Paper short abstract:

This paper explores green grab as a strategy of elite urbanism. To explore green grabbing by the elite, I study Jahanpanah forest vs Ravidas Temple case in Delhi. At the heart of this is Jahanpanah urban forest- a 435 acres large forest in the heart of Delhi, and a temple built at its periphery.

Paper long abstract:

This paper explores green grab- land grab for green-zone preservation (Holmes 2014)- as a strategy

of elite urbanism. While the concept of elite urbanism is often employed to note the development of

elite enclaves in the cities of the south (Pow 2011), here, I use the concept to capture the reinvention

of the normative frames of urban spaces (Ghertner 2015) in the wake of neoliberalization (Brenner et

al. 2010) of the Indian cities following the economic reforms since 1990s. The urban

spaces were reimagined in neoliberal terms in tune with the ambition of ‘global cities’ (Ghertner 2015,

Baviskar 2020). Accordingly, the process of green zoning in this context served dual functions for elite

neighbourhoods as an aesthetic infrastructure on the one hand, and a zone of separation from other

habitations on the other.

To explore the process of green grabbing on behalf of the elite, I study Jahanpanah forest vs Ravidas

Temple case in Delhi. At the heart of this case is Jahanpanah urban forest- a 435 acres large forest in

the heart of Delhi, and a temple built at its periphery. While the citizens of the elite neighbourhood

organized as ‘Friends of Jahanpanah’ alleged that Ravidas Temple venerated by subaltern (mostly

dalit) groups was illegally built on the land which was part of the forest, the temple supporters

contended that the construction of the temple precedes the green-zoning and the land title was

transferred to Saint Ravidas by the rulers of Delhi in the medieval period.