divide, and conflicts between multiple tiers of government influenced the governance process of a globalizing urban region in India through a case study of Gurgaon. Gurgaon has evolved from a small rural town to a global outsourcing hub in less than two decades. This real estate sector-driven rapid urban makeover, which involves converting peri-urban agricultural land into production and consumption spaces for the new economy, is resulting in a fragmented landscape with obvious inequalities. This article makes an attempt to comprehend this dynamic change.Introduction
Cities are increasingly seen as engines of economic growth in today's globalized economy. Over the last two decades, there has been a global trend to strengthen city governance capacities, particularly in cities that serve as gateways to international economic linkages, by devolving administrative powers from the highest levels of government. In the resulting pattern of urban governance, there has been a greater emphasis on 'public participation' through the involvement of non-state players, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and civil society groups, while 'public–private partnerships' have emerged as the preferred model for delivering major infrastructure projects. This article investigates how local political factors influenced the transformation of Gurgaon from a bland rural town in the early 1980s to a prominent corporate hub for office jobs outsourced by the West by 2021, as shaped by the rural–urban duality and conflicts between the local government and the state government. It contends that a largely unplanned, market-driven, rapid urban transformation led by the real estate sector and facilitated by non-governmental agencies has resulted in a complex settlement pattern with overlapping layers of socio-spatial relations.
Gurgaon, in the state of Haryana and part of Delhi's National Capital Region (NCR), has advanced over the last two decades to become a highly sought-after destination for the information technology (IT)-enabled Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) sector, competing with more established cities such as Bangalore and Hyderabad. With over forty shopping malls, eight five-star hotels, seven golf courses, state-of-the-art business parks housing the offices of several Fortune 500 companies, and a large number of elite high-rise apartment blocks, Gurgaon has been dubbed "Millennium City" by both the popular press and local government departments.
 |
| Face of New Gurgaon: DLF Gateway Tower |
It is, however, a most unusual city: it has no perceivable center or visible urban form; instead, it is a loose collection of privately developed gated enclaves separated from one another by old village Abadis (settlements) that have been converted into slums, stretching endlessly along the Delhi–Jaipur highway. This has resulted in a landscape marked by stark disparities between master-planned complexes linked to the global information economy and messy, informal, local bazaar economies. Today, Gurgaon suffers from severe infrastructure deficiencies, such, a lack of public transportation, and severe traffic congestion.
 |
| Old Gurgaon and it's messy organization (Source: Author) |
Urban Transformations in India
To comprehend the complexities of urban transformation in Gurgaon, it is necessary to first comprehend the general patterns of urban restructuring in India during the era of economic liberalization and neoliberal globalization. Since the 1990s, India's closer integration with the global economy has increased the importance of large cities in the Indian economy. The main foreign exchange earners for the post-liberalized Indian economy are IT outsourcing and other knowledge-intensive services, which are overwhelmingly concentrated in the extended metropolitan belts of Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Mumbai, and Pune, which have a large educated workforce.Liberalization has also increased economic competition among states. Because congested inner-city areas are unable to meet the volume and spatial quality demands of the globalized economy, parastatal agencies offer subsidized land for development in the outskirts of major cities by facilitating the conversion of peri-urban agricultural areas in order to attract investment. IT business parks, exclusive apartments, shopping malls, hotels, specialty hospitals, and elite schools are all being built on the outskirts of cities as production and consumption spaces for the skilled services driven by the new economy. These factors contribute to cities expanding far beyond their administrative boundaries.
While the pattern of economic growth concentration in a few large cities (resulting in hyper urbanization) broadly follows the global trend, their management practices do not. The growing economic importance of European and Chinese urban regions as a result of global processes has been matched by the strengthening of administrative capacities for urban governance. However, in India, the domain of elected urban governments remains limited to routine civic facilities, while the locus of power over the urban economy and governance has come to rest in the middle tier—at the level of state governments—for all practical purposes.
State governments are especially wary of changes in land use and urban planning. Despite the intent of the Constitution's 12th Schedule to transfer these functions to elected municipalities, state governments cite a lack of technical capacity as the reason for their inaction. Land use planning is still handled by organizations like urban development authorities, which not only report to state governments but are also led by state chief ministers. State governments are eager to retain these powers not because they are unaware of the economic potential of urban areas, nor because they have a special interest in urban design, but simply to maintain power.
