(Part 2) Batman's Gotham City – Learning for India’s Urban Governance

"Penguin is the Gentleman of crime. Manipulating public perception to elect him as the new mayor. Penguin, in other words, was a classic villain who police could not bring to justice."

In part 1 of this series, we covered the landscape of Gotham city, and how it has eerie landscape similarities to modern day cities like Mumbai or Delhi (leave alone New York, from which it took its core inspiration). What we cover in part 2 below; is crime, 'bahubalis' and the not-so-disconnected & persistent poverty of our urban slums. So, let's jump into it!

Crime, bahubaalis and electoral bonds

Crime in urban sprawls continues to be a challenging menace.

There are examples abound of such gentleman of crime who have taken over the political landscape of India, both in rural and urban conclaves. In such circumstances, the Batman for us are the civil society activists and often just citizens in general, who call out hate, crime and corruption and get caught up in the mess (just like Batman, get framed by the Penguins for the murder of the innocent Ice Princess). To take inspiration from Milan Vaishav, the author of When Crime Pays, who says how supporters of criminal politicians say that these politicians don't really carry out the murders themselves, but, ‘manage’ these murders (Srinath, 2018).

When the voters suffer this form of a Stockholm-syndrome, one has to probe further and double-click to realise that the primary reason such “bahubalis” win votes is not just their money and muscle power, but, in the absence of an administratively feasible effective policy, their vital ability to leverage their own strengths to provide basic urban utilities, facilities and safety to the voters. The structural policy-answers to this are currently in murky waters – starting with undoing the “electoral bond” legalization of infinite and anonymous donations - can be a good starting point for this exercise. This will not only ensure the rule of law, but, also more institutional inclusive safety net for the citizens in general.

Migrating into the poverty of the slums

The Narrows of Gotham city, as seen in Batman Begins, are an inspiration from the Kowloon Walled City of Hong Kong, and are a symbolism of how corruption has eaten the city to its core, with no literal and figurative breathing space that remains in its narrow alley-ways.

The allegory can be very much drawn with the Dharavi slums of Mumbai or the region of Talkatora and Munirka in Delhi. Or as Diedre Mask (Mask, 2020) puts it succinctly in her book The Address Book (What Street addresses reveal about identity, race, wealth and power), on how the residents of the Chetla slums of Kolkata (which has 13 people living per 450 sq.ft) have been suffering for the lack of “formal addresses” of their settlements. This leads to lack of access to bank accounts, loans, pensions and even an Aadhar card - in essence, their identity and existence itself is under question.

If there is a single-minded focus that policy-makers can have in these “bastees” and slums, it is to provide them street addresses and house numbers, which boost democracy quite dramatically, by letting them make Aadhar card, register as voters, get access to public utilities like water and electricity – in general, just have a more socio-economically equitable life. There was nothing more of a celebration of inclusivity, than for eg., when a Google initiated a partnership with the NGO Addressing the Unaddressed to help put their addresses and hence their identities on the global map! Just like Gotham, which has needed its Dr. Leslie Thompkins, to save the residents of Narrows from disappearing from the establishment’s periphery (Anon., 2023).

State capacity fails in such areas of high-densities in urban slums. If we have to prevent anarchist interventions like those of Gotham city residents like Riddler (Anon., 2023) for its slum-dwellers - our proposed public policy interventions should be classified somewhere between the realm of carrying out a nudge and or ?being a financier – to help the poor weather over their existential storms. “Just not doing anything”, in the fear of legitimizing “illegal” migrants, is no longer an option.

In the closing part 3 of this series, we look at the challenges of Urban planning and its accountability centers, and how economic opportunities can balance out the challenges in the urban landscape.

See you tomorrow!

References (for Part 2)

Anon., 2023. batman.fandom.com. [Online] Available at: https://batman.fandom.com/wiki/The_Narrows [Accessed 27 September 2023].

Batman Begins. 2005. [Film] Directed by Christopher Nolan. USA: Warner Bros.

Dark Knight. 2008. [Film] Directed by Christopher Nolan. USA: Warner Bros.

Mak, J. C., n.d. In Search for an Urban Dystopia - Gotham City. [Online] Available at: https://www.readkong.com/page/in-search-for-an-urban-dystopia-gotham-city-3256616 [Accessed 25 September 2023].

Mask, D., 2020. The Address Book (What Street Addresses Reveal about Identity, Race, Wealth and Power). s.l.:St. Martin's Publishing Group.

Reuters, 2020. Shooter at CAA Rally. [Art] (Reuters).

Srinath, P., 2018. Why Do We Elect Criminals? [Interview] (08 November 2018).