Abstract
AbstractTo what extent is Delhi's metro rail system a social leveler and a global emblem of middle‐class modernity—in idea and practice? This essay illustrates how the language and aims of planning and infrastructural development achieve class‐based goals in a city of deep social inequalities. Based on fieldwork in Delhi, the essay details architects' visions and work practices on the Metro, and how they interact with new forms of technocratic governance instituted by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. By breaking down the broader development‐based ideology that the Metro represents, the essay tracks how architects and planners are involved in diverse forms of “aspirational planning” that ultimately privilege and enact a notion of upward mobility rather than social equality.
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