‘We are not gangsters, we are artists’: Can Delhi’s Kathputli Colony survive land sharks?

On March 13, 2014, a group of artists from New Delhi’s Kathputli Colony took to the stage at Kamani Auditorium for a production called Akaashan. As the evening progressed, they dazzled the audience with their skills in aerial silk, trapeze, dance, acrobatics, puppetry, and stilt walking.

Their home, Kathputli Colony, situated at a prime location in central Delhi, near Shadipur Depot, has the scenes and sights common to most of Delhi’s slum clusters: a lack of sewage facilities, a tight cluster of single-room houses, tarpaulin roofs. But the colony is home to the world’s largest nomadic community of performers: jugglers, musicians, dancers, puppeteers have settled in the area since the 1950s. Seeing a stilt-walker or unicyclist navigating the narrow lanes is a common sight.

The basti is spread over 5.2 hectares with around 17 different pradhans or local leaders representing the different artist communities or samajs. In 2009, Ajay Maken, who was then minister of state for home affairs, announced a redevelopment project for the colony. In 2010, the government of Delhi initiated the project as a public-private partnership with Raheja Developers. According to the plan, Raheja Developers would build homes to resettle residents on 60% of the land free of cost. In turn, Raheja Developers would be allowed to use the remaining 40% for Delhi’s tallest building – a 54-storey building of luxury flats called Navin Minar, as well as a commercial complex.

The plan promotes in situ redevelopment for Kathputli Colony: the residents of the slum community are supposed to be re-housed in high-rise apartment blocks at the same location, in two-room flats spread over 23 fourteen-storey buildings. While the new housing was being constructed, residents would be shifted to a transit camp at Anand Parbat, about two kilometres away from the colony.

In 2017, the battle at Kathputli Colony appears to be a classic face-off between builders and slum-dwellers. There is confusion about how many families live in the slum cluster – the Delhi Development Authority’s survey indicates only 2,754 families, while surveys conducted by NGOs working in the area and the residents of the slum indicate the number might be closer to 3,200. Land and housing rights activists believe the project gives an unfair benefit to Raheja Developers, but each has their own notion of what the right course of action should be. Amidst the contradictory opinions and convoluted legal documents, confusion looms large.

For the residents of the colony who were present at the event at Kamani Auditorium, the evening was particularly charged with emotion – they were hoping to reach out to the rest of the city with their performance. “We thought maybe they would come forward to help us,” said Rakesh, a dancer and puppeteer.

No one did.

Tightrope act

Caught in the crossfire, the youth of the colony have stepped up to deal with the surfeit of paperwork and daily meetings with lawyers.

Maya, an acrobat from Maharashtra’s Natt community, is studying at a college in Delhi and dreams of being a certified yoga teacher. As young acrobats, Maya and her brothers were handpicked by talent scouts and put on stages across Europe, Brazil and South Africa. Maya lost her temporary job as an aerobics instructor at an NGO in Kathputli Colony.

Maya once believed that the whole world knew about Kathputli Colony, and that when the time came, Delhi would stand with them. Now, she experiences a sharp sense of being marginalised in an acutely unequal city. “I don’t think they will ever resettle us here,” she said. “Which rich person would want to live near us?”

“It is difficult for people to travel from the transit camp in Rohini,” said Devender, a puppeteer from the Bhatt Samaj. “It is at the other end of the city and we travel with equipment for shows.” The fact that the upper middle class residents of Rohini have begun complaining against the resettlement of slum dwellers in their area has added to his anxiety.

Though the Bhatts are fighting for all communities to be resettled at Kathputli Colony, Devender doesn’t think this is practical. He added that it would be better if communities like the kanjar were resettled elsewhere, “because they are unhygienic and if they are with us the place will be dirty again”.

Vijay, a theater artist from the Purvanchali Samaj and a qualified engineer, wants a flat because he can then pursue his passion for development – he has already started an initiative called Jagriti which uses alternative education techniques through art and drama.

Vijay feels that people either romanticise the artistes and the colony, ignoring its dilapidated condition, or don’t see the problem with moving to a transit camp, and waiting for their new homes. “People rarely come inside because this is a slum, our children are denied admission in schools because of our slum status,” he said. “It’s easy to come from your bungalow in Safdarjung Enclave to advise us about we are the ones affected. They can never understand my mother’s insecurity when she shits on the railways track every morning.”

Rasheed, a magician from the Mased community of Telangana, said that Delhi Development Authority’s officers need to live in the colony to see what it feels like to break your own home. “Only then should they come and tell us to voluntarily sign a demolition slip,” he said. “How dare they sell our land without our knowledge and then call us encroachers?”

Rasheed said that the transit camp was unfit for living and lacked security, citing the rape of a teenage girl who had gone to use the toilet. Instead, there was constant police presence at Kathputli Colony.

“The Delhi police, BSF, and the Army, many have tried to pressure us into moving,” he said. “We are not gangsters, we are artists.”

Rakesh, a 23-year-old puppeteer and a graduate who runs an artist management business, has spent the past three years educating himself on the project, to ensure his family doesn’t end up homeless. He has resigned himself to the idea that redevelopment is inevitable. “But I don’t trust the DDA, Raheja or even people here,” he said. “I trust what I have in writing.”

As a youngster performing at Akaashan, he thought such matters were to be left to elders, but now feels that protests are delaying the process. If he moves to the transit camp, his family might have to stay there indefinitely. “I’m worried that the more time we waste, the lesser chances there are for everyone to get a flat since the population is increasing each year.”