Paper short abstract:

How kinship network of a Muslim caste has not only been instrumental in claiming the land for a neighbourhood, in absence of unambiguous legal status of the land, but has also variously reinvented itself in the process.

Paper long abstract:

This paper looks at the processes of acquiring, developing and maintaining land property in Jamianagar, a neighborhood in Delhi. In what is officially termed as 'unauthorized' settlement due to absence of unambiguous legal ownership, residents employ complex mechanisms and techniques to sustain claim over the land that they inhabit today.

In this struggle around land, both the residents and the state cannot be treated as singular and consistent entities having ownership or entitlement to control land developments. They both rely on the various networks to serve particular purposes. Residents rely on kinship networks, which add up as numerical strength and at the same time works as effacement, diffusing the control and culpability by subdivision of the property.

It is equally difficult to find the singular face of the state despite it being present on every step. State appears in many guises, from planners to authorities responsible for various amenities. The coordination and cooperation between these agencies and at places its lack makes it difficult to discuss about the State as a unified entity.

In this context, this paper attempts to explore role of kinship relations of Pathans, a Muslim caste. This kinship network has not only been instrumental in claiming the land for the neighborhood but has also variously reinvented itself in the process. I further argue that the state mirrored these techniques of effacement in its response, to defuse its actions as well as achieve greater impact.