One way to make sense of the shocking roof collapse at Terminal 1 of New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International airport, or the monsoon flooding and road cave-ins in and around areas of the hastily-inaugurated Ram Mandir in Ayodhya, is to inquire into the idea of development that has taken root in India, broadly since liberalisation in 1991 and more particularly over the last 10 years that the BJP has been in power at the Centre. Given the political investments in the temple project, or the high visibility of the airport and the class of people who get hurt or inconvenienced, events like these hit the headlines. They bring attention to shoddy and hastily-designed development plans, which is good. But they equally distract attention from a host of development-led disasters that have been unfolding, slowly and quite unspectacularly, delivering disastrous changes in slow motion. These changes mostly go unnoticed because they appear so routine, so disconnected from each other and come across as so unspectacular.

For example, in Mumbai, the rush of gated community constructions has inevitably brought flooding in areas surrounding the new and high-priced apartments in these complexes, many built by influential and well-connected builder groups. The flood waters inevitably bring discomfort if not harm to those who have not moved out of their humbler dwellings, usually families with lesser means, so that there is a slow change in the character of bustling neighbourhoods, bringing with it growing and uneven suffering, changing aspirations and rising social inequities and tensions. The drama unfolds in bits and pieces. Some people die as pedestrians or motorists when trees........

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