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Abstract
The city has been eulogized as a liberating space of anonymity where identities of caste and creed dissolve before the might of economic capital. This paper examines how the role of caste is both masked and intensified in the formation of new neighbourhoods in the backdrop of city-remaking projects. Our ethnographic study of Dalit-dominated neighbourhoods in Ahmedabad shows that the emergence of a middle-class neighbourhood in Ahmedabad’s periphery must be seen as a ‘post-liberalization Dalit ghetto’ that is distinct from the pre-liberalization Dalit neighbourhoods in the industrial centre of the city. The new Dalit middle-class neighbourhood of Chandkheda is a result of greater economic mobility among Dalits which continues to be marked by the three exclusionary mechanisms: ‘moving up’ and into segregation; caste vigilantism; and protean forms of intra-Dalit exclusion. The collusion of caste and capital produces unexpected forms of space politics that tend to enhance rather than dissolve distinctions based on micro-caste identities in middle-class residential spaces, all the while hiding new forms of exclusion behind the rhetoric of secularized urban development.
Notes
1 The term ‘Dalit’ means broken and oppressed people and refers to former untouchable castes in India.
3 Personal interview, Ashwin S., June 2016.
4 Achyut Yagnik and Suchitra Sheth in their book, The Making of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva and Beyond (Citation2005) offer a slightly different exposition of the three distinct parts of modern Ahmedabad, highlighting the area within the walled city originally consisting of mixed spaces with upper caste Hindus, Dalits, and Muslims.
6 Personal interview, Roxy Gagdekar, Associate editor of Ahmedabad Mirror, October 2015.
8 The term ‘Savarna’ technically refers to the twice-born upper castes in the Hindu caste hierarchy, specifically Bhrahmins, Kshatryias, and Vaishyas. We use it more expansively to refer to non-Dalit Hindu castes.
9 Dalit sub-castes in Gujarat in the descending order of ritual hierarchy are: (1) Garo or Shrimali is the priestly caste; (2) Vankar is the weaver caste; (3) Rohit or Chamar is the tanner caste; (4) Bhangi or Valmiki is the sweeper class.
10 As per the 2011 census, Gomtipur’s total population is 70,015 of which the scheduled caste population is 37% at 26,572. http://ahmedabadcity.gov.in/portal/jsp/Static_pages/demographics.jsp.
11 Vaniya or Baniya refers to the trader caste.
12 Personal interview with A. P. Vankar, April 2016.
13 Personal interview, November 2015.
14 Personal interview, June 2016.
15 Personal interview, June 2016.
16 A ceremonial metal pot in which a coconut is placed during Hindu religious rituals.
17 Personal interview, June 2016.
18 Manuvadi is a pejorative term used by critics of upper caste Brahmin domination to refer to those who endorse the philosophy of the ancient Hindu legal text called Manusmriti, which sanctions the oppression of the lower castes in Hindu society.
19 Personal interview, June 2016.