About the book

Published by Cambridge University Press, Neoliberalism and Hindutva in the Making of an Indian Smart City examines the intersection of technology driven urban development, neoliberal reforms, and Hindu nationalist politics in present-day India. Dr Rakib Akhtar offers a critical account of how smart cities --often promoted as models of sustainability and progress -- are deeply shaped by the combined forces of neoliberalism and Hindutva.

Through this lens, the book raises important questions: In what ways do free-market policies intersect with right-wing populism? How do political leaders mobilise these frameworks to consolidate power? At a time of growing global populism, the author demonstrates how visions of futuristic urbanisation, infrastructure, and technology are strategically used to advance political agendas and reshape notions of belonging, identity and power.

Speaker

Rakib Akhtar

Dr Rakib Akhtar is currently an Assistant Professor in urban planning at the University of Birmingham. He is an interdisciplinary scholar with a research focus on technology-oriented urbanisation, infrastructure development and their interconnection with right-wing nationalism. Rakib is a chartered architect and a town planner. His research interests sit at the intersection of urban planning, political economy and development studies.

Chair

Pratim Ghosal

Pratim Ghosal is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the King’s India Institute, researching diaspora politics and the international mainstreaming of national populism. Pratim’s research will explore the political and economic integration of the Indian diaspora in the UK, with a particular focus on the role of diasporic elites. He recently completed his DPhil at the Oxford Department of International Development, University of Oxford. For his doctoral research, Pratim examined the relationship between the provincial business elites and politics in urban India. His research adopted an interdisciplinary and bottom-up approach to further the understanding of business-state relations in contemporary India.

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