VIRTUAL Manchester Livable Cities

Abstract

The hill city of Shillong in the Northeastern state of Meghalaya, India, once a centre of intellectual and civic engagement, excellence and urban aspiration during the postcolonial period, today grapples with deep-rooted structural and systemic challenges that belie its scenic and intellectual legacy. However, the city has had to deal with a number of systemic and structural issues in recent decades that have complicated its urban trajectory. Even though the region is among the wettest in the world, access to water is still unequal, with clans, communities, and private individuals frequently holding the control. This paradox—ecological abundance juxtaposed with infrastructural strain—highlights a city shaped as much by its environmental context as by socio-political arrangements. Shillong’s governance structure, which is characterised by a pluralistic administrative framework incorporating Dorbar Shnongs (village councils), the Autonomous District Council, and the state government, is one important aspect of its complexity. Despite the layered and unique socio-cultural frameworks of governance, it often creates complexities, especially in aspects of infrastructure planning and land use. Drawing on urban ethnography, policy analysis, and historical enquiry, this paper explores Shillong’s evolving urban condition—neither wholly dysfunctional nor uniformly efficient, but characterised by tensions between heritage and modernity, autonomy and integration. This study aims to contribute to wider conversations on livable cities by positing a situated reading of how diverse governance traditions and environmental realities shape urban futures in the Global South.