Book review:

Urban villager: life in an Indian satellite town

Author(): Vandana Vasudevan

Publisher: SAGE Publications

Pages: 296

Year: 2013

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.
The author frequently draws parallels with similar kinds of urbanisation on the outskirts of
other Indian metros. Across the country, the city gobbles up more and more of what was
once the countryside—whether it is Sriperumbudur in Chennai, Belapur in Mumbai,
Yelahanka on the outskirts of Bengaluru or Rajarhat New Town in Kolkata. No matter
where you live in India, the story of this book could be the story you see in your city.
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