This article revolves around the fuzzy nature of land titles within and around the ‘Lal Dora’ (literally, ‘red thread’) ringing the urban villages of Delhi to understand how property ownership gets mediated through documents. Through a close look at three kinds of documents—land records, a particular notification over construction in the Lal Dora region and the General Power of Attorney, it pries open how these documents govern property relations today. As much as records and laws become the means through which the state attempts to intervene, disaggregate and make sense of property regimes, these attempts are frustrated through practices pertaining to property and localised bureaucratic effects. The evidence presented as documents, stamp papers or certificates is only superimposed on the larger field of property relationships in the urban villages of Delhi. The article shows that the informality produced by inconsistencies in these documents plugs into the logic of accumulation and comes through as a dynamic albeit inegalitarian force that challenges state power.
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