Rapid growth for the IT–BPO industry has substantially stimulated demand for land in the fringes of big cities and turned these areas into lucrative destinations for speculative investment. From 2005 onwards, lifting of controls on foreign direct investment (FDI) in the real estate sector and passage of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) Act, 2005, further opened up the land market and set the stage for corporate land grabs.
Haryana's Political Language
Political power in Haryana has swung between the Congress Party and an opposition alliance led by regional parties such as the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and the Haryana Vikas Party since its formation in 1966 by carving a chunk off the state of Punjab. Politics in Haryana is distinguished by charismatic leaders who lead political dynasties and caste lobbies, rather than by party labels. The INLD, for example, is associated with Devi Lal and his son, Om Prakash Chautala, both former chief ministers of the state. Similarly, the HVP is close to Bansi Lal, another former chief minister.Haryana's successive political leaders have sought to project a rustic, 'Son of the Soil' image. Because the state lacked major cities, rural-centric politics paid off handsomely. This sharp rural–urban divide has recently blurred. Haryana's urban population has increased from 24% in 1991 to 29% in 2001 to 35% in 2011. Rapid growth in recent decades has catapulted Haryana into the ranks of India's most urbanized states, from one of the country's most rural. However, urbanization is primarily concentrated in the districts of Gurgaon, Faridabad, and Sonipat, which border Delhi and are part of the NCR framework.
The Haryana Urban Development (HUD) Act of 1977 authorizes state agencies to acquire agricultural land for the development of residential townships and industrial estates, as well as to contract development out to the private sector. Licenses are granted to large private developers under the Haryana Development and Regulation of Urban Areas (HDRUA) Act of 1975–76 to acquire, assemble, and develop a minimum of one hundred acres of land. This has allowed large real estate companies to amass massive land banks, particularly in the NCR. Haryana's real estate development was boosted further with the passage of the SEZ Act in 2005, which allowed for the establishment of tax-free enclaves.
Many farmers in the NCR belt sold their landholdings beginning in the late 1990s, due to declining agricultural productivity, the younger generation's desire for an urban lifestyle, and the lure of money from private developers. Several farmers put their money into the transportation business. Ex-farmers, for example, operate taxi cabs and chartered buses that serve BPO companies. The majority of the others invested in real estate or retail businesses, building rental housing or shops in village areas now engulfed by urban expansion and thus establishing links with the new economy.
 |
| Scanty agricultural lands left on outskirts of New Gurgaon (Source: Google Earth) |
Gurgaon's Urban Makeover
The First Master Plan of Delhi (1961–81) envisioned a poly-nucleated spatial structure and suggested that the surrounding towns be developed as counter-magnets to Delhi. Gurgaon, among these satellite towns, remained a backward agricultural town until the mid-1980s. Since then, it has grown at an exponential rate, eclipsing not only other suburban towns but also Delhi itself in terms of attracting higher-end domestic and international investment. This expansion occurred in two stages: between the mid 1980s and the mid 1990s, Gurgaon developed as a residential and industrial suburb of Delhi; after that, growth momentum transformed Gurgaon into a major IT–BPO hub. Between 2001 and 2011, the population of Gurgaon district increased by nearly 74 percent, the urban population increased by a staggering 283 percent, and the formal urban limits expanded nearly six times.
 |
| Population Growth (Source: Census Report 2011) |
However, the largely independent growth has resulted in a heterogeneous settlement pattern as well as significant deficiencies in the delivery of public infrastructure. Three eras of the city's history now coexist, generating new claims and conflicts: rural-agricultural, industrial manufacturing, and globalized IT–BPO services.
