An Unequal City

-Arnav Jain (200BARCH051)

The term flaneur, was developed by philosopher Walter Benjamin at the peak of 1920s and 1930s modernism
era when the “surreal” potential of the previous century’s industrial urban space was explored, has exerted
considerable influence on the way we understande and interpret 19th century depictions of the city. The con-
cept has gained alot of cognitive status that no one questioned-a sum of insights to be taken for granted- in
contemprory cultural theory. It is the contention of this article that benjamin’s idea of the flaneur is not only
of limited value, but can be seen positively to hamper it. This detrimental effect results from Benjamin’s dog-
matic application of a high-modernist, aesthetic concept of self-loss, derived from a reading of Baudelaire and
Poe, to the interpretation of earlier, journalistic sources conceptualizing the flaneur.

Drawing on Fournel, and on his analysis of the poetry of Baudelaire, Walter Benjamin described the flâneur
as the essential figure of the modern urban spectator, an amateur detective and investigator of the city. More
than this, his flâneur was a sign of the alienation of the city and of capitalism. For Benjamin, the flâneur met
his demise with the triumph of consumer capitalism.

In these texts, the flâneur was often juxtaposed and contrasted with the figure of the badaud, the gawker or
gaper. Fournel wrote: “The flâneur must not be confused with the badaud; a nuance should be observed there
.... The simple flâneur is always in full possession of his individuality, whereas the individuality of the badaud
disappears. It is absorbed by the outside world ... which intoxicates him to the point where he forgets himself.
Under the influence of the spectacle which presents itself to him, the badaud becomes an impersonal creature;
he is no longer a human being, he is part of the public, of the crowd.”

In the decades since Benjamin, the flâneur has been the subject of a remarkable number of appropriations and
interpretations. The figure of the flâneur has been used—among other things – to explain modern, urban expe-
rience, to explain urban spectatorship, to explain the class tensions and gender divisions of the nineteenth-cen-
tury city, to describe modern alienation, to explain the sources of mass culture, to explain the postmodern
spectatorial gaze. And it has served as a source of inspiration to writers and artists.

Now being a flaneur, our experience in the 19th century Gurgaon will be very different from that of the 20th
and the 21st century gurgaon. We can see that there are two types of areas we find in gurgaon, i.e., there are
Rural Areas as well as Urban Areas.

The city, previously known as Gurgaon, was there during the Mahabharata period. It had been an observer to
different ages like archaic age and systems like the Delhi sultanate and the British. The tale of the current day
city began unfurling in 1966 when Haryana was cut out of Punjab as a different state. Before long, Gurgaon
was assigned as a locale and in 70s it set out upon the excursion of its development and advancement under
HUDA very much like different regions. Nonetheless, it was in 1990s that the brilliant period started and the
city saw remarkable development. With progression and globalization, Gurgaon became home to various
worldwide organizations and businesses and the greatest work commercial center in Haryana. GE was the
main global organization to set up its reevaluating unit at the Corporate Park in Gurgaon in 1997. This cleared
a path for large number of individuals from across India to come to Gurgaon searching for corporate area oc-
cupations and there has been no thinking back from that point forward.

One of the biggest problems of old Gurgaon is the lack of proper space to live, to walk, to drive, to play and to
park vehicles. Like in many old cities, encroachments are visible everywhere in old Gurgaon. Be it Sadar Ba-
zaar, streets, roundabout or roads, large parts of the old area are under encroachments that have mushroomed
during the past few decades, bringing the livability index down to a critically-low level. While the civic author-
ities claim to be removing encroachments regularly, their campaign has hardly paid off. The old area needs an
intensive anti-encroachment drive and restoration of designated places to create the much-required space for
transformation and development.

While new Gurugram has the Rapid Metro, Delhi Metro, newly launched ‘Gurugaman’ bus service and app-
based private transport, public transport is a major problem in the old area. As most of the residents in old
Gurgaon are unable to afford taxis all the time, they travel by unregulated auto-rickshaws or their own vehicles,
leading to congestion on roads.

While new Gurugram city can flaunt flyovers and underpasses, old Gurgaon presents a horrid image of worn
out, potholed and waterlogged streets. The Haryana Government has been promising inhabitants of giving
consistent street network however the circumstance in old Gurgaon is bleak. As per records, old Gurgaon reg-
isters a bigger number of coincidental passings because of the unfortunate state of streets. The circumstance
has acquired because of the absence of speed-breakers, potholed streets, unfortunate sewerage, non-utilitarian
streetlamps and traffic lights and poorly planned streets.

The improvement of Gurugram has an undeniable result in the absence of variety in the city. “Most children
who I went to class with were either children of landowners, financial specialists, or corporate leaders,” says
Singh. According to the city, she, is extremely divided.

The new Golf Course Road has a portion of Gurugram’s most costly extravagance properties. That piece of Gu-
rugram is home to the DLF trifecta of the Ara-
lias, Magnolias, and Camellias — three town-
houses with architect insides, attendant services,
club houses, and admittance to the fairway. And
afterward there is old Gurugram. “A few pieces
of Gurugram look practically country. Others
are essentially clones of Singapore or Dubai,” she
says.
Gurugram is not a walkable city, and has very
limited public transport connectivity for the
masses. While it is connected to Delhi by the
Metro, and its own Rapid Metro is meant for
movement within the city, its scope is limited. A
car is almost a necessity for even short distances.

Thousands of blue collar workers—guards, gardeners, domestic helpers, janitors, construction workers—all
live in the unorganized and hidden slums of Gurugram. While Gurugram cannot move without them, they
rarely are a policy focus in the city.

It is also attractive as an antidote to the “old memory of an earlier middle class, tired of socialist rule and Delhi’s
sarkariness,” says Srivastava of urbz. “As a private-sector dominated space, Gurugram is a futuristic site. It can
be the backdrop of a dystopian fiction 20 years from now. Ugliness and harsh aspirations sit over there,” he says.