Josiah H. Brown recently traveled to India, where his wife grew up, and returned with these reflections on the New Delhi metropolitan region – from the urban economy and environment to social inequalities and history.
My wife (Sahar Usmani-Brown), who became a U.S. citizen this year, grew up in New Delhi, where her parents continue to live. I recently traveled there for the fourth time in the past dozen years – my first trip to India since an April 2014 visit that occasioned “Notes on a Nation of 1.2 Billion.” With that population now estimated at 1.25 billion, some impressions follow in this latest installment of an urban travelogue.
Our last trip came during the 2014 Indian national elections, which brought Prime Minister Narendra Modi (formerly leader of the state of Gujarat) and his BJP to power. Since then, Arvind Kejriwal of a rival reform party (AAP) has been elected in New Delhi. As the newspapers reported during our stay, the Delhi and national governments are often at odds over how to address challenges from the economy to the environment. (1)