State, Space, and the Rhetoric of Development: Developments of the Political Economy of Mumbai city

A historical assessment of the Political economy of India, through imperialism and the brief period of colonialism, puts the Indian state and its development apparatus into perspective. Spatial formations that emerge out of an economic doctrine are better understood when thought of as abstractions rather than physical spaces. Yet, the state engages in a rhetoric of development that centres on administrative categories, often without attention to the logic of their formations. The state further creates a space from which it removes itself and leaves the ideological production to its other. This paper takes a historical overview of the political economy through a case study of the development of Bombay/Mumbai city from the 17th century till the period of liberalisation of the Indian economy in 1991. Through this overview, it aims to produce a picture of recurring logics of development that contain within them predefined movements for that which it subordinates. It argues that in the development of Mumbai through the periods of colonial power created a basis for regional development in Maharashtra, which the state had no way to reverse or affect. The study concludes that the discourse on regional development is rhetorical, in that it only exists to satisfy a desire for inquiry and is not given a political motive force to achieve what it elaborates.