ANARCHYTECT: pen

Sunday, October 25, 2009

pen

got back from the third year study trip yesterday. pen. just across the harbor from the city. not that far, just off the mumbai-goa highway and the scene of some of the most atrocious land grabs by india shining. between the highway and the coastline is a land of incredible fertility. flat rich soil that has been reclaimed form the sea by the ancestors of the agri community. this is a fact that is reiterated by almost everyone we met over the two days that i was there. they are very proud of this part of their history as they are about the agitation for land that they carried out in the 1930’s for land reform, by not tilling the land for 7 years straight. they won that war; and now they hope ot win this one. on the road to the coast that runs through paddy fields as far as the eye can sea we saw a board that advertises ‘arrow city/ manhattan’ which i assume is aprt of the sez being planned for that area by reliance – maha mumbai. the war is against this- and it seems well organized, articulate and firm about its position. there are books of poems written against the sez which are to be sung by to tunes of popular hindi and marathi songs, a booklet on the culture of the agri community, posters that tell the farmers of what future waits fro them if they do sell their farms to the sez. there are even ideas regarding what other possibilities can be there for development within the area. these include aquaculture and organic farming. every house has a pond to the rear where fish breed; one farmer has a prawn farm which makes him tons of money. why in the world would they want to sell out? it seems that the state has done everything within their power to stifle the farmers in the area. a pipeline that was to bring water to the area so that they could have a second crop has been stopped. abandoned pipes lie across the landscape. maharashtra is the only state, it seems, where industry gets preference over agriculture for water supply. every corner and at every house we were asked about our business there. the kids are studying families from different classes, their homes and the institutional networks that they access. the idea is to examine what role architecture can perform in this context- besides the most obvious one- colluding with the sez plans for it parks. it might be another matter that we lived in a fancy hotel on the highway with a swimming pool.