ABSTRACT
This chapter mobilises the parallax effect springs from different analytical perspectives and multidisciplinary focuses to study Dharavi. It presents the different proposals on praxis of space, that emerged from discussion between two researchers. Narratives of the migrant generation who settled in Dharavi for work a few decades ago contrast in various ways to those of youngsters who were born in or settled in Dharavi recently. The confrontations reveal different practices accumulated through waves of transformations in Dharavi’s space and in its socio-political context. Dharavi has this specificity of presenting a highly dense, diverse, complex space composed of various layers of migrant communities who have been arriving since early 1940s. Initially a fishermen’s village, it started attracting other migrants who began occupying the vacant lots and expanding them with makeshift dwellings. Dwelling patterns as well as the development of infrastructures and housing schemes are the engine of change since the 1980s, and redevelopment plan has had a strong impact since 2004.
