Paper short abstract:

This paper argues how collusion of capital with caste reshapes modern Indian cities. Ethnographic evidence from Ahmedabad, an ‘investor friendly’ ‘Smart City’ in neoliberal times, reveals that caste boundaries are sustained through enormous investments in developing caste specific neighbourhoods.

Paper long abstract:

The paper explores how capital colludes with caste, religion, and migration to reshape modern Indian cities by strengthening social cleavages not just along the lines of class but the creation of caste based ghettoised spaces. The western Indian city of Ahmedabad aspires to be a global city that caters to an aspirational middle class. It is being developed as a 'Smart City', which claims to be 'citizen centric and investor friendly'. The paper focuses on the city's neighbourhood of Chandkheda which is a historically Dalit (former untouchable caste) ghetto in the periphery of the city, where millions of rupees are being invested in building Dalit only housing estates for Dalits across classes. Using ethnographic evidence it argues that informal practices such as autonomous forms of governance in neighbourhoods, (vigilantes, self-management etc.) encourage intolerance and produce homogeneous populations and play a greater role in shaping urban life rather than capital alone.