Filtering Class through Space: Security Guards and Urban Territories in Delhi, India

Abstract

Security guards have become a fixture of a city like Delhi. They stand on duty in every upper and middle-class neighborhood and in every mall. I ask : what are the effects of security guards on the city of Delhi? A quarter of a million men are deployed in Delhi’s streets, and they are not successful in stopping crimes against women. It appears that the role of security guards is to mark the territory that they keep under watch as belonging to the upper and middle-classes. The first chapter exposes in detail the methodology employed for data collection. The second one proposes a “phenomenology of security guards”, that is, a close description of who they are and the work they do. Their work interrogates on the making and unmaking of public space. The third chapter pays attention to the legal framework and shows that the laws framing the work of security guards are neither coherent, nor respected. This should not be interpreted as a weakening of the state but rather as a reinforcement of the domination of middle and upper-class over the control of the city. In the fourth chapter I deploy the vocabulary of political economy approaches to explain the role that private security guards play in it sociopolitical fabric. I show that it participates in keeping at bay crisis by absorbing a significant surplus population. The system that permits the guards to work rests on a gendered division of labor which they contribute to reinforce by keeping Delhi’s street masculine.