Post-Colonial Developmentalities: From the Delhi Improvement Trust to the Delhi Development Authority* Chapter 10 Stephen Legg INTRODUCTION n the Twentieth century Delhi was wrought into concurrent show- case spaces for the interlinked projects of colonialism and develop- ment. The construction of New Delhi (1911–31) and the ‘improve- ment’ of Old Delhi (1937–47) sought a material representation of a viable colonial modernity. The 1950s–60s saw attempts to order and develop post-Partition migration settlements into rational, healthy and productive urban forms. While colonialism and development represent largely distinct historical and geographical projects, they can be seen to have continuous rationalities if viewed as particular forms of government. The urban sphere, inseparable as it is from the con- tinuities of the material environment and of lived memory, is especially well suited for examining the (dis)continuities of the colonial period. Colonial modernism did seek progress and change within the native territories it acquired. However, as Pieterse and Parekh (1995: 2) have argued, this project was largely centred on maintaining rule rather than civilizing the ‘natives’. As Partha Chatterjee (2004) has recently argued, the norms of civil society were extended only to the urban I * My thanks to the editors for the inclusion of this chapter, which was written during an ESRC post-doctoral fellowship taken as part of a Junior Research Fellowship at Homerton College, Cambridge. Many thanks to Philip Howell, Emma Mawdsley and Bhaskar Vira for their help and to Alison Blunt, Richard Harris and Sarah Hodges for their careful reading of earlier drafts. All mistakes are, of course, my own.