Beyond the Lal Dora - A one day conference by the Dilli Dehat Project.

Beyond the Lal Dora: Land, Legitimacy & the Vanishing Commons in Delhi’s Urban Villages What happens when the city expands over villages that have existed for generations? The Dilli Dehat Project, founded by Puneet Singhal along with co-founders S Parth and Gagandeep Singh, organised a one-day conference at the India International Centre, bringing together architects, lawyers, researchers and community voices to discuss the changing landscape of Delhi’s villages. Anchored by Rajwardhan Singh, the conference explored what is being lost as Delhi expands and prepares for a new phase of development following the unveiling of the latest Master Plan. Opening the conference, Dhruv Yadav of the Dilli Dehat Project posed a question familiar to every Delhi villager: “Where are you from? We say Delhi. But before that, where?” He reflected on how Lal Dora was never merely a revenue line on a map — for villagers, it represents home, history and belonging. He also pointed out that the very venue of the conference, the India International Centre, stands on the historic land of Khairpur village — a reminder that Delhi’s villages exist beneath the city we see today. SESSION I: Land & Legitimacy in the Urban Village The first session examined how Lal Dora exemptions and successive Master Plans have created competing claims over the same land, and questioned whether informality is a failure of planning or, instead, a means of survival. The discussion also explored what Delhi’s recent calamities reveal about the consequences of planning, land-use change and the gradual disappearance of the village landscape. SESSION I PANELISTS K. T. Ravindran Architect, urban designer and academician with over five decades of experience in shaping cities, urban environments and heritage landscapes. Advocate Naveen R. Nath Senior Advocate with nearly three decades of experience before the Constitutional Courts, with extensive work on legal issues concerning Delhi’s villages. Dr. Mallika Chaudhuri Researcher and Editorial Associate at the Institute of Economic Growth, whose work explores displacement, mobility and urban transformation in Delhi’s villages. The Dilli Dehat Project works to document and archive the rural histories, ecologies, traditions and everyday life of Delhi’s villages, while advocating for policy and administrative reforms that recognise their distinct history and contemporary needs. Watch the full discussion to explore the history, struggles and future of Delhi’s urban villages. #DilliDehatProject #DelhiVillages #LalDora #Delhi #UrbanVillages #DelhiMasterPlan #LandRights #DelhiHeritage #VanishingCommons