Paper short abstract:

A unique case of an emerging agrarian-urban reform coalition from a key southern site that politically complicates both the question of possibilities and limits of urban inclusion as envisioned from settled standpoints, academic or otherwise, in relation to dynamic multistakeholder collaborations.

Paper long abstract:

In 2024, hundreds of villagers from the rural fringe of India’s National Capital Territory of Delhi (hereafter Delhi) gathered for an indefinite protest in central Delhi—demanding implementation of the city-state’s 2041 Master Plan. This congregation of “farmers”, agrarian landowners and village youth—and mostly men with a few women—were led by the Pradhan (or chief) of Palam 360 Khap, a traditional community organization led by dominant agrarian castes that claimed to represent all 360 villages of Delhi as well as all 36 biradaris (or fraternities) living in its villages, thus, demonstrating unity not only across both rural and urban geographies but also across various caste groups and social divisions in these villages. Similar protests were held by other factions of Delhi’s "farmers" demanding planned urbanization where all such demonstrations, popularized through word of mouth and social media, often transpired under vernacular framings of a Mahapanchayat (large or great Panchayat i.e., village council) for Delhi’s original residents. Such posturing transpired despite Delhi's Panchayati Raj or formal systems of rural governance being phased out since the 1980s. These agitations for the urban future of Dilli Dehat i.e., Delhi’s countryside or rural Delhi, demanded planning and property rights in a city that is largely unplanned and informally urbanised. Yet these demands for inclusion through planned urbanization emerged against a blanket threat to boycott state elections in 2025. Through ethnographic reflections, I will illustrate the political economic stakes behind this emerging agrarian-urban ”reform” coalition whose power and reach has only increased under India’s digital turn.