Urban planning, exclusion and negotiation in an informal subdivision: the case of Bombay Hotel, Ahmedabad

摘要

Urban planning as conceptualised and practiced in the global South has enacted inequitable distribution of resources, produced social and spatial exclusions and denied substantive citizenship to low-income groups. This article examines urban planning as one of the key drivers of exclusion and conflict by unpacking the ways in which it has produced layers of informalities over the years in Bombay Hotel, a low-income Muslim locality in Ahmedabad. A key planning instrument implicated in these processes in recent years is the Town Planning Scheme (TPS), a land pooling and readjustment mechanism portrayed nationally and internationally by the government as an example of best practice. The article also interrogates political processes, their interface with the TPS implementation in the locality, and the outcomes of these interactions. The article ends by reflecting on the possibilities and limits of these processes for addressing the exclusions and everyday conflicts faced by residents of low-income informal localities.