Development Discourse and Popular Articulations in Urban Gujarat

ABSTRACT

This article discusses how members of marginalized groups in the Indian state of Gujarat make sense of hegemonic discourses about national development in light of their own experiences and material circumstances. For many, the idea of development resonates even when they do not experience material progress in their lives. This partial hegemony of development discourse can be explained by the concept of “political articulation.”. This captures the political process by which parties succeed, at specific historical moments and under certain circumstances, in joining different, even potentially conflictual interests by referring to a common idea and project. The article focuses on Ahmedabad city where the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has created a cross-caste bloc through the trope of development. The BJP has been particularly effective in linking the idea of development to mundane concerns about security, identity and spatial order. However, anxieties about the degradation of labour by increased casualization, informalization, and socio-spatial marginalization have disrupted this common sense linkage and weakened the hegemony of the BJP's model of development.

Keywords:

• development
• parties
• caste
• Hindu nationalism
• Gujarat

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the numerous people who helped us in the field. In particular Manjula Pradeep (Navsarjan), Achyut Yagnik and staff at SETU, Dr Gaurang Jani, Zahir Janmohamed, and the staff of Center for Health, Education, Training and Nutrition Awareness. This research would not have been possible without the generosity extended the residents of Naroda-Patiya, Juhapura, Khadiya, Usmanpura, and Amraiwadi among others who opened their homes to us and gave us their time and countless cups of tea. Thomas Blom Hansen offered some invaluable insights.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Census of India 2011.

2 See India Today, “Gujarat Polls: Political Parties Woo Dalit Community for Support.” Accessed November 12, 2014 http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/gujarat-polls-political-parties-woo-Dalit-community-for-support/1/234539.html

3 We define articulation as the process whereby parties under certain conditions can successfully join together different, even opposed constituencies into relatively stable political blocs (Deleon, Desai, and Tugal 2015). The linking of constituencies, in this case classes, castes, neighbourhoods, and communities, is established through political work such as speech making, mobilizing votes, and mediating images.

4 On the link between security and development see Duffield (2007).

5 (Jaffrelot 2013a; Jaffrelot and Kumar 2015; Mandhana 2014; National Council of Applied Economic Research [NCAER] 2010). The NCAER report refers to this section as ‘aspirers’ who are neither poor, yet not distinctly within the middle classes.

6 The Economist 2015. Gujarat is also the second most industrialized state and third most urbanized state in India (Bagchi, Das, and Chattopadhyay 2005, 3039), and one of the most sought after states for investors (Awasthi 2000, 3183).

7 By ‘developmentalism’ we refer to the role of the state in guiding markets, often in this case through strategic action against the central government (Sinha 2006, 92). All political parties in Gujarat since the 1970s have subscribed to this role for the state.

8 Leftwich (1995) has suggested that a weak civil society is an important component of the forms of developmentalism adopted in East Asia. While Gujarat differs from the East Asian states in a number of ways, the absence of class conflict and the broad political coalition achieved early by the Congress Party enabled a clear prioritization of industrial growth in Gujarat.

9 The term Adivasi is an umbrella term used to describe tribal and indigenous communities in South Asia.

10 The strategy was known as KHAM which is the acronym for Kshatriyas, Harijans, Adivasis and Muslims.

11 The late 1970s-mid 1980s were a period of relative political turmoil across India, beginning with Indira Gandhi's Emergency Rule (1977–78), followed by a period of challenges from other parties, notably the Janata Party (1977–80).

12 Breman (2004) has described these conditions as a form of “social Darwinism”.

13 Ibid.

14 Ibid, 200.

15 Ibid. The TLA was unable to secure more than 20 percent of the redundancy payment due each laid-off worker.

16 Ibid.

17 See Table 1; Ghai (2012), Jaffrelot (2013a, 2013b).

18 The 2012 state assembly elections saw a surge in Modi's popularity among neo-middle class urban voters after 40 rural seats were dissolved and 20 new urban seats added, most of which were swept by the BJP. Thus although 54.7% of the richest people voted for the BJP, 54.2% of middle income voters did the same (compared with 28% and 34.4%, respectively, for Congress. See Jaffrelot (2013a).

19 Special Economic Zones are designated areas/regions where foreign investors are offered tax breaks and simplified regulatory regimes in return for investment.

20 Figures for 2007–2008 and 2011–2012 are from the Report on Employment-Unemployment Survey (Government of India 2008 and 2011 respectively).

21 In Gujarat the law mandating the cutoff for domicile in slums was set at 1976, instead of a later date unlike Delhi (1998) or Mumbai (1995).

22 Equivalent to USD 222 million.

23 Ellis Bridge dates back to the 1870s, and joins the western and eastern parts of Ahmedabad across the Sabarmati river.

24 These names refer to sub-castes of varying status within the larger OBC category, and designate traditional occupations.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by a Leverhulme Research Project Grant [2011–2013] titled Beyond Identity? Markets and Logics of Democratization in India, 1991-Present.