In Love with the City: Aesthetics, Belonging and Development in the Wall Murals of Bhubaneswar

Indian urban planning is not merely dependent on visual solidity and awe-inspiring infrastructure but also on aesthetically pleasing spaces that offer alternative ideas of city as geographies of contemplation and affection. In their effort to create a narrative of belonging, city corporations across India create cultural and developmental art to engineer a reflective and forward-looking city. This article draws from the wall murals of Bhubaneswar that borrow from the state’s cultural heritage as well as everyday life and are aimed at creating pathways to experience the city while connecting its rich past with the aspirational present. After contextualising Bhubaneswar’s postcolonial experiment with aesthetics vis-à-vis its wall murals, this article offers a content analysis of those murals, identifies patterns of everyday socio-cultural life and goes on to propose an idea of aesthetics that is developmental. In the process, it responds to stock binaries that inform much of available literature such as aesthetics/politics, citizen/encroacher, institutional/popular and offers a grounded approach that sees the limits of such templates.