India's urban imperatives

With his wealth of experience, Om Prakash Mathur distils insights and wisdom on urbanisation in one comprehensive compilation, making it a must-read along with his earlier book

Changing Paradigms of Urbanisation, India and Beyond

Author: Om Prakash Mathur

Publisher: Academic Foundation and CSEP 

Pages: 628

Price: Rs 1,995

This isn’t an easy book to review. It couldn’t have been an easy book to compile either. Across institutions, and down the years, Om Prakash Mathur has written on urbanisation, regional development and local governance for years and years. This book isn’t an exhaustive compilation of all his papers. There are 20 papers, grouped under four heads of urbanisation and urban sustainability (six essays), regional planning in national development (two essays), governance and local government finance (six essays), and issues in urban research (six essays).

We learn from the prefatory note that barring the first essay on “India’s Urban Transition”, “other papers were commissioned in different contexts and at different times by organisations” and these have been reprinted.  From Rakesh Mohan’s foreword, we learn, “He came to me with printouts of his many papers and, somewhat diffidently, asked whether it may be a good idea to publish a volume of collected works.”  Dr Mohan said yes.  I am inclined to demur.  Over time, one’s research interests change.  Papers lose relative relevance. The 20 essays cover a time-line of 1981 to 2023 (the ones on regional planning are relatively old.)

With his wealth of experience and expertise, would one have liked Om Prakash Mathur to write a fresh book instead, focusing on India’s urban transition, expanding on that first essay? The answer is unambiguously yes. You might argue that he does precisely this, in the “State of the Cities, India” report.  Coincidentally, for the latest version of that report, in 2021, Dr Mohan also wrote a foreword and said, “Om Mathur is, beyond doubt, the foremost urban scholar in India and has been for some time.  He has worked on Indian urbanisation issues on a continuous basis for almost half a century, a record that may not ever be surpassed in the near future.” Those words are reported verbatim in the foreword for the present volume and no one will disagree with that assessment.

Given that report, since 19 of the essays were commissioned and not always published in standard academic journals, was there utility in reprinting them to make them more accessible? The answer is yes, which dilutes the demurring.  Anyone interested in India’s development and progress will be interested in urbanisation and its progress and problems.  Indeed, there are problems with the definition of urban too and the consequent “silos” created between “rural” policies and “urban” ones.  As Dr Mohan mentions in the foreword, that definitional issue isn’t one addressed in this volume.

There is a correlation between urbanisation and development.  Urbanisation trends have picked up in India and projections show mind-boggling numbers in mega-cities.  Urbanisation trends will continue and urbanisation needs to be managed, typically, in brownfield rather than greenfield formats. What are the major issues?  (1) Providing public services in cities; (2) Raising finance for those services; (3) Urban governance capacity; (4) Addressing poverty and slums; (5) Reconciling tensions between elected and executive arms of urban governance.  Others might be added, but those are the major ones.  Not all the essays are about India. Four of them (numbers 8, 9, 13, 18) reflect an Asian or developing country perspective and issues are universal.  The other essays are on India and cover the issues I have listed, with the exception of the difficult one of (5). Perhaps one can also add the missing question of an urban-cum-municipal executive cadre and issues of local capacity.

All the six essays under the first head will be of interest to anyone interested in India’s urbanisation.  Under the second head I should point out in passing that Article 280 of the Constitution mentions (in connection with Union Finance Commission) panchayats but not urban local bodies.  Of course, fiscal devolution is not merely through the Union Finance Commission, but also State Finance Commissions (SFCs).  In the urbanisation landscape, there is, therefore, the question of recommendations of SFCs (and their non-implementation) and the broader question of variable decentralisation funds, functions and functionaries across states. Naturally, there are two essays (11, 12) that address such important issues. Under the third head, there are two sets of stimulating essays, case studies of Delhi (governance and financial framework and property taxes) and devolution, fiscal transfers and local government finance.

For the fourth head, I would say three essays are particularly stimulating (the informal sector, who is in charge of the city and the urban challenge).  Every essay cannot be expected to be stimulating and the list I have mentioned isn’t a bad score.

Gandhi’s famous quote about India living in her villages is often cited.  Increasingly, India lives in her cities and the share will only increase.  As we think about the trajectory for 2047, we will need to think about urbanisation and its management.  These essays are a distillation of Om Prakash Mathur’s insight and wisdom, backed by conceptual clarity and data and empirical examinations.  Is it a book worth reading?  Of course, it is.  But I think that reading should be supplemented by also reading the “State of the Cities, India” report.  After all, both are by the same author, though the report has other co-authors too.  When any author compiles essays, there is a tendency to ignore issues addressed in earlier publications and this volume was compiled immediately after the report.  Therefore, one should read both.

The reviewer is chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister