At the time I write this article, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project (DRP) has never been so tangible. The government of Maharashtra and Adani’s conglomerate released their plan, residents have been interviewed, parcels across the city have been bought for relocation. This article follows another one, setting the stage and presenting Haussmann’s project to transform Paris during the 19th century. The aim of this short piece is to provide context for the DRP, and see that we’ve been through almost 200 years of history of speculative, large-scale urban transformation, and that arguments haven’t changed much (this is actually quite the opposite).

I support the argument that urban megaprojects follow a logic of speculative urbanism, referring to the process by which urban space is transformed not merely for functional or social improvement, but as a site of investment strategy. This concept foregrounds the role of financial capital, state power, and specific forms (and symbols) of urban transformation. Both the Dharavi Redevelopment Project in Mumbai and the transformation of Paris under Georges-Eugène Haussmann and Napoleon III exemplify speculative urbanism, albeit in different historical and geographical contexts. Each project mobilizes urban space as a speculative asset, leveraging state authority and private capital to reimagine the city in ways that serve elite interests, often at the expense of existing communities.

Despite the temporal and cultural distance between 19th-century Paris and contemporary Mumbai, the Haussmannization of Paris and the Dharavi Redevelopment Project share striking similarities. Both initiatives are characterized by large-scale interventions that seek to radically reshape the urban fabric. In each case, the projects are justified through discourses of modernization, hygiene, and public order, but are fundamentally driven by speculative logics: the anticipation of increased land values, the attraction of private investment, and the creation of urban environments tailored to the needs and desires of the capitalist elite. The projects also rely on the exercise of top-down political power, with state authorities orchestrating expropriation and demolition in the name of progress.

Maps of Paris during the 17th century – Musée des Archives Nationales, Paris

Hygienism — the invocation of public health and sanitation as a rationale for urban transformation — serves as a powerful tool of speculation in both Paris and Mumbai. In 19th-century Paris, Haussmann’s boulevards and sewer systems were justified as necessary interventions to combat disease and overcrowding, yet they also facilitated the clearance of working-class neighborhoods and the creation of new, profitable real estate. Similarly, the Dharavi Redevelopment Project is framed as a response to the “unhygienic” conditions of the « slum area », legitimizing the displacement of residents and the construction of high-value commercial and residential developments. In both cases, hygienism operates as a form of moral speculation, transforming the city under the guise of health while enabling the capitalization of urban land.

Central to both projects is the exercise of top-down political power, manifest in the processes of expropriation and creative destruction. Haussmann, empowered by Napoleon III, wielded extraordinary authority to demolish entire neighborhoods, displacing thousands in order to realize his vision of a modern Paris. This process of creative destruction — the concept of David Harvey, destroying the old to make way for the new — was justified by appeals to public interest but served the interests of property owners and investors. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project similarly involves the expropriation of land and the displacement of long-standing communities, with the state acting as both facilitator and beneficiary of speculative redevelopment. In both cases, the violence of urban transformation is obscured by narratives of progress and modernization.

A defining feature of both Haussmann’s Paris and the proposed redevelopment of Dharavi is the imposition of a modern urban aesthetic designed to attract and please the capitalist elite. Haussmann’s wide boulevards, uniform façades, and monumental public spaces were intended to signal Paris’s status as a global capital of commerce and culture, while also facilitating the circulation of goods, people, and capital. The Dharavi project similarly envisions a sanitized, orderly, and visually appealing urban environment, one that can attract investment and integrate Mumbai more fully into global circuits of capital (take Dubai as a model). Aesthetic transformation is inseparable from economic speculation, as the visual order of the city becomes a means of producing and capturing value.

AI-generated image of 'a projection of Paris in the 21st century if Haussmann wouldn't have implemented his project'

The creation of large, straight streets is emblematic of both projects. Haussmann’s boulevards not only improved circulation of goods and people (at the metropolitan scale, but also at the national and international level by connecting railway stations for example) but also increased the value of adjacent properties, enabling speculative investment and development. The Dharavi Redevelopment Project similarly proposes the insertion of wide roads and new infrastructure, facilitating access for capital and signaling the transformation of the area from informal settlement to formal, investable space. In both contexts, the straightening and widening of streets is a spatial strategy for enabling and accelerating speculative urbanism.

Both Haussmann’s Paris and the Dharavi Redevelopment Project are predicated on the mobilization of private capital, either through public-private partnerships or simply through loans and credits. In Paris, the transformation was financed through a combination of state funds, public credits and private investment, with banks and developers playing a central role in the redevelopment process. The Dharavi project similarly depends on public-private partnerships, with developers incentivized by the promise of lucrative returns on investment. In both cases, the city becomes a site of financial speculation, with urban transformation driven by the logic of capital accumulation.

Finally, in both cases, a narrative of radical break is sold to support the implementation of the project. In Paris, it aimed to legitimize Napoleon III’s power and erasing the revolutionary sentiment, in Dharavi, erasing completely it’s spatial and social representation. In short, and in both cases, deleting urban fabric and replacing it with a narrative of modernization to enhance speculative activities.

Critics of Haussmann in the 19th century, including writers like Victor Hugo and Charles Baudelaire, condemned the social and spatial violence of his interventions. They decried the displacement of the poor, the destruction of historic neighborhoods, and the transformation of Paris into a city for the wealthy. But, first and foremost, they condemned the total eradication of the Parisian urban fabric. These critics argued that Haussmannization prioritized profit and spectacle over social justice and community. The critique centered on the loss of social fabric, the commodification of urban space, and the exclusion of marginalized populations from the benefits of modernization.

AI-generated image of 'a projection of Dharavi if it would develop incrementally'

Just like urbz is opposed to the current form of the DRP, it would also have been really critical of Haussmann’s vision and project. The critiques leveled against Haussmann remain profoundly relevant in the context of contemporary speculative urbanism, as exemplified by the Dharavi Redevelopment Project. The displacement of vulnerable communities, the prioritization of elite interests, and the transformation of urban space into a site of speculation and profit are enduring features of capitalist urbanization. The language of hygiene, order, and modernization continues to legitimize the expropriation and marginalization of the urban poor – a phenomenon that Shripad Sinnakaar, a Dharavi-born poet, calls ‘politics of dirtification.’ As such, the lessons of 19th-century Paris are instructive for understanding and contesting the dynamics of urban transformation in the 21st century, highlighting the need for more inclusive, equitable, and democratic approaches to city-making.