Introduction

Many people’s positions and perspectives conflate the idea of planning with governance, even as different kinds of plans shape our cities. This book tracks some of the plans made around the “neighborhood unit,” an American planning concept that became the prototypical model for designing residential neighborhoods in independent India. Offering a story about how plan-making works in different ways, I explain how a divergent range of plan-makers interpreted and adapted this design idea in line with their practical needs and cultural preferences. In order to distinguish between the various efforts, I use the terms “spatial plan” and “spatial planning” to describe purposeful future-oriented efforts that various actors (individuals, households, communities) make to anticipate and improve existing urban conditions. ¹ In contrast, I use the terms “urban plan” and “urban planning” to refer to the formal plans prepared by professionals as technical advice, which include regulation and investment decisions for governance by public and corporate agencies.