Redevelopment
Redevelopment, in the novel and in Indian urban practice generally, is the demolition and rebuilding of an existing housing society on its own land, usually with a developer covering construction costs in exchange for the right to sell additional units. Residents move to transit housing and return to larger flats in the new building. The novel uses the process as its central engine: it puts a builder, a society and a schedule in the same room and lets the incentives do the rest. This entry defines the term as the companion uses it.
In the novel
The redevelopment plot supplies most of the book’s conflicts.