Leadership, Legitimacy and Community: Representing a Heterogenous, Urban Informal Settlement in New Delhi, India.

This article examines power dynamics and leadership transformations within Kathputli Colony (KC), an informal settlement in New Delhi undergoing in-situ slum rehabilitation. Using Pierre Bourdieu's framework of class formation, it highlights how symbolic capital initially concentrated leadership among artisan groups represented by the Bhule Bisre Kalakaar Samity (BBKS), but was later challenged by an emerging, educated youth leadership representing a more heterogeneous community. The study, based on ethnographic research with displaced residents now living in transit camps at Anand Parbat and Narela, reveals multiple, competing leadership nodes shaped by intra-settlement social divisions, patronage relations, and interactions with state and civil society actors. These findings problematize uniform approaches to urban planning and suggest that informal settlements are fractured social spaces where leadership and representation are continuously renegotiated amid pressures from both grassroots constituencies and formal authorities.