Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses recent processes of a neo-liberal “re-making” of New Delhi. In particular, it focuses on how visions of India’s capital as a truly modern world-class city came to dominate discourses on the city in the public sphere.

Paper long abstract:

Through an interdisciplinary approach, drawing on the insights of anthropology, media studies, human geography and political science on the social construction of space, this paper examines contemporary discourses on New Delhi and their implications for the 'reinvention' and 're-making' of the city.

It seems that Delhi is increasingly becoming India's "dream-town" - a place embodying the aspirations of a nation trying to establish itself on the global scene as a major economic and political power. My analysis of discourses on the city as pronounced by political and administrative elites and the media in advance of the Commonwealth Games, held in New Delhi in October 2010, highlights that such discourses are filled with visions and hopes for a shining, successful future as a world-class city. And it is precisely this 'world-class-city ideal' which served politicians to powerfully articulate the urgency of rapid urban development and modernisation in New Delhi.

The longing to become a world-class city is certainly not unique to India's capital. It is important however, to analyse how and why specific visions for a city are generated at the local level and come to dominate public discourses on the city. Hence, this paper addresses the question of why the 'world-class-city ideal' remained largely unchallenged, despite various protests against specific measures of urban renewal in New Delhi.

Further, this paper addresses some of the theoretical challenges of anthropological research on discourses of space as generated by urban political and administrative elites and mainstream commercial media.