Caste and capital in the remaking of Ahmedabad

Ahmadabad's urban transformation, often celebrated for its economic dynamism, actually reinforces caste-based segregation and exclusion. Despite the city's reputation as a space where identities dissolve under capitalism, new Dalit middle-class neighborhoods like Chandkheda have emerged on the periphery, distinct from older industrial-era Dalit settlements. These areas, born of post-liberalization economic mobility, are marked by three exclusionary mechanisms: spatial segregation, caste vigilantism, and intra-Dalit discrimination. The study reveals that caste and capital collude to create 'post-liberalization Dalit ghettos,' where distinctions based on micro-caste identities persist or intensify, often masked by the rhetoric of secular urban development. This ethnographic research highlights how economic progress can paradoxically deepen social divisions in middle-class residential spaces.

Banerjee, D., & Mehta, M. G. (2017). Caste and capital in the remaking of Ahmedabad. Contemporary South Asia, 25(2), 182–195. https://doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2017.1329278