ISSUE
Friday, August 22, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 73
London: Prince Charles has cited the Mumbai shantytown, setting for the film "Slumdog Millionaire", as a role model for sustainable living in Western cities, the Daily Telegraph said Satuday.
The 61-year-old heir to the British throne wrote in a book, being published next week, that Dharavi slum was better and more instinctively organised than many Western towns.
In the book, titled "Harmony", the Prince of Britain contrasts the "fragmented, deconstructed" housing estates of Western nations with the "order and harmony" of the dusty potters' colony featured in the Oscar-winning movie.
"We have a great deal to learn about how complex systems can self-organise to create a harmonious whole," he said. "The real lesson I took from Dharavi was about the vast asset we can call 'community capital," he said.
Charles said despite the complete absence of government support, Dharavi's residents recycled their wastes and built their own homes out of whatever materials came to hand.
He even said that they had created a financial system in the Indian slum that worked on the basis of personal relationships -- "sometimes in contrast to the recently imploded financial sector in the west."
The Prince, who opened the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday, however, acknowledged that he risked being accused of naivety with his views.
Charles's concern for environmental causes has sometimes got him into trouble with commentators who accuse him of using his influence to advance faddish beliefs.
He opened the grounds of his London home to the public in September to promote sustainability.
London: Prince Charles has cited the Mumbai shantytown, setting for the film "Slumdog Millionaire", as a role model for sustainable living in Western cities, the Daily Telegraph said Satuday. The 61-year-old heir to the British throne wrote in a book, being published next week, that Dharavi slum...
London: Prince Charles has cited the Mumbai shantytown, setting for the film "Slumdog Millionaire", as a role model for sustainable living in Western cities, the Daily Telegraph said Satuday.
The 61-year-old heir to the British throne wrote in a book, being published next week, that Dharavi slum was better and more instinctively organised than many Western towns.
In the book, titled "Harmony", the Prince of Britain contrasts the "fragmented, deconstructed" housing estates of Western nations with the "order and harmony" of the dusty potters' colony featured in the Oscar-winning movie.
"We have a great deal to learn about how complex systems can self-organise to create a harmonious whole," he said. "The real lesson I took from Dharavi was about the vast asset we can call 'community capital," he said.
Charles said despite the complete absence of government support, Dharavi's residents recycled their wastes and built their own homes out of whatever materials came to hand.
He even said that they had created a financial system in the Indian slum that worked on the basis of personal relationships -- "sometimes in contrast to the recently imploded financial sector in the west."
The Prince, who opened the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi on Sunday, however, acknowledged that he risked being accused of naivety with his views.
Charles's concern for environmental causes has sometimes got him into trouble with commentators who accuse him of using his influence to advance faddish beliefs.
He opened the grounds of his London home to the public in September to promote sustainability.
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