The King’s and Queen's Tomb in Ahmedabad: Cartographies of contested heritage precincts

Abstract

Numerous historical monuments in the Indian city of Ahmedabad, such as the King’s and Queen’s tomb, are immersed in a complex web of conflict. These are places where, beyond the building itself, we find the presence of inhabitants with very different notions of what the concept of heritage means, so that dispute and resistance are more than guaranteed. The article looks at these extremely heterogeneous and controversial territories through a method —“narrative cartographies”— capable of making the space, its history and social strata visible from an ethnographic point of view. A method that brings to the surface the tensions and disputes between citizens who are marginalised by the institutional power, but who share a spatial reality that is usually ignored and made invisible. In this way, the cartographic analysis presented in both the King’s Tomb and the Queen’s Tomb redefines the way in which these places can be understood and studied, suppressing a dominant and/or imposing vision for one that is much more sensitive to the voices of
the inhabitants. The aim is to disseminate a process that can help reveal different narratives that lead to heritage practices that are as inclusive as emancipatory.