The Chacha State’s vision, a Gandhian one, is of an India comprising hundreds of thousands of “self-sufficient village republics.”
Our vision is that of hundreds of free-trading cities, and thousands of such towns – all self-governing, of course.
Today, there is a small report in Mint titled “India needs hundreds of new cities” – on a panel discussion that transpired during their recent “economic summit.” The report discusses problems developers face – particularly in buying land. I wonder why no one talked about homesteading unowned land.
To add to what the report says, I would like to emphasize transportation, particularly roads. In British India, they built 80 “hill-stations” in 50 years only by understanding the “natural patters” that occur in society. One such pattern is “hubs-and-spokes.” Thus, their hill-stations were laid out on “spokes” extending from the great metropolitian cities – the “hubs.”
So you see Poona, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran, Panchgani, Lonavla, etc. built upon spokes extending from Bombay. Ditto for Darjeeling and Shillong, and Calcutta. From Delhi, spokes were built to Simla, Mussoorie and others; from Madras, there were spokes to Ooty and Kodaikanal. Without these transport connections to the big cities, small towns, or brand new cities, cannot succeed.
In those days, the automobile had not been invented – but the steam locomotive had. The British connected their hill-stations to their cities by rail. You can still see these mountain railways working in Simla, in Darjeeling, and in the Nilgiris. Matheran, which I have yet to visit, had no road connection at all, and it is only recently that its toy train stopped working.
If we are to build successful new cities we must focus on transportation from the existing metros – the hubs of Indian commerce. Even if 20 spokes are built – both rail and road – leading out from each of these hubs, connecting all the existing satellite towns, and also all the “new cities,” the urban scenario in India will be dramatically improved.
Stanmore was the first “ribbon housing” development in London after WWII. It succeeded because the London Underground’s Jubilee Line was extended there – overland, of course. I visited Stanmore just to check – and it is a spaciously laid out new town. But the people living there would never have done so if the direct and fast connection to The City did not exist.
Yeah, we need property titles. But we also need to focus on transportation. Without that, we are doomed. Roads, railways, tramways – the lot.
Further, with free trade, our coastline will urbanize aggressively. We will need twin coastal expressways.
Note that The Chacha State has still not considered "hubs-and-spokes," nor thought of coastal expressways. Their much touted and long delayed "Golden Quadrilateral" is a mere 5-city vision, connecting the 5 overcrowded metros. Chacha possesses no urban vision.
To conclude, some words on “rural development,” the great Gandhian chimera. We have chased this bleak vision for 60 years – this, while millions of villagers have moved to cities, and all these neglected cities have become hell-holes. We even destroyed all the hill-stations.
The records state that the Congress pursued “rural development” even in British times, when they came to occupy ministries after the GoI Act of 1935. Philip Mason was a District Magistrate in Dehra Doon then. This is what ICS officers like him thought of this nonsensical idea:
As to Rural Development, most British officers would have agreed that a great deal of what was proposed was admirable if the villagers would do it themselves, but they were skeptical about trying to change habits from above – and much of the effort put into the attempt seemed to them wasteful and incompetent.
This charade of “rural development” has to end.
The new vision must be of 500 Hong Kongs, Dubais, Singapores…. And thousands and thousands of Stanmores.
Let us not only live better, in excellent urban environs, let us also own great properties, and make the whole of India a great piece of real estate. The beauty of nature is everywhere – a free gift – but all our man-made cities and towns are ugly beyond belief. At fault is their vision. This false vision must be ditched.
I doubt if they actually want Self sufficient villages. All they want is villages with lots of bureaucracy and lots of panchayats. Its an administrative nightmare that they envision. Not the free from everyone village(s) that Gandhi proposed.
ReplyDeleteThe same with cities. All these renewal missions are just hogwash and bureaucracy.
We need to acknowledge what Gandhi wanted was actual independence at local level and not this top down nightmares. What we have right now is Congress vision not Gandhian vision. If we actually had Gandhian vision and properly free villages, those villages could have been voluntarily combined to make way for a single city.
Gandhi also wanted the Congress party to be dissolved - lets hold the state to that vision as well.