REGULARIZATION AND THE FICTIONS OF PLANNING “UNAUTHORIZED DELHI”

This chapter explores mimicry as a planning practice central to the development and occupation of what is rapidly becoming the most popular neighborhood form in Delhi, and indeed much of metropolitan India—the unauthorized colony. Built on land beyond the development area of the master plan, these periurban settlements house more than 30 percent of Delhi’s population, or around 6 million people (Sheikh and Banda 2014). They form as developers consolidate rural farmland and cut plots for private sale. Varying drastically in their size and income level, the category “unauthorized colony” encompasses everything from peripheral neighborhoods with services worse than