Gentrification in the mill land areas of Mumbai city - RC21 ORG ...

always receives mixed opinion from the policy makers, researchers, urban sociologists and
planners. For some gentrification helps to regain money by revitalisation of areas whereas for
others it is a huge social cost incurred in an area in order to rejuvenate, thereby causing large
displacement of population and little or no gain for the city (Atkinson, 2004).
Gentrification does not follow any discreet process; it often acts in the combination with
many. Therefore whether it is in the form of displacement of population from the inner city
due to the process of deindustrialisation, displacement due to racial conflict in places like
Harlem, upcoming cafes, bars nightclubs and art galleries in SoHo of New York and
formation of new cultural capital erasing the old or movement of people back to the city from
the suburbs popularised as ‘revanchism’ in the Society Hill Philadelphia or in Washington
DC(Smith,1996:52) the various discourses of gentrification occurs in various stages.
When we compare the developing world with developed world it is found that there is always
a difference between the first world cities and the third world cities round the world (Deb,
2006). Specifically, in India the contrast is very prominent because India once being a
colonial country had the centralised administrative system. Therefore the role of the state is
very important here. Moreover a large number of population in India is under the below
poverty line and the technological development is low as compared to other countries. All
these drawbacks compel government to form different policies for its growth and
development. To study the growth and development of Indian cities Marxist approach seems
to be relevant as Deb (2006: 347) stated that, “presently cities in India are growing according
the logic of capitalist mode of accumulation of surplus. The urban land use is therefore
primarily structured by a rent maximising land market and the geographical pattern that
develops is of a dense commercial core, a tendency for ever widening peripheral scattering of
industries and the appearance of socially segregated residential neighbourhoods”. In the
Marxist approach the accumulation of capital takes place in the production sphere i.e.
industries, gets circulated in the circulation sphere by roads, highways, commerce, banking
etc and goes to the reproduction sphere which in this case is housing for the labourers near
their working place. Due to profit motive approach of the capitalist there are many sectors
where the private investors do not find any interest to interfere. State’s intervention at that
point of time becomes very important. Any breakdown in the equilibrium among the three
spheres can lead to crises. Like any other cities of India, in Mumbai the State often acts as an
agent of the capitalist class because it is operating under the capitalist system. At this point I