Delhi on the Move: Urban Im/Mobilities in Contemporary Hindi Writings

In the last few decades, urban mobility has been explored by a broad spectrum of research tackling it from different perspectives. It also served as the inspiration for many literary works that, in some cases, voiced issues of marginality. This chapter employs two literary Hindi works, Bahurūpiyā śahar and Iśq meṁ śahar honā, as material to inquire on how the access to urban transport, especially the public ones, influences the daily life of Delhites. The texts focus on young people, basti dwellers and resettlement colonies’ residents. The analyzed works highlight the importance of the access to public transportation for the individual’s emancipation, both in economical and private terms. Further, they bring out the instances of the residents who have been evicted and forcibly relocated to other parts of the city. The chapter addresses issues of urban mobility and cross-cultural contacts in Delhi and in its liminal areas. In so doing, it highlights the differences in the perception of the public transportation of the city as well as the different accounts of the city’s areas and demonstrates that an unbalanced access to public transportation increases inequalities among the residents.