Producing multiple ‘others’: spatial upheaval and Hindutva politics in urban India

Abstract

This article examines two simultaneous dynamics in contemporary India: the development of new urban spaces, and an intensification of Hindu nationalism (Hindutva). Examining the case of Noida (a township adjacent to Delhi), this article suggests that the entrepreneurial mode of urban development [Harvey 2006. Spaces of Global Capitalism. New York: Verso] has restructured local spaces, which in turn may give rise to rival attempts at group making, seeking to recreate exclusive identities out of choice and resentment to mobilise political action. Such rival attempts may enable Hindutva to entrench itself in local milieus through multiple modes, including the soft mode of ‘neo-Hindutva’. Overall, the article outlines the dynamic association between new urban processes and exclusivist/nativist forms of politics in contemporary India.