That night, when I was at India Gate to report on the celebrations on the World Cup victory, I was wondering about the lack of a public space that encourages us to engage with the city, its people.
Chinki Sinha
New Delhi, April 4, 2011
Where else would they have gone but India Gate. Because by some
telepathy, or some precedent, the joyous crowd that converged at the
India Gate on the night of the victory knew this was where the
celebration would be. In the backdrop of the monument, which is
symbolic of the nation's achievements, the revelers wanted to dance
and wave the flag.
But they hit the barricades, and like a giant wave hitting the
shoreline, it turned inwards, the swelling mass of people and it
became a moving celebration, choking city roads.
I went to India Gate, too. Because this to me was the monument that
celebrates India, its achievements. As I sifted through my list of
possible venues to witness the mass celebrations, India Gate was the
only public space that fit the bill.
This would have been the people's engagement with the city. But the
state chose to isolate the monument, and push back the revelers. On
the day of the semi-final, the streets were clogged and the traffic
was stalled for hours as residents came out in large numbers to
celebrate the victory over Pakistan.
In their imagination, the urban gathering had wanted to claim the city
by the act of celebration at its most symbolic place, the national
monument that the state chooses to host its Republic Day functions to
celebrate India's achievements.
The World Cup was an achievement. Only a couple of days ago, the
crowds had descended on the monument and danced on the streets, and
strangers were united by complex emotions ranging from pride to love
for the country and by their choice of the place to celebrate their
happiness when India defeated Pakistan.
The joyous crowd on the night of the final victory was looking to
rediscover the city's center in order to celebrate an urban gathering
where strangers living in the metropolis could shake hands, embrace
each other and dance to music blaring out of the car windows.
From all over the city, revelers came to the national monument.
This was a moment of unity, an interaction bound by a pervasive
patriotism and pride and a central urban space was required. Because
the monument reflects the nation is some way, people from the NCR
region like Gurgaon also came. Facebook was rife with pictures of
celebrations. Newspaper reporters headed to india gate, including me.
That was the obvious choice. Where else would we find the mass
celebration?
Delhi is a vast city, and continues to seek new territory. One could
argue parks and open spaces scattered throughout the city reflect the
response of urban planning to the needs of society for open spaces.
But we still lack a central public space where celebrations, concerts
or fetes can he held.
But we were confounded by these barricades. The crowd was befuddled
too. They still came to see an echo of their own sentiment, to find
reassurance from others, to witness their celebration in unison with
others', and to be one with the city.
But they hadn't expected to hit barricades beyond which the monument
lay. Delhi, the national capital, has no central space the residents
can identify as a platform to get involved with the city, partake in
its life and what it has to offer. The city has parks but there is no
central urban space where they can celebrate, protest or just be. In
fact, the national capital has no urban space in that category when
residents can engage with the city, an entity in its own right, and
interact with it through others belonging to or claiming their right
to the city.
William H. Whyte, an American urbanist, wrote that people go to “urban
spaces by choice – not to escape the city, but to partake of it.” The
city has a soul and that soul comes to life in these kinds of central
spaces that also have a democratizing effect, where anyone can go.
What Whyte wrote hasn't lost its relevance when we try to analyze the
social life of the cities and how urbanization plays into people's
assertion of the right to the city, a growing concept worldwide.
Public spaces are forums where this right is exercised. Given Delhi's
demographics and distribution, both social and economical, a lot of
residents have no access to parks or public spaces where they live.
For instance, unauthorized colonies, resettlement colonies and slums
that make up Delhi. For them to have a social life and rightful
engagement with the city, such a space is a must.
In blocking the access to the monument, the state had its reasons.
They spoke about vandalism and disruption to traffic. But traffic was
disrupted no matter what they thought or anticipated. Maybe not at the
monument, but in the streets leading to it, that became scenes of mass
cheer. Even the UPA leader Sonia Gandhi came out on the streets to
celebrate, sitting in her car window, waving to the masses a she drove
around.
Our vision of cities and its pubic spaces have gone wrong. In making
Delhi a world class city, we have denied the city of a central space
where residents can go, and expect to find others like them. Of
course, over the weekends, the India Gate becomes the picnic spot for
city goers but this isn't an urban gathering on the scale the national
capital witnessed that night.
Happiness and anger are hard to contain, particularly when they are
triggered by the state's wrongs or achievements. Only on the streets,
the emotions find their expression. We used to have a protest street
behind the Jantar Mantar monument and before that, at the Boat Club.
But in the months leading to the Commonwealth Games, the
administration banned pitching tents and overnight stays at Jantar
Mantar. Now protests have to be planned within a certain time frame.
That's a right to the city that was encroached upon.
Whyte had urged the city planners to celebrate urban gatherings. He
said these must be encouraged as it is part of the social life of the
cities.
"People have a nice sense of the number that is right for a place, and
it is they who determine how many is too many,” he said.
Whyte, who wrote The Organization Man, said how people behave in
public spaces are indeed the reflections of them as social creatures.
In India, we tend to erupt in cheer. We like to celebrate, and we like
to share happiness with all. Streets are our platform, our stage.
That should be the basis for zoning laws and urban development. In the
cities that I have spent time in, including Patna where the Gandhi
Maidan for decades has served as a place of celebration and as a
platform for protest, residents have identified with some public space
where they would all congregate as part of the urban gathering
phenomenon.
In Delhi, the planning has not envisioned such an urban space. It
hasn't accounted for its residents' social behaviour.
Urban spaces in our times need to cater to the society's needs. Social
and spatial implications of changing lifestyles in cities with
personal space shrinking as urbanization peaks demand that urban open
spaces that are planned take these into account.
As places of expression of the city's diversity and its
democratization process, these urban spaces need to be rethought and
reconsidered. These are spaces of real, social interaction like on the
night of the World Cup finals where people got out of their virtual
mode on social networking sites or email transactions to actually meet
and celebrate.
The barricades were the state's reaction to the concept of such a space.
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