[Urbanstudy] Land titles and The Godfather of Bangalore

[solomon benjamin]

Dear Deb,
Thanks for this, and perhaps some clarifications are due. Writing such a piece is bound to confuse the specifics of the quote so the latter part of this email are extracts from my my emails to the author of the piece that sets this particular selection in context. 

Much of our own insights on the specifics of this issue comes based on our work on the Bhoomi program. This program of the GOK claims to have digitized 20 million land records in Karnataka. Since it follows the line promoted by Hernando desoto, its not surprising that its been highlighted by the WB as a best practice to be followed: Not just in India, but in the rest of the 'Global South'. Some weeks ago, Vinay Baindur had placed some related postings on the urban list to show how PWC I think, but also the Bill Gates foundation, and the ADB were investing some real big bucks into "e-titles" and e-gov., and there are also indications that ICICI Bank when we did the Bhoomi research, was also investing the same. The specific issue of land titles is complicated especially as many progressive academics and activists, and policy folks assume that 'clean titles' automatically imply a step towards social justice. Well, read more, and also on what Tim Mitchell
 has on this, in his own critique of De Soto. There is more recent to that, more academic material on land titling and the problems with claims by the very well funded 'de-soto camp'. 

Our Bhoomi report and it's summary is given at:  
http://casumm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/bhoomi-ase-politics-summary2006.pdf
http://casumm.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/bhoomi-e-governance.pdf


I wrote to the author of the Wired piece, I was impressed and glad that he interviewed directly some of the main figures of the so called 'mafia'. In the context of our own research on the Bhoomi program in the 8 districts around Bangalore, it significant that one of his quotes from one of the main persons in his report, is on how they help to 'clean up' messy titles, and use the mainstream court system within this,  as a service to large land developers and what we know as their predominantly IT clients. 
Cheers
Solly

Now here are some extracts from my emails (with minimal editing) to the author of the wired piece. apologies for the grammar -- which normally happens when one is email ing late into the night, but I hope my broad argument is conveyed:  

"....However, I would like to make a point about land 'mafia's and this  links to how we view illegality and criminality. These two are very different and at times merge depending on the politics of the situation. The way deve. authorities and most planning agencies structure building and other regulations, almost all people (85%) exist on illegal land of various categories. Some of these are less "legal"  as they are in fact recognized by municipal councils. But municipal authorities are, like in the US, subjugated by supra regional agencies that dis empower them. The 'informal' sector' that employs upto 90% of all urban employment and some estimates by the Nat. ins of Adv. Economic Research (Indian's premier research agency) some years ago suggested that it also contributed 65% of economic value addition. I am personally not too enamored by these categories of economic rational but putting that aside, with all this, when planners and high level adm.
 call these as illegal, there is obviously a particular politics that is with this tag. Now while some activities like murder and violence is criminal no doubt, not all with a criminal tag are criminals!. Vivek Dharehswar  had written a wonderful article (Vivek Dhareshwar, R. Srivatsan @ Hyderabad Subaltern Studies (India)  "Rowdy-sheeters: An Essay on Subalternity and Politics" no. 9,) to show how if you were a poor person aiming to organize fellow residents to pressure authorities to access clean water, secure land against demolitions by planning authorities (playing to large developer authorities) than you were most likely to have a 'criminal' case of murder, rape, or dowry seeking, slapped on to you! And we would recognize that 'good politics' would include building a constituency around getting access to water, actions to strengthen land tenure.! The elite today are really worried about  the poorer groups turning out with 95% voter turnout in
 municipal  elections to push open their space to access basic amenities. of course this is likely to be un-ruly, but in ways not that different from the behind the scenes unrulyness of big business lobbying Development Authorities. Perhaps its this fear that has them now supporting the Vote India campaign that in the guise of electoral reforms  aims to discipline poor groups and in the guise of identifying 'criminal' elements are in fact playing into and building on elite interests! 

Since now illegality is more complicated and just as criminality is, its a good time to visit the ALF's report on how super large IT companies and the KIADB's new avatar into land acquistion for IT in 2000 . For more evidence, you could look at the website of the Environ Support Group and their documentation of the BMIC project, and the KIADB. Perhaps none of these acts were, or are illegal! -- it all depends on how you define illegality. Thus, with the political clout that the IT and large land developers enjoyed in 2000, it was obvious that first you re-draw legality, and then get the nation state and its 'policy apparatus' to act in their behalf! If the new acts and actions by the puritans aim cut the space down for the illegal 'rowdysheeters' (to use Dharweshwer) and turn them into what the Times of India often calls as 'the land mafia' we live in normal times. Perhaps we need to move beyond the expected way: "third world corruption by corrupt
 politicians and the land mafia".  I feel that not only is this un-grounded and empirically problematic  but reverts back to a sort of neo-colonial developmentalism which  needs questioning..."


******88


--- On Sun, 26/10/08, Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail) <debsinha at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Deb Ranjan Sinha (Gmail) <debsinha at gmail.com>
> Subject: [Urbanstudy] The Godfather of Bangalore
> To: urbanstudygroup at sarai.net
> Date: Sunday, 26 October, 2008, 2:26 AM
> "But high prices are only part of the problem for
> businesses looking for space 
> in the city. It's nearly impossible to determine who
> actually owns any given 
> piece of Bangalorean real estate. Some 85 percent of
> citizens occupy land 
> illegally, according to Solomon Benjamin, a University of
> Toronto urban studies 
> professor who specializes in Bangalore's real estate
> market. Most land in the 
> city, as in the rest of India, is bound by ancestral ties
> that go back hundreds 
> of years. Little undisputed documentation exists. Moreover,
> as families mingle 
> and fracture over generations, ownership becomes diluted
> along with the 
> bloodline. A buyer who wants to acquire a large parcel may
> have to negotiate 
> with dozens of owners. Disputes are inevitable."
> 
> http://www.wired.com/techbiz/people/magazine/16-11/mf_mobgalore?currentPage=all
> 
> 
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