Paper short abstract:

Through ethnographic examples, this paper will examine the ambivalent ways in which displaced and resettled slum-dwellers in Ahmedabad engage with the world-class city vision personified around the figure of the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

Paper long abstract:

My paper explores displaced slum-dwellers' ambivalent accounts concerning urban renewal and development policies personified around the figure of the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The paper represents a part of an ongoing doctoral dissertation project, which is based on ten months' ethnographic fieldwork in a mixed-community resettlement site located in the eastern margins of Ahmedabad, the biggest city of the Gujarat State. The city is known for being a stronghold of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), and especially of Modi, who used to occupy the position of Chief Minister of Gujarat before his appointment as Prime Minister. Modi's agenda included transforming Ahmedabad into a slum-free "world-class city". Several large-scale development projects were put into practice under Modi's leadership. Thousands of people were displaced from city-center slums to resettlement sites located in the urban margins.

Through rich ethnographic examples, I will discuss resettled people's engagement with the world-class city vision. On the one hand, I will explore how residents of a mixed-community resettlement site mobilize 'world-class aesthetic' (Ghertner 2011) in their attempts to express moral superiority over new, unwanted neighbors. On the other, I will consider how residents' shared feelings of betrayal and anger targeted towards Modi challenge the world-class city ethos. Many displaced people hold Modi responsible for the loss of homes, livelihoods and social networks, but at the same time, the utopian green and clean mega city promulgated by Modi is an object of awe, admiration and desire.