| Publication |
2013.
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| Summary/Abstract |
Long known as innovative in modernist architecture, mid century Ahmedabad was also pioneering in another area of built form: housing. Starting in the 1920s when Indians seized control of urban politics, Ahmedabadis launched a number of bold new initiatives to improve housing in the city, involving a striking range of actors-labour activists, middle-class reformers, mill owners, and municipal leaders. Largely ignored under earlier British leadership, housing became a key way for Ahmedabadis to lay claim to a new, more inclusive vision of the city. Although housing continued to play a prominent role in politics after Independence, the 1950s actually marked a retreat from that earlier inclusive vision, ultimately enshrining the class and community segregation that marks Ahmedabad today.
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