The real estate turn in the slum: India’s urban land monetization in comparative perspective

This article contributes to scholarship on Asia’s “real estate turn” through a comparison of in situ “slum redevelopment” programs underway in Delhi and Mumbai that reveals the institutional underpinnings and character of state involvement in each city. Comparative research on state-led financialization in Asia, has typically tended to treat China as the paradigmatic case, with its centralized land regimes and relatively autonomous state land managers, while India’s more fragmented regimes and diffuse authority have been viewed as structural liabilities for a successful real estate turn. Drawing on a multi-method comparison of city-level programs of urban land monetization in Delhi and Mumbai, the article seeks to disaggregate national types, by highlighting subnational variation and unexpected implications of India-specific state structures. Finding more extensive land conversion and a smoother real estate turn underway in Mumbai than in Delhi, our analysis suggests that, counter to expectations from the literature, Mumbai’s more agile institutional structures and opportunities for negotiation have helped ease land clearance efforts. By contrast, Delhi’s more centralized control has led to diminished developer interest and heightened conflicts with residents. Unsettling prevailing understandings of the institutional conditions facilitating Asia’s real estate turn, the paper argues that China-style state control can pose a liability in Indian cities, where resident demands and complex land tenure produce more contentious development politics requiring distinct state strategies. The conclusions call for more localized analyses of land acquisition and financialization across India and other Asian contexts outside the “long shadow” of the Chinese state.