Delhi's Urban Narratives: Home Making, Home Demolition, and Migration at the Turn of the 21st Century

This book explores how contemporary Hindi literature and co-creative literary practices document and respond to the forced evictions and relocations that have shaped Delhi's urban landscape since the 1990s. Through the analysis of literary texts written by residents of informal settlements (bastis) and resettlement colonies—many of whom experienced displacement firsthand—the book examines the relationship between literature, migration, and urban transformation. It also investigates the Cybermohalla Project (2001-2013), an initiative that fostered creative hubs in working-class neighborhoods, highlighting how co-creative practices empower displaced communities by offering a space for self-expression, narrative-making, and collective reflection. Bridging literary studies, anthropology, and urban geography, this study demonstrates the crucial role of literature as both a cultural archive and an agent of resistance. It analyzes how displaced communities narrate their experiences of physical and emotional upheaval, how literary texts document changing urban morphologies, and how co-creative writing processes contribute to self-determination. Through a combined methodological approach that includes ethnographic fieldwork, textual analysis, and interviews, the book interrogates the impact of urban displacement on individual and collective identities and the role of storytelling in reclaiming agency over spatial and social marginalization.