A hefty, scholarly book on a topic not directly concerned with the author is bound to surprise you. And when it is coming from a practicing politician it is a rarest of a rare surprise in the Indian literature world.
Jairam Ramesh, an opposition MP, has written books on Indira Gandhi, his party’s top leader, as also on environment and rural development but then we must realise he had held those portfolios and knew the topics rather well.
So when I saw Feroze Varun Gandhi’s fat tome at a book store in Bhopal, I was in two minds whether to buy that expensive book or not. Given my deep interest in urban planning for over a decade, I finally decided to drill holes in my pocket. Let me be very frank, I don’t regret it, having read it now from flap to flap. Gandhi is also a Member of Parliament, like Ramesh, but was not a UD minister in Delhi nor was in parliamentary standing committee on urban affairs. Yet, he has written this magnum opus.
The young politician appears to have done his homework for a very long period, along with his research team, to produce a book of this standard, class and containing range of gamut of knowledge that one hardly finds in other books on this fast emerging and hot topic. Books on urban planning, cities and other aspects of urban life have been, of late, hitting the book stands, with a degree of regularity, but Varun’s book beats them all
hands down.
As you read this page after page, you realise that he has gone about his business very professionally. The nine-chapter book is neatly arranged in sub topics. What struck me is the range of topics he has chosen and has approached his subject from common man’s perspective. Such as he wonders, in the beginning, why glass facades buildings be made in a hot and humid country? He is also agitated by the fact that: Why does Delhi, with most investment and development, continue to face dengue annually? Why the ground water and air is polluted after many years of identifying the problem? These are common concerns but the man on the street cannot ask these questions that dominate his or her lives.
But then the author is not only talking of the present problems. He has taken a very deep dive in India’s history and has, on numerous places, provided references to cities as old as 600-700 years old and few beyond that while taking stock of growing urbanisation in modern era. Truly, his canvas is extremely vast and dealing with multiple issues has made this bulky book a treasure for students of urban planning, politicians, police officers, doctors academia, architects and journalists.
Most books on urban issues that one had read, had been confined to urban planning history and futuristic aspects, some statistics for chosen mega cities and critiques of the present policies etc. But no… this Gandhi scion has included issues like public transport, urban crime, healthcare, affordable housing, urban unemployment and business, water availability and finally, urban financing in the book and has dealt with them with greater details. Its a Herculean task indeed! What is important, he has suggested ‘way forward’ after almost each chapter. So problem, criticism and solution all go hand in hand.
In the beginning, he has picked up a few cities like Delhi, Kanpur, Moradabad and Patna to deal with their local issues. In Delhi, he has this to say:’ Delhi’s 45% solid waste is not collected by civic bodies; and when landfill catch fires, city’s already noxious air quality drops even lower’. Quoting the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), author says, in 2018, the Delhi water was most contaminated across India. Author terms the capital as the crime capital of the country. He also refers to bad planning when he touches upon the ISBT set up near Sarai Kale Khan and ridicules the prevailing chaos there for passengers.
Delving into history, at another place, author points to an observation of a traveller Francois Martin of Ahmedabad which was perceived to be well-designed. “ …it still had a confused mass of houses with some made of stone, others of wood, some other of mud and thatch–the city did not seek to pave its roads with stone or bricks…”. This was, of course many centuries ago.
Giving Patna’s example, author says that the Bihar city is declining over the past few decades from a good governed, education hub to a city where air quality, ground water and other facilities have deteriorated. The use of four rivers around the town could not be harnessed well by city managers
and politicians.
The author has taken a very long period of India’s urban history and by giving right references, he has questioned why Indian cities are not aesthetically beautiful, why do they not look like Western cities despite having huge history of creating cities like Mandu, Ujjain, Varanasi, Gwalior, Panipat, Jaunpur–cities that were there since medieval era but no longer the main cities.
Author has used an expression ‘cities remain stuck’ in the sense that they have not been progressing and citizens have to keep suffering. He mentions Bengaluru or Chennai for water woes–scarcity to water logging while picking up glaring and simple points in bad urban governance across India. Curiously, author mentions, in the urban crime section, name of the cleanest city as one where crime graph and especially murders, are on the rise–a common phenomenon.
Public amenities are often given short shrift, he says, and asks how many parks and libraries you have in a five km radius? The entire books revolves around people and how to make them comfortable even as urbanisation speed has been frighteningly on the rise as migration (he has dealt with that too) is picking up due to social and economic causes.
He ends his huge wonderful book (reviewing it in wordage limitation would not be a justice to the author, but I can’t really help) stressing the need for safer streets and safer public spaces which will allow women in India to grow confidently. Through his incisive style, Varun has also criticised obliquely the Smart City Mission (which has actually flopped in India), besides emphasising that India has had a huge advantage of having cities for centuries, but the advantage and experience was squandered somewhere down the line by policy makers.
What I found lacking in stark contrast, in this otherwise painstakingly well written book, is a separate chapter on environment, urban biodiversity and climate change impacts on cities. Everywhere the lakes and rivers are shrinking, valuable open spaces are disappearing, trees are being felled mercilessly and large parks are being paved. Varun would have done well to show us a way forward when cities would be hotting up and sports fields or parks would be few and far between. It’s big challenge that the cities have started facing with no solution in sight.
The author has taken a very long period of India’s urban history and by giving right references, he has questioned why Indian cities are not aesthetically beautiful, why do they not look like Western cities despite having huge history of creating cities like Mandu, Ujjain, Varanasi, Gwalior, Panipat, Jaunpur–cities that were there since medieval era but no longer the main cities