![Sample our Sports and Leisure journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5949/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Sports-Leisure.jpg"})
ABSTRACT
In 2017, amidst rising Hindu nationalist politics, the ‘Historic City of Ahmadabad’ was designated India’s first UNESCO World Heritage city for its Islamic architectural heritage. How should we understand the emergence of this seeming counter-narrative at a time of rising ethno-nationalism? Ahmadabad’s diverging international and intranational heritage narratives are instructive in understanding what motivates national identity constructions inside and outside a nation-state’s borders. Using evidence from semi-structured interviews and documents, this paper illustrates how Ahmadabad’s World Heritage narrative is manipulated for different objectives at each scale. Internationally, Ahmadabad’s heritage cooperation with the French government, and framing as ‘multicultural’ is intended to internationalise the city and appeal to a global audience. Internally, its framing suggests inclusivity but operates as a subtle form of control by presenting a carefully curated degree of Islamism. Ultimately, this narrative of inclusion excludes the Muslim and migrant populations most closely associated with this heritage. By unpacking the socio-political and economic forces at play in constructing Indian national identity internationally and internally, this paper highlights the uses and abuses of built heritage.
Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Larry Vale, as well as the journal editor and reviewers for their thoughtful comments and support toward this article.
Notes
1. This paper uses Ahmadabad to refer to the World Heritage site and Ahmedabad for the broader city spanning both sides of the river.
2. Modi was Chief Minister of Gujarat from 2001 to 2014. The 2002 riots were a clash between Hindus and Muslims in Gujarat.
3. Political movement seeking to establish hegemony of Hindu beliefs.
4. National identity is ‘the collective expression of a subjective individual sense of belonging to a sociopolitical unit’ (Woolf Citation1996, 25).
5. India is a federal union comprising 28 states and 8 union territories. Subnational identities in this context would be defined at the scale of states and smaller regional scales. For instance, recent subnational tensions within states have resulted in the creation of new states.
6. Countries adhering to the World Heritage Convention.
7. Multiculturalism is often used to signal tolerance or an inclusionary nation-state, and as a portmanteau term for a range of discourses from minorities to postcolonialism (Bhabha Citation1996; Bennett Citation2013). World Heritage discourse itself adopts a multicultural framework (De Cesari Citation2010).
8. While the French Report describes origins of the cooperation between the French and Indian governments, and choice of the walled city of Ahmadabad as a pilot case owing to the ‘quality and the scale of its heritage’, (Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Directorate-General for Development and International Cooperation, and French Embassy India Citation2001, 5) it does not address the decision to select it over former French colonial cities in India. However, several interviewees referenced the presence of French education institutions such as Alliance Française as evidence of the long-standing French connections to Ahmedabad.
9. There are long-standing debates on applying Eurocentric conservation practices prioritising materiality and fabric in Asian contexts that traditionally place less emphasis on ‘authenticity’ (Winter Citation2014).
10. Annual celebration by UNESCO to increase awareness on heritage preservation.
11. Outside the walled city on the western riverbank.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Aarthi Janakiraman
Aarthi Janakiraman is a doctoral candidate in Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States. Her research focuses on the spatial politics of heritage conservation and urbanization, particularly across South and South-East Asia. Prior to her doctoral studies, Aarthi studied architecture and worked at design practices in India, the United Kingdom, United States, and Singapore.