New Delhi's Akshardham Temple: Disney-Divinity and Moral Middle Classes

The Economic and Political Weekly, 27 June 2009

Urban Spaces, Disney-Divinity and Moral Middle Classes in Delhi

by Sanjay Srivastava

A presentation of an ethnography of the relationship between urban spaces, new cultures of consumption, the state, and the making of middle class identities in India. Firstly, the discussion explores the making of new urban spaces by focusing upon the Akshardham Temple complex on the banks of the Yamuna river in Delhi. Surrounded by a network of flyovers, highways, toll-ways, and residential developments, the complex is designed as a hi-tech religious and nationalist theme park. The Delhi government-sponsored bhagidari (sharing) scheme that brings together representatives of the Residents’ Welfare Associations, Market Traders Associations, and key government officials at periodically organised workshops forms the second site of focus.

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