Urban Villager: Life in an Indian Satellite Town

This book offers insights into the life and struggles of those living in Greater Noida ‒ once a rural area close to Delhi and now a rapidly growing satellite town ‒ written from the perspective of a resident journalist.

Located in a farming area, life in Greater Noida reflects the challenges of the many rural areas that lie adjacent to rapidly expanding large cities. Although the author has no intention of contributing to the academic debate on rural and urban development, the stories in this book can inform and give meaning to the work of academics and practitioners.

Part I questions issues of land rights, including land ownership and tenure. Given that the area belonged to farmers for centuries and that it was only designated to be a new industrial town in the late twentieth century, strong claims and constant tensions between local farmers, private builders and government bodies are portrayed. The stories reveal that there are no coherent groups with unified voices but, rather, a range of demands, roles and power associated with them.

Despite these struggles, development of Greater Noida continues. The book examines the consequences of land struggles, for example with regard to compensation and court cases but also environmental and societal change. It also gives detailed insights into personal and societal struggles associated with the rural-to-urban transformation, and includes the perspectives of farmers and businesses. Societal challenges arise not only from new actors’ demands but also from changing social structures and economic development, expressed in tensions between modern and traditional cultures of the youth, small entrepreneurs and other villagers. Overall, the stories told in this book encourage readers to pay attention to the dynamics of what the author describes as a little schizophrenic – sometimes village, sometimes city.