As residents of Jai Bhim Nagar (JBN) – a settlement of 650 families in Powai that was illegally demolished on June 6, 2024 in the interest of Mumbai’s top builder, Hiranandani – recently watched Anand Patwardhan’s documentary Bambai: Humara Sheher at *Sabki Library, they kept turning to each other in shock, repeating, “Hi aamchi katha aahe.” (This is our life story.) One of them asked, “Ee cinema kab ka hai bhaiya?” (When was this film made?) and responded with horror to how the state brutalises the urban poor everywhere, in ways that resonate with their own helplessness.The residents could identify the various agents – the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), local politicians, the police, builder Hiranandani, etc. – in their story and reflected on the systemic suppression and erasure of the interests of the urban poor despite the city’s tall promise of providing a secure life.Echoing poet and artist Vilas Ghogre’s incisive words, “Ye kaisa raj hai bhai?” (What kind of raj is this, brother?) from his song Katha Suno Re Logo featured in Patwardhan’s documentary, the residents themselves gave this phenomenon its name: Builder Raj.The poem ‘Builder Raj ki Kahaani’ by Sabki Library volunteer Arpit Rai attempts to capture the Builder Raj phenomenon.The story of Builder Raj is a story of the triumph of an anti-people governing paradigm that operates in the interest of the new ‘zamindars’ who emerged under neoliberalism and its project of accumulation by dispossession. Yet a turn to poetry alone is not enough to sketch the cruelty of the anti-democratic and neo-feudal foundations of Builder Raj.That cruelty becomes apparent only by examining the complex collaborations that envelop Builder Raj, of which JBN is a telling case. “Jai Bhim Nagar Against Builder Raj”, a report published in February 2025 by Collective Mumbai documents the ordeal of its people and their struggle against this collaboration between anti-democratic forces. After staging a sustained struggle against Hiranandani for 14 months, by occupying the footpaths near their former homes, JBN residents were declared “encroachers” by the Bombay High Court and evicted by the BMC.One resident, Mintu Mandal, currently living on the 90-foot road, said, “Idhar toh construction ka kaam chalu ho gaya hai, mall banne wala hai – aur hum abhi tak road pe baithe hain.” (Construction has already started here, a mall is going to be built, and we are still sitting on the road.) No doubt the contract for its construction will go to some construction giant – yet another collaboration between the agents of Builder Raj, ruling the political life of JBN’s working-class residents for years.The political facet of Builder RajThrough the demolition, political stakeholders, including Hiranandani builders, the local authorities and political parties (nourished by corporate interests) executed a strategy to fracture people’s capacity to fight for their homes by preventing them from uniting.Namit Keni, son of Bharatiya Janata Party ex-corporator Ranjana Keni, played an instrumental role in this by submitting a complaint on November 8, 2023, to the Maharashtra State Human Rights Commission (SHRC), urging the demolition of JBN on the ground that their presence violated the “human rights” of those who lived in the buildings of the upmarket Hiranandani Gardens. The SHRC even issued a demolition order that it later redacted during legal proceedings in the Bombay High Court.Screenshot of SHRC, Maharashtra complaint filed by Namit Keni alleging human rights violation by the presence of the slum.According to the Collective Mumbai report, Dilip Bhausaheb Lande, popularly known as ‘Mama Lande’, a Shiv Sena legislator, was among the “prime advocates” of the demolition. “In May 2023, he wrote to the then [Municipal Commissioner of Mumbai] Iqbal Chahal to demolish the Jai Bhim Nagar basti on grounds that the land is reserved for government housing. There is however, no mention of rehabilitation for the current residents,” the report says.Shiv Sena leader and Member of Legislative Assembly, Maharashtra, Dilip ‘Mama’ Lande’s letter to the Municipal Commissioner, dated May 29, 2023.Despite such service to big money at the expense of urban poor, who consider him responsible for their homelessness and the atrocities they faced, Dilip Lande could secure a second term in power.A monk residing at JBN’s Buddha Vihar, whom the residents call Bhante-ji (a revered position in the Buddhist tradition) often oversaw meetings of JBN residents and advised them on dealing with the impending demolition of their homes. In 2023, when the