Neoliberalism and Hindutva in the Actually Existing State: The case of Dholera smart city

In recent decades, countries around the world have witnessed the expansion of neoliberal policies, within which the concept of smart cities has been proffered as a panacea for ‘sustainable development’. Alongside economic changes, many countries have also seen the rise of right-wing nationalism, with leaders using policies of urbanisation and infrastructure building to take their agendas forward. What is often witnessed, although barely studied, is the coming together of these two ideologies – neoliberalism and right-wing nationalism – as they help one another to deeply influence state organisations. This dissertation studies the Dholera smart city project in the western Indian province of Gujarat. Launched and continuously promoted by India’s current Prime Minister and head of a right-wing Hindu nationalist party, Narendra Modi, since his days as Gujarat’s Chief Minister, Dholera has been a platform to reimagine the state and ideas of development. The dissertation uses the state as an analytical lens to understand micro-practices of development in Dholera. Based on nine months of ethnography observing numerous actors across villages, corporations and the state, the dissertation explores how the everyday state functions in Dholera. The study finds that at various levels of government, the state constitutes and is simultaneously constituted by multiple intricate linkages between the actors and practices of neoliberalism and right-wing Hindu nationalism (or Hindutva). It shows how these linkages help to promote the cause of both ideologies, further entrenching them into institutions across state and society. In doing so, both neoliberalism and Hindutva, use strategies that display disjuncture between their foundational ideologies and practices, which help them further their cause. At the intersection of development, smart urbanism, and right-wing nationalism, the study is of topical significance to understand how the very idea of the state is being transformed in Gujarat and India – beyond recognition – with implications that are global.