Paper short abstract:

To contribute to debating environmental politics in urban South Asia, I will share findings from my doctoral research on the Indian temple town Puri. How can the local politics of access/exclusion to governmental support for slum improvement be analysed? What are key discourses and positions?

Paper long abstract:

To contribute to exploring the political processes of and discourse around the governance of the urban environment in South Asia, I will share the case of the Indian temple town Puri and its emerging urban fabric. In this historic town at the Bay of Bengal, built around and dedicated to Lord Jagannath, the socio-spatial fabric always was intrinsically linked to the religious socio-economic system. Many of Puri's "old bastis" were outside the temple town, while today, they are urban villages surrounded by the growing city. The former dominant classes, the higher castes, still occupy important positions for example in local politics, as priest-politicians. Yet, multiple change processes are transforming Puri and its urban environment. In the context of the Rajiv Awas Yojana (RAY) or "Slum-Free Cities"-Mission, Puri's "new slums" -the heterogenic "mixed neighbourhoods" of migrants from Orissa and beyond- are receiving attention by the formal authorities. The two biggest of these often "illegal" slums occupy a large section of Puri's beach and sweet water zone land. Typically, they are conceived as spaces of illegality and crime in the grip of the "nexus" and as "vote banks" of political leaders.

To this panel's debate, I will contribute, firstly, reflections on the meaning of "slum" in Puri. Secondly, I will present two cases shedding light on what makes slums successful to accessing governmental resources, through RAY. In this way, I will offer insights on the complex relation between local and state politics and urban governance when it comes to slum (re-)development programmes.