In Delhi, as in other metropolises of the global south, processes such as evictions of previously accepted settlements; enclosure or privatization of public or
commonable land; the aggregation of urban land in periurban fringes, sometimes through violent means, and its incorporation into formal property markets; and the use of state force to clear land for private development undermine the possibilities of the continuation of peripheral urbanization.
Thompson cites examples of witnesses who insisted that when the lands "become
commonable," it "had a most prejudicial effect on the morals of the people." (17) Employing this specious rationale, parliament granted advantageous settlements to the Leicester Corporation and others to prevent riots.
An Act for Dividing, Allotting, and Inclosing the Open Common Fields, Common Meadows, Common Pastures, and other
Commonable and Waste Lands and Grounds, within the Hamlet or Township of Longcot, in the Parish of Shrivenham, in the County of Berks, 1796.