The industrial era of Gurgaon began with the establishment of the Maruti-Suzuki automobile plant and its ancillary factories in 1982. Later, several other factories in diverse fields such as auto components, telecommunications equipment and fashion garments started up in Gurgaon. In 1981–82, the DLF Group and Ansal Properties, two big Delhi-based property developers, received licenses from the Haryana state government to build large private sector residential townships. This led to the development of two pioneering projects bordering Delhi, DLF’s Qutab Enclave and Ansal’s Palam Vihar, which began to be occupied from 1991 onwards. Gurgaon’s land market also benefited from a concurrent shrinkage of real estate opportunities in Delhi.
 |
| Maruti Factory and Plant, Gurgaon |
Supply and control of land in Delhi is managed by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) through restricted policies. But this rigid land use control mechanism ran into a major crisis during the 1990s due to the proliferation of illegal constructions, leading to court cases over environmental degradation and violations of the Master Plan. These lengthy legal cases virtually stopped all building activity in Delhi from the mid 1990s, until a revised plan was notified in 2007.
The supply constraints in Delhi during a vital phase of economic growth stirred the property markets of suburban towns in neighboring states. At this stage, Gurgaon’s nearness to the IGI Airport and the availability of high quality real estate turned it into a sought-after location for the BPO industry. Taking advantage of Haryana’s liberal land regime and the cheaper property prices in Gurgaon, big developers who had been amassing land banks in the region started quickly churning out up-scale projects. The absence of a local regulatory regime (in the form of a municipality) further fast-tracked permits and clearances from friendly parastatal agencies. Three big real estate developers, DLF, Ansal and Unitech, in particular, played pioneering roles in this shaping of modern Gurgaon.
 |
| Development in DLF CyberCity and adjacent township in 2000. (Source: Google Earth) |
 |
| Development in DLF CyberCity and adjacent township in 2021 . (Source: Google Earth) |
However, this private developer-led model has produced a patchwork quilt development pattern. The modern city has engulfed several villages, which have turned into a mix of thriving informal sector bazaars and lower-end residential housing. There are strong symbiotic economic relationships between the formal and informal settlements. Shopping malls and markets within the planned residential enclaves accommodate only a few high-end shops. Thus, most residents of the gated complexes depend on the informal village bazaars for their daily needs. The villages also accommodate the entire service population of the formal economy. The security guards, electricians, maids and so on who work in the business parks and the apartment buildings reside in the nearby village pockets. Yet, at the same time, the middle-class residents detest the presence of the rural enclaves.
 |
| Socio-Economic disparity. |
The local agencies, the municipal committee and the village panchayats have been the weakest entities in Gurgaon’s transitional journey, lacking the financial, technical and legal capacity for urban management. Parastatal agencies such as HUDA and HSIIDC, which have technical or financial capabilities, tend to act more like private entrepreneurs in parceling out new land developments, rather than enforcing overarching development controls or coordinating the delivery of public services
Current Situation and Conclusions
Gurgaon still remains a model of how not to plan a city. The gentrification of Gurugram has an obvious consequence in the lack of diversity in the city. The new Golf Course Road has some of Gurugram’s most expensive luxury properties. That part of Gurugram is home to the DLF trifecta of the Aralias, Magnolias, and Camellias—three condominiums with designer interiors, concierge services, club houses, and access to the golf course. And then there is old Gurugram. Some parts of Gurugram look almost rural. Others are practically clones of Singapore or Dubai. Gurgaon is not a walkable city, and has very limited public transport connectivity for the masses. While it is connected to Delhi by the Metro, and its own Rapid Metro is meant for movement within the city, its scope is limited. A car is almost a necessity for even short distances. Thousands of blue-collar workers-guards, gardeners, domestic helpers, janitors, construction workers—all live in the unorganized and hidden slums of Gurugram. While Gurugram cannot move without them, they rarely are a policy focus in the city. |
| Lack of functioning infrastructure |
Through the example of Gurgaon, this article has discussed the difficulties of implementing global concepts such as participatory planning and public–private partnerships in local governance in the globalizing urban regions of India. The rapid change of a small rural town into a center of industrial manufacturing and, then, a global IT–BPO hub in an unplanned manner and over a short time, has resulted in the development of a complex and heterogeneous urban pattern with overlapping layers of socio-spatial relations. The outcome is a highly unsustainable urban landscape marked by environmental degradation and stark disparities between planned and unplanned areas. The development pattern has followed the ease of land assembly, rather than a coordinated plan. There is still a scope of improvements at a larger scale. The development schemes should include the public irrespective of socio- economic status in the planning process, only then Gurgaon could be actually a Millennial city.
Comments
Post a Comment