| Abstract |
R. K. Jain, the owner of a family run business of agricultural grain mills, storage, and distribution in the state of Chattisgarh, India, packed up his local business and shifted to the capital, Delhi. In the same year, c.1960, he invested in a property located in South Delhi, Chattarpur and launched a new paddy field storage facility. The venture soon became a wholesale distribution hub, the Dhan Mill Compound (dhan is the colloquial, Hindi word for grain). Stored grains were supplied to retail shops within the city. In the late 1990s, the company licensed warehouse space to severalmultinational companies for the storage of their own products. The facility, which ran at a loss for more than six years, transitioned into a creative hub, yielding a sustainable, mixed-market business model in the service of fashion and as a centre for urban design communities. This chapter tracks the history of the previously abandoned Dhan Mill Compound area, and the forces affecting its resurgence as a creative hub. The narrative speculates on the isomorphism of such development projects, within the context of leftover spaces, across continents, driven by repatriated commonwealth communities between India and the United Kingdom. |