Urbanism and democratic volatility in India: The case of Amaravati

Abstract

This article examines how urban infrastructure is narratively constructed, disrupted and reassembled in electorally competitive subnational polity through a case study of Amaravati, the greenfield capital city project of Andhra Pradesh, India. Tracing its evolution across three political regimes (2014–2025), the study reveals how infrastructural projects are subject to symbolic volatility, shaped by shifting discourses of populist legitimacy and democratic contestation. Drawing on theories of infrastructural populism and narrative statecraft, the article introduces the concept of narrative reversibility to explain how capital cities function as ideological artefacts, repeatedly authored and un-authored through competing regimes of developmental meaning. Using discourse analysis of government orders, legislative records, party manifestos, media editorials and budget speeches, the study maps Amaravati’s trajectory across three phases: promise, fracture and resurrection. It finds that far from being a technocratic fix, urban infrastructure in Amaravati is continuously re-scripted to align with electoral mandates and ideological shifts.