residents were handed a second eviction notice, Bhante-ji encouraged them to stay put and oppose the demolition.Later, however, he switched to persuading them to vacate the basti, saying it did not belong to them. One resident, Sushila Tai, recounts, “Bhante-ji ne pehle hume sahara diya phir palat gaye. Kehte hain tum log ka zameen nahi hai, chale jao. Kidhar jayen? Wo bhi Hiranandani ke saath mil gaye hain, hamare haal par chhod diya.” (Bhante-ji first supported us, then turned away. He says the land isn’t ours, so we should leave. Where are we supposed to go? He has joined forces with Hiranandani and left us to our fate.)After the demolition, still more forces played politically significant roles, revealing the contestations within which the lives of the urban poor are trapped. Prakash Ambedkar, founder of the political party, Vanchit Bahujan Aaghadi (VBA), visited JBN and organised a public gathering outside the settlement.As Maqtoob Media reported soon after the demolition, “Others [in JBN] point fingers at Prakash Ambedkar, who allegedly diverted protesters from their homes. ‘While we were protesting inside the colony, Ambedkar called us out to protest outside. That’s when Hiranandani bouncers, along with the police, stormed into our houses and smashed our belongings,’ [local resident Ram Janam] Chauhan added.”Several politicians, including Congress Member of Parliament Varsha Gaikwad, who claims to represent marginalised communities, participated in relief work during the initial days after the demolition. However, JBN’s evicted residents say that relief was discontinued even as their needs escalated and they repeatedly sought intervention to no avail.Other local leaders exploited residents’ vulnerability, collecting money under the pretext of securing legal aid, but then abandoning them. One young resident of JBN, Shiv Sagar, says, “Sab koi apna-apna kaam nikalne aata hai humare paas. Varsha tai pehle pani bhejti thi, thodi madad hui, par hum 90-foot pe rehne walon ko pani nahi milta. Hum bhi puchne gaye the, lekin phir kuch hua nahi. Alag-alag party ka log aate hain, humse hi paisa maangte hain, case ladenge keh ke. Ab aur koi rasta bhi samajh nahi aata. Ladne ke liye road pe baithe hain, lekin nihatte.”Everyone comes to us only to serve their own purpose. Varsha tai used to send water earlier, which helped a little, but we, living on the 90-foot road, don’t get any water. We even went to ask, but nothing happened. People from different parties come and ask us for money, saying they will fight our case. Now we don’t see any other way. We’re sitting on the road to fight, but we’re disarmed.In one instance, a member of the organisation Yuva Bhim Sena, a social service and charitable trust that operates in different parts of Mumbai, approached residents with offers of support, including legal aid. With no alternatives, residents relied on them and even raised funds, often by incurring debt, only to be left stranded, no tangible action taken.The migrant labourers of JBN find themselves in a particularly vulnerable condition. Their defenselessness is testified by the fact that they have limited access to political representatives as well as community support systems they had in their native locations, in the form of jati (caste) solidarity or other social formations. In such conditions, the horizon of their political subjectivity is narrowed: they have none or very little access to the political society that determines their negotiating capacity, particularly when it comes to securing urban citizenship rights. Nothing but their vulnerability forces them to rely on anyone who offers any support.However, even such support as they got barely survived. Several NGOs were interested in supporting them in the earlier days, but they withdrew gradually. One NGO that distributed food packages for a brief time confidentially conveyed to them that they were under pressure from “big builders and their associates” to withdraw the support.Arial view of the expansive high-rises in Powai that surround the tiny area on the footpath where Jai Bhim Nagar residents were forced to live, until they were forcibly vacated.Congress party’s former legislator Naseem Khan, who was connected to JBN before the demolition and had mobilised a committed support base in the area, secured bail for several residents arrested on the day of the demolition. Over the following year, however, residents became aware of the cost of this assistance: they were repeatedly required to attend rallies and events at an hour’s notice, forcing them to forgo work.More significantly, they were pushed