ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses state spatial strategies that are constructing or redefining urban scales in India, with regard to economic and political activities, on the one hand, and to creating new state spaces, on the other. Building on arguments presented above, this chapter examines the modalities by which both the central state and regional States intervene in urban spaces, processes that have intensified since the 1990s. Indeed, after several decades of relative stability of its internal administrative arrangements, India is currently witnessing renewed interest for territorial reform, illustrated most remarkably by two constitutional amendments in the mid-1990s aimed at empowering local governments (rural and urban). Numerous other experiments are being carried out throughout the country, at various spatial scales. Contrasting examples of territorial reorganisation shall be examined here including one that involves the subdivision of municipal area and another that clubs together previously autonomous political units into one new territorial entity.
