Sushmita, Pati
(2019)
The productive fuzziness of land documents : the state and processes of accumulation in urban villages of Delhi.
Contributions to Indian Sociology, 53 (2).
pp. 249-271.
ISSN 0973-0648
Abstract
This article revolves around the fuzzy nature of land titles within and around the ‘Lal Dora’
(literally, ‘red thread’) ringing the urban villages of Delhi to understand how property
ownership gets mediated through documents. Through a close look at three kinds of
documents—land records, a particular notification over construction in the Lal Dora region
and the General Power of Attorney, it pries open how these documents govern property
relations today. As much as records and laws become the means through which the state
attempts to intervene, disaggregate and make sense of property regimes, these attempts are
frustrated through practices pertaining to property and localised bureaucratic effects. The
evidence presented as documents, stamp papers or certificates is only superimposed on
the larger field of property relationships in the urban villages of Delhi. The article shows
that the informality produced by inconsistencies in these documents plugs into the logic of
accumulation and comes through as a dynamic albeit inegalitarian force that challenges
state power.
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