into taking a back seat in their own struggle for justice and urban citizenship rights. Key decisions were taken without them, including the failure to file a civil suit and the sidelining of rehabilitation as a central demand. Instead, the 16 months of legal action focused narrowly on the criminal aspects of the illegal demolition of their homes. This has yet to result in concrete action against those responsible, while the protesters have already faced the brunt of the action. They have also been removed from the footpaths near their demolished homes.One long-time contact from the basti, who wishes to remain anonymous, says, “Naseem-ji ne humari bohot madad ki. Unhone hi sabko jail se chhudaya. Mere bete ko bhi police le gayi thi, usko bhi nikala. Hum mante hain ki wo hamare liye aage aaye, case bhi uthaya. SIT jo baithaye, wo bas bulata rehta tha humko, lekin sirf ghar todne aur police ki baat hoti thi. Humara 8 saal purana civil case bhi chal raha hai, lekin usko aage nahi badhaya. Kuch samajh nahi aata. Hume zyada batate bhi nahi. Kidhar jayenge hum log, aise hi road pe kaise aur kab tak baithe rahenge?”Naseem-ji helped us a great deal. He was the one who got everyone released from jail. The police had taken my son as well, and he got him released too. We acknowledge that he stepped forward for us and even took up the case. The SIT [Special Investigative Team} that was formed keeps calling us, but it only talks about the demolition of our homes and the police action. Our civil case, which is eight years old, is still going on, but it hasn’t moved forward. Nothing really makes sense to us. They don’t explain much to us either. Where will we go? How long can we keep sitting on the road like this, and for how long?In whose interest is help extended, anyway?Life in Jai Bhim Nagar, Powai, Mumbai, after the demolition (R) and during the construction of a new site of ‘luxurious living’ (L). Photo: Tejaswin AnoopkumarPolitical life under Builder Raj reveals how urban space is organised under neoliberal capitalism, where institutions and government bodies operate in concert to secure what is treated as supreme in the city – the interest of the builder. In defending this interest, political processes assume exploitative forms that shape the everyday lives of the urban poor. In the case of JBN, multiple political parties not only failed to recognise residents’ will to fight – demonstrated by their 16-month occupation of the footpath after the demolition – but actively stripped them of the means to wage a decisive struggle against Builder Raj.Without a decisive struggle by working class people for housing rights, the logic of persistent exploitation by Builder Raj will remain unchallenged. Until then, even after facing demolition, they would be forced to scramble to find a place to live in Powai and continue to reproduce the smooth functioning of ‘luxurious living’ for all – except themselves.Such reproduction of a luxurious life is part of the regime of ‘rule by aesthetics’ – a formulation of D. Asher Ghertner’s that exposes a turn to world-class aesthetic norms in city-making – the kind that prefers to add a mall to the already posh Hiranandani Gardens area, from which the working people to not only banish the working classes from there but also exact brutal violence on them and violate their urban citizenship rights.The struggle on the question of housing, however, opens the opportunity to challenge such regime making in favour of more equitable cities. The responsibility to seize those opportunities, the case of Jai Bhim Nagar tells us, lies as much in the hands of working people – by achieving a political unity among themselves, as it is about public scrutiny of the political stakeholders who enable Builder Raj. The combined efforts of both can sketch a struggle against Builder Raj in our cities, both in poetry and politics.Tejaswin Anoopkumar is a law student at Dr B.R. Ambedkar College, Wadala, and is associated with Jai Bhim Nagar Bachav Samiti.*Sabki Library was a space set up at the footpath where residents of Jai Bhim Nagar staged their protest against their eviction and the demolition of their homes for more than a year. It was demolished along with the tents of the residents of Jai Bhim Nagar in August 2025, after being labelled an encroachment. The library, set up in collaboration with the student-youth community of Mumbai and the residents who lost their homes, was an initiative in solidarity. It served as a meeting space where regular discussions and screenings took place along with educational and cultural activities with the children.