Slum eradication has been a concern in South Asian cities since the colonial times. Legislation and policies are being framed both out of national desires and international strategies. However, very little is being studied on how these legislation and policies come into being, specifically geography’s influence in their formulation. The article analyses parliamentary debates from India (Rajya Sabha, 1953–2014), and outlines the process of historical, political, and institutional dominance of Delhi. It shows that the slum legislation and policies in India are formulated by abstracting cases from the Delhi slums. This knowledge hegemony of Delhi is discussed within the growing consideration towards urban theory’s southern shift, which puts the Southern cities (megacities) as underdogs. The paper argues that at a regional level, these megacities exert the same hegemony that the southern theory wants to avoid. The results argue towards broadening the southern theory and ordinary city discussions.

中文翻译：

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德里偏见：印度贫民窟治理的知识霸权

自殖民时代以来，消除贫民窟一直是南亚城市关注的问题。立法和政策是根据国家愿望和国际战略制定的。然而，很少有人研究这些立法和政策是如何形成的，特别是地理对其制定的影响。本文分析了印度的议会辩论（Rajya Sabha，1953-2014 年），并概述了德里在历史、政治和制度方面的统治地位的过程。说明印度的贫民窟立法和政策是从德里贫民窟案例中提炼出来的。德里的这种知识霸权在对城市理论向南转移的日益增长的考虑中进行了讨论，这使南方城市（特大城市）处于劣势。该文件认为，在区域层面，这些特大城市发挥着南方理论想要避免的霸权。结果主张拓宽南方理论和普通城市讨论。