How the Design of Our Cities Reflects Caste, Class Anxieties

“On whose hands shall I look for my blood/When the whole city is wearing gloves? ” wrote Urdu poet Ahmed Faraz. The blood he speaks about was not that from loss of life, but of opportunity, belonging, and identity in modern cities. Cities have always been a reflection of the prejudice and exclusion of those who create them. While some homes sit protected behind gates, others grow alongside waste waters, between passageways, under bridges, and over the stench of scarcity. A complex circuit of identity decides who gets to live in the city and where within it. Houses that are excluded from central areas, and sometimes even erased entirely, most commonly shelter those marginalized by identity. “The untouchability in our cities now is not practiced physically, ” Asaf Ali Lone, a researcher with the Center for Policy Research, tells me. “Rather, it has turned into institutional untouchability, where institutions are crafted in such a way so as to separate. ” City planning then becomes a blueprint for how power and privilege are exercised, creating and perpetuating segregation that cements biases and stereotypes against communities. It is important for us to remember that the roots of segregation in housing lie at the heart of caste-dominated India, ” says Rukmini Sen, a professor of history, social science, and liberal studies at Ambedkar University. This is not just happening in isolation. Segregation “is a historically continuing process in which the cities are becoming increasingly homogenized spaces, where rights — and the prerogatives that come with rights — are only possible for a certain class, for a certain caste of people, ” explains Sushmita Pati, a political scientist and an assistant professor at NLSIU, Bengaluru. Look back to Delhi’s 1947 resettlement patterns: Dalit communities who migrated post-partition were never quite considered in these plans. The new colonies across Rajinder Nagar, Jangpura, Kingsway Camp, Nizamuddin, and CR Park – better planned and more spacious – were officially created for the privileged. Near the northern limits of the city is Regar Pura, a location listed in official communication as a resettlement site for the “Harijan” community. Tiny mud huts, held together by tarpaulin, housed those who fit into the Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, and “untouchable” categories. “…the very apparatus of the state resettlement programs were built upon caste and class distinctions, even as the word “caste” found no mention in the settlement policies, ” wrote author Ravinder Kaur. This spatial segregation meant that these remained “invisible neighborhoods, ” so much so that they weren’t even listed in Delhi’s guidebooks.