High Modernism Analysis

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High modernism is a concept that has been used by many different countries of the global south to rapidly transform them into countries of the global north. Scott defined it as an “aspiration to the administrative ordering of nature and society.” (“Transforming Visions”, 88) The concepts of high modernism are reflected in events like villagization in Tanzania and collectivization in the Soviet Union (“Authoritarian High Modernism”, n.p.). Furthermore, high modernism is usually implemented by an authoritarian regime but examples like the construction of Brasilia in Brazil indicated that sometimes even democracies implement this concept (“High Modernist City”, 117). High Modernism believes in the rampant transformation of cities and in some cases, …show more content…
Aparna Phadke mentions that “The trajectory of global cities—London, New York and Tokyo—to their position at the apex of the new global urban hierarchy was considered (London) to be the example to follow for Mumbai’s transformation” (“Mumbai Metropolitan Region: Impact of Recent Urban Change on the Peri-urban Areas of Mumbai”, 2471) illustrating how features of high modernism had crept into Mumbai’s development. In this paper, I would like to evaluate 3 major high modernist infrastructure development projects in Mumbai. 2 of these projects are currently under development while one of them finished construction a few years ago. The central claim of this paper states that these high modernistic ideas are being implemented by democratic countries, which is highly unusual. Furthermore, these project projects are using the guise of rapid development to completely ignore the calamitous impact these projects are going to or have already had on the environment in …show more content…
It is the second longest over the water bridge in India and more than twice as long as the Brooklyn Bridge in New York City. This bridge connects the western suburbs of Mumbai to South Mumbai(downtown) and decreases the travel time by half. Furthermore, it is used by 45,000 to 55,000 vehicles every day (“As Toll Roads Face Fire, Bandra-Worli Sea Link Struggles for a Profit”, n.p.). The construction of this bridge was crucial for the government because the travel time between the suburb, where most the population lived and the offices which, were primarily located in South Mumbai was very long. This project can be considered as a high modernist because of many different aspects. However, the biggest reason why this project is considered as a high modernistic is because there was no public hearing conducted after the initial environmental impact assessment report. The Environmental Protection Act (EPA) clearly states “that a Public Hearing is mandatory in development projects such as the Bandra-Worli Sea Link” (“The Indian People’s Tribunal On Environment And Human Rights”, n.p.). The bridge’s construction disregarded the democratic process and important part of the constitution. This depicts that the projects were “decreed by the will of the states” (“Nature, High Modernism and Authoritarian States”, n.p.) and thus these projects were considered to be high modernist as the

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