Spatial Planning in India: A Preliminary Classification of Existing Models

This Master Thesis contributes to comparative spatial planning studies, exploring the different territorial governance and planning systems across India’s states and Union Territories, and classifying according to the differential capacity to control spatial development that they grant to the public authority. The scarcity and fragmentation of the studies that compare spatial governance and planning in the global south constitute a significant gap in understanding the ‘institutional technologies’ allowing and organizing this fundamental societal activity beyond the European context. Aiming at contributing to this field of study, this research builds on the theoretical and conceptual framework adopted by the ESPON COMPASS research project to propose and Indian typology on the capacity of public authorities to control spatial development, an important part for the life of entire cities, regions and states within India. The comparative framework draws extensively from European spatial planning typologies while adapting analytical dimensions to address India's unique federal structure and diverse regional contexts. The research methodology employed a systematic qualitative approach combining secondary data analysis from government reports, academic literature, and official documents with primary research through semi-structured interviews. This methodological approach enables a comprehensive assessment of planning frameworks at multiple governance levels, from national policies to local implementation mechanisms. The research reveals that India’s spatial planning landscape has a noticeable heterogeneity within a framework that is influenced by its geographic, socio-economic, cultural and historical factors. The 74th Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992 emerges as a legislation that helps shape diverse planning systems through the distribution of powers to local bodies, yet the implementation varies across regions. The evidence emerging from the analysis allows for the classification of the various States and Union’s Territories that compose the country into distinct types of spatial governance and planning systems. More in detail, the different regional systems are classified according to the differential power relations linking the state and the market in the definition of development decisions, as well as to the models chosen to distribute land use and transformation rights. A prevalence of conformative rather than performative planning can be observed throughout the country, while the northeastern states have been setting up distinctive performative practices conditioned by traditional land tenure systems and tribal systems of governance. At the same time, the study shows that, while public participation mechanisms exist across the systems, actual citizen involvement remains largely limited to consultation rather than shared decision-making.