Civic sense and cleanliness: pedagogy and aesthetics in middle-class Mumbai activism

Abstract

A new type of civil society movement led by the urban middle class has grown with increasing economic liberalization, one that aims to eliminate ‘filth’, including garbage, slums, and street stalls, from the city's public space and to create a ‘world-class’ city. These movements have been critically analyzed as a phenomenon representing a new India aspiring to progress based on consumerism and pleasure at the cost of the poor. ‘Fight the Filth’, organized by a Mumbai English-language tabloid, is one campaign of this type. This paper aims to provide a new perspective to understand these controversial movements by focusing on the forms and aesthetics of this campaign. It illustrates the demands on the middle class in public culture, both to catch up with global India's new consumer aesthetics and to be proper citizens responsible for the society at large, and considers how the middle class is coping with this.