The Politics of the Evicted: Redevelopment, Subjectivity, and Difference in Mumbai’s Slum Frontier

Introduction: Mumbai’s Contested Slum Frontier

Mumbai, India’s financial capital, is a city of stark contrasts—gleaming skyscrapers stand alongside sprawling slum frontier, where millions live in precarious conditions. The redevelopment of these informal settlements has been a contentious issue, framed by the state and developers as “urban renewal” but experienced by residents as violent displacement. The Politics of the Evicted examines how slum dwellers navigate, resist, and negotiate their erasure from the city’s landscape. It explores the intersection of neoliberal urban policies, grassroots resistance, and the fragmented identities of those labeled “encroachers” in their city.

Slums as Sites of Political Struggle

Slums in Mumbai are not just spaces of poverty but also of vibrant political agency. The book argues that these neighborhoods are frontiers where competing visions of the city clash—between the state’s push for a “world-class” Mumbai and the residents’ fight for the right to stay put. The narrative challenges the dominant discourse that frames slums as lawless zones needing “cleansing,” instead showing them as complex communities with their systems of governance, economic networks, and cultural identities.

The Mechanics of Eviction and Redevelopment

Under policies like the Slum Rehabilitation Authority (SRA) scheme, the government partners with private developers to demolish slums and build high-rises, promising rehabilitation to eligible residents. However, the book reveals how these schemes are deeply exclusionary:

• Eligibility Barriers: Many long-term residents are disqualified due to arbitrary cut-off dates (e.g., proving residence before 1995 or 2000).

• Broken Promises: Even those who qualify often face delays, corruption, or poorly constructed rehabilitation housing.

• Profit-Driven Displacement: The real motive is land value—slums occupy prime real estate, and developers profit by displacing the poor to make way for luxury housing.

Evictions are not just bureaucratic acts but violent ruptures—bulldozers arrive with police escorts, homes are demolished overnight, and families are scattered across peripheral resettlement colonies, far from livelihoods and social networks.

Subjectivity and Resistance Among the Evicted

The book emphasizes that slum dwellers are not passive victims but active agents who employ diverse strategies to resist erasure:

• Legal Battles: Residents file petitions, invoke housing rights, and use PILs (Public Interest Litigations) to stall demolitions.

• Political Mobilization: Grassroots organizations, like slum unions and NGOs, organize protests, leveraging electoral politics to pressure officials.

• Everyday Resistance: Even without formal organizing, individuals negotiate—refusing to leave, bribing officials, or rebuilding demolished homes.

Yet resistance is fragmented. Divisions emerge along lines of religion, caste, and tenure status, with some groups (like long-standing residents) securing better deals than newer migrants. The book highlights how neoliberal urbanism exploits these differences, fracturing collective resistance.

Difference and Fragmentation in the Slum

Not all slum dwellers experience eviction equally. The text explores how internal hierarchies shape vulnerability:

• Tenure vs. Illegality: “Legitimate” residents (those with ration cards or voter IDs) have more leverage than undocumented migrants.

• Caste and Religion: Marginalized groups (Dalits, Muslims) face greater exclusion from rehabilitation schemes.

• Gender: Women, often the primary caregivers, bear the brunt of displacement—relocating disrupts their work (e.g., domestic labor in nearby areas) and children’s schooling.

These fractures are weaponized by the state and developers, who offer piecemeal concessions to some while evicting others, weakening unified opposition.

The Aftermath: Life in Resettlement Colonies

For those relocated to far-flung resettlement sites (like Mankhurd or Bhayandar), survival becomes a daily struggle. The book documents:

• Spatial Marginalization: Remote locations cut off access to jobs, healthcare, and social ties.

• Declining Livelihoods: Former street vendors or maids lose income sources, pushing families deeper into poverty.

• Social Disintegration: Community bonds unravel in sterile high-rises, contrasting with the tight-knit alleyways of slums.

Yet, even here, new forms of solidarity emerge. Residents organize transport pools, informal markets, and advocacy groups to reclaim their right to the city.

Conclusion: The Right to Mumbai

The book ends by questioning whose city Mumbai is. For elites, slums are eyesores; for the evicted, they are homes. The politics of eviction reveal a deeper struggle over urban citizenship—who gets to belong, and who is rendered expendable in the name of “development.”

The author calls for reimagining urban planning that centers the poor not as obstacles but as stakeholders. Alternatives like in-situ upgrading (instead of displacement) or cooperative housing models offer glimpses of a more inclusive city. Ultimately, the evicted are not just fighting for housing but for the right to define Mumbai’s slum frontier future.

Final Thoughts (Natural Summary Style)

The Politics of the Evicted isn’t just about slum frontier—it’s about power. It’s about how cities are reshaped by invisible forces (global capital, bureaucratic violence) and how people fight back in ways big and small. Mumbai’s slum dwellers aren’t statistics; they’re mothers bargaining with bulldozer operators, teenagers filing RTIs to prove their homes existed, and communities stitching their lives back together in concrete ghettos on the city’s edge. The book’s strength lies in showing eviction as a slow, grinding process—not a single moment of loss but a lifetime of negotiation. And in that struggle, the evicted remake politics itself.

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