Architect Romi Khosla spoke on ‘What happens next – the urban landscape in India”, at the Charles Correa Memorial Lecture organised by The Raza Foundation at the India Habitat Centre on Wednesday.

Mr. Khosla compared the current government’s policies to those of the British colonists. 

While drawing parallels between the railway systems developed by the British and today’s industrial corridor, he argued that both were meant to squeeze the country for exports. He said that his pessimistic attitude drew from his experience with UN missions in countries brought to ruin by “simple minded rulers who treated countries like their personal fiefdoms”.

He called for reimagining of the country where the current synthetic national identity was shed and replaced with multiple, strong regional identities. As a road map to the future, he proposed an idea of ‘natural zilla cities’, a form of which, he said, was being developed along with the Telangana government in Sircilla district.

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