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Slums of Hope or Despair: Brief comparison between developed countries and undeveloped. Slum conditions are dire. However, they inspire a sense of community that seems unparalleled anywhere else. They do their washing together in groups (albeit in disease invested water), and sleep in the same room often talking till late into the night (albeit crammed in like sardines). Three generations often live in the same dwelling, and have real bonds between them. This was the same with our own country in the early 1900’s. It wasn’t as extreme, as we had a lower population than India or Kenya have, but families did live near each other, often on the same street, or at least in the same district. Post world-war two, however, we had a massive housing crisis that needed to be solved; many parts of London and indeed northern industrial cities were destroyed in the blitz. Our government decided to build quickly, without much thought. New towns such as Harlow, and Milton Keynes sprang up to house the homeless in prefabricated tower blocks and poorly designed estates. As the Smithson’s 27
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proved in the 1950’s, the ‘streets in the sky’ philosophy, or more like fantasy, did not work very well. They tried to prove that communities could exist in tower blocks, and 50 years later, their building has demands for its destruction. This idea of tower block living seems to have killed off a lot of community spirit in the UK. Years ago, we would rely on our neighbours for things to borrow, rely on our colleagues at work, see each other in town regularly, do our washing together etc. As technology gets better, we have less need to rely on other people. We all have our own washing machines, we work from home, and we shop for our clothes and even groceries on the internet. With Plans for Mumbai seem scarily similar what the UK Government planned 60 years ago and with the advent of technology appearing earlier in the Indian industrial revolution, it seems that India too, may turn into a closed-door society.
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