ABSTRACT
This chapter explains magic represents the 'constitutive outside' of modernity, excluded as a pre-modern remnant yet subtly shaping it and even haunting it from without. It looks at a slum re-development scheme in contemporary Delhi in order to argue that slums are both part of this synchronic capitalist world but form a boundary line of intelligibility where economic appearances become altered and change in interesting and unexpected ways. Today the slum is surrounded by postcolonial Delhi's sprawling settlements for miles in every direction. And while the city grew around it, other slum settlements came up in and around Shadipur, as the slum neighborhood itself grew manifold. While many neighborhoods are suddenly and remorselessly removed without warning, many other slums manage to survive in a precarious urban temporality, like Kathputli Colony (KC). KC is a decidedly magical place. It is populated with performance artists whose trade involves artistry and charisma, illusion and deception, pathos and drama.
