HST 101.
AHMEDABAD AS GATEWAY
Studying the city from a sociological and
political perspective
Metropolis and mental life – Simmel
Thinking conceptually about urban What is a city, what are its problems, (reading);
studies how do we study it? Walking in the city - de Certeau (2 videos)
Ahmedabad as Gurgaon; "world-
Globalization and issues: Megacity class" city Janki Dave; Mona Mehta
Globalization and issues: enclaves Of Enclaves and gated communities Mahadevia
Globalization and issues: city
beautiful Riverfront Renu Desai
Community identities (Caste) Cattle and rabari identity Mona Mehta; Noopur Sharma
Community identities (Class) Historicising Ahmedabad's labour Breman
Community identities (Class) Illicit recreation Amrita Shah
Community identities (Class) Gender, labour aspirations Shrayana Bhattacharya
Community identities (Religion) Historicising Ahmedabad's conflict Yagnik
Community identities (Religion) Contemporary conflict Spodek
Community identities (Religion) Communal identity and selfhood Moyukh Chaterjee
Evaluation
• Students present on the readings for the day.
GROUP PRESENTATION ON READINGS • The whole group should present together. Marks deducted for such sectioning off
a reading from the text.
13% OF GRADE
• Presentation should be 20 minutes approximately. Lengthy presentations will be
penalized.
• I will share three prompts at the end of the course. Students will get 24 hours to
respond to one of the three prompts.
FINAL REFLECTION PAPERS
• The response should be 1 typed page maximum.
12% OF GRADE
• If students fail to incorporate the readings from the course, they will lose marks.
• Answers generated through AI will be automatically graded zero. No retake will
be provided
• 7-8 Students will form a group and select a topic. All students in a group cannot
FINAL GROUP VIDEO PROJECT be from the same major.
25% OF GRADE • They select a topic, visit an area, and record a video where they observe the
settings, talk to people.
• The final video should be 5-10 minutes maximum.
All students will work together. No individual sections for each student. I will quiz anyone
from the group about any section of the reading
EXPECTATION FROM
One slide will be about who the author is.
PRESENTATION
A few slides summarizing the reading – What is the data being presented in the reading?
A few slides about the main argument – what is the author trying to say. How does it
challenge what we already know or think about the topic?
Your questions – What do you want the class to discuss. What did you agree with, what did you
disagree with, why?
For Prohibition Against Prohibition
-What is the idea of -What is the idea of
Ahmedabad as a city being Ahmedabad as a city being
championed? championed?
- What are the social and - What are the social and
political stakes for each political stakes for each
party, in the stand it takes? party, in the stand it takes?
The Metropolis and Mental Life (1903)
German sociologist, Georg Simmel.
Metropolitan individuality:
- What is the problem of the individual psyche in the metropolis that that Simmel is
diagnosing?
- Why does he link this kind of mentality with the prevalence of money economy?
- What does he mean by a blasé attitude as a condition of city life?
- How does Simmel contrast the freedom of metropolitan life with the unfreedom of
rural life? Is this freedom good or bad?
- “The metropolis places emphasis on striving for the most individual forms of
personal existence” (18) – Why?
Throughout the whole course of English One nowhere feels as lonely and lost as in the metropolitan
history, London has never acted as England's crowd. For here as elsewhere it is by no means necessary that
heart but often as England's intellect and the freedom of man be reflected in his emotional life as
always as her moneybag. comfort.
Sympathy Indifference Aversion
“Walking in the City” (1980)
Michel de Certeau, Everyday Life
.
- A walker’s city v a planner’s city
- “strategy” of the city v. “tactics” of a city
- Powerful in the city v. powerless in the city
- Control space v. control time
- Against “meta-narrative”
At the HL-AU gates, what is the strategy and what are the tactics, what is the grammar and what is the
everyday use, the “style”, the practice? How has power or control on this patch of the city?
Ahmedabad as middle class mega-city made
through:
Participation
Crisis (of
(without democratic Celebration Capture
representation)
process)
Mehta (2016)
APPLYING CONCEPTS
• Any idea you have
encountered in a text that
helps you make sense of the
observation
• What text does the
observation remind you of?
OBSERVATION
• going to a space
• recording every details seen
and perceived
• talking to people in that
space and including their
perceptions
FINAL VIDEO ANALYSIS
• Show us what you saw
• Tell us why it is important
• Demonstrate how you applied
what you read in class to offer
an analysis that sets you apart
from a causal observer
25 marks assignment
• Selection of topic
5% OF GRADE • Meeting the professor to discuss the topic
• Clearly articulated plan
• Quality of the data collection
• Enough time spent at the site
10% OF GRADE
• Detailed, perceptive observations
• Insightful interviews
• Analysis of the data collected
• How well the observations have been linked to one or
10 % OF GRADE more texts from the class, to concepts learnt in class
• Meaningful application of course materials to understand
any aspect of Ahmedabad’s urban life.
Segmentation and Enclavization in Urban Development - The
Sustainable City in India. Mahadevia (2013)
• The main argument that Mahadevia is making is that
"the urban development paradigm in the period of economic reform in India
...does not meet any of the stated requirements of sustainable cities” (205)
What we will explore in class is
• What makes a city sustainable, what are the various features?
• What are the policies in place that aim towards a sustainable city?
• Why is ecological sustainability often in conflict with equity in the city? Examples from Ahmedabad?
• What does a citadel mean? Examples from Ahmedabad?
• What is an SEZ? Examples from Ahmedabad?
• How do gated communities increase urban inequality?
• How are enclaves governed - by the state, by non-state authorities?
