Breaking and Making Traditions: Disjunctures in Spatial Planning Paradigms for Delhi

This article critically analyzes the discourse around three historic spatial planning regimes for Delhi from the colonial era to the present moment in order to highlight the failure of the state to either comprehend the complexities of existing typo-morphological patterns, work in concert with informal modes of production, or enfold the entirety of Delhi’s urban fabric within its purview. The article, moreover, explores how these models of development were complicit in the proliferation of informal production, only to then capitalize on its surplus. Over time, this approach has resulted in a vicious cycle of breaking and making “planning traditions” that remain both antagonistic toward and dependent on the informal culture of building.