Kathputli Colony is a colony of

street performer Street performance or busking is the act of performing in public places for gratuities. In many countries, the rewards are generally in the form of money but other gratuities such as food, drink or gifts may be given. Street performance is pr ...

s in

Shadipur Depot Shadipur Depot is a residential and industrial area in West Delhi, named after nearby Shadipur settlement. This is also a depot for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC). It is also known for the 'Baljit Nagar', were in Kathputli Colony, puppet ...

area of

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

. For the last 50 years, it is home to some 2,800 families of magicians, snake charmers, acrobats, singers, dancers, actors, traditional healers and musicians and especially puppeteers or kathputli-performers from

Rajasthan Rajasthan (; lit. 'Land of Kings') is a state in northern India. It covers or 10.4 per cent of India's total geographical area. It is the largest Indian state by area and the seventh largest by population. It is on India's northwestern si ...

. This makes it world’s largest community of street performers. The colony is undergoing an in situ redevelopment plan by Delhi Development Authority (DDA) of Government of Delhi.

Etymology

The name Kathputli Colony comes from

Hindi language Hindi (Devanāgarī: or , ), or more precisely Modern Standard Hindi (Devanagari: ), is an Indo-Aryan language spoken chiefly in the Hindi Belt region encompassing parts of northern, central, eastern, and western India. Hindi has been de ...

word for puppet, Kathputli.

History

The colony started in the 1950s, as a cluster of makeshift tents in an open field on the outskirts of Delhi, set up by itinerant puppeteers from Rajasthan, which gave the colony its name. In the coming decades street performers of Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra also moved in. Today, it is prime real estate area surrounded by

Mayapuri Mayapuri is an industrial locality in West Delhi. It used to be a major hub of heavy metal and small scale industries, but following recent government sanctions, most of the heavy metal industries moved out. The place is now a combination of r ...

and

Naraina Naraina Village is a village in New Delhi of India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democr ...

Redevelopment plan

In 2010, Government of Delhi initiated the redevelopment project of the colony on a public-private partnership basis. The contract was granted to Raheja Developers. As per the plan, 2800 flats will be built in 10-story buildings on the 5.2 hectares, apart from that a portion of the land will be given to the developer to construct its own commercial and residential buildings. Amid protests by residents and controversy, in early 2014, ahead of the 1 April 2014 deadline, some of the 2,754 families started shifting to transit camps built at Anand Parbat area 2 km away by the developer Rahejas. They are expected to stay here for the next two years, while the site undergoes construction.

References

Bibliography

External links

Kathputli Colony, DDA Rehabilitation website

Kathputli Colony, photo documentary of the slum of Delhi artists
* {{Coord, 28.655, N, 77.152, E, display=title Puppetry in India Street performance Neighbourhoods in Delhi West Delhi district Culture of Delhi