Preservation or Commercialisation: Resident Experiences of Heritage in
Ahmedabad’s Walled City

Shiv Mandlik

doi:10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i09.015

Title: Preservation or Commercialisation: Resident Experiences of Heritage in Ahmedabad’s Walled City
Authors: Shiv Mandlik
Journal: International Journal of Social Science and Economic Research (IJSSER) ISSN: 2455-8834 Volume: 11 Issue: 9 Publication Date: September 2026 DOI: 10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i09.015
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Shiv Mandlik Adani International School
MLA 8 Mandlik, Shiv. "Preservation or Commercialisation: Resident Experiences of Heritage in Ahmedabad’s Walled City." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, vol. 11, no. 9, Sept. 2026, pp. 4707-4720, doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i09.015. Accessed Sept. 2026. APA 6 Mandlik, S. (2026, September). Preservation or Commercialisation: Resident Experiences of Heritage in Ahmedabad’s Walled City. Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research, 11(9), 4707-4720. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i09.015 Chicago Mandlik, Shiv. "Preservation or Commercialisation: Resident Experiences of Heritage in Ahmedabad’s Walled City." Int. j. of Social Science and Economic Research 11, no. 9 (September 2026), 4707-4720. Accessed September, 2026. https://doi.org/10.46609/IJSSER.2026.v11i09.015.
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ABSTRACT: This paper examines how UNESCO World Heritage designation affects the lives of pol residents. The pols are traditional gated residential neighbourhoods within Ahmedabad’s Walled City, designated as a UNESCO World Heritage property in July 2017. While those implementing conservation policy generally agree that world heritage listing benefits all stakeholders, little consideration has been given to the lived friction experienced by the people who actually live in these homes. This study used a qualitative research methodology, drawing on semi-structured interviews with fifteen residents spanning four stakeholder categories: long-term owners, artisans and shopkeepers, younger-generation residents, and community or pol panch leaders, distributed across ten pols. Reflexive thematic analysis identified four axial categories: commercialisation and market pressure; bureaucratic and regulatory friction; psycho-spatial displacement and domestic alienation; and heritage identity, attachment and community erosion. Bureaucratic friction, meaning the extended time periods required for municipal approval and the expense of mandated restoration, was the most prevalent pressure and acted as the mechanism driving displacement: long-term residents who hold assets but lack access to capital cannot lawfully maintain their properties, and are therefore funnelled toward developers and commercial conversion. Concurrently, the tourist gaze recodes private spaces such as the otla and the chowk into public spectacle, creating a living-museum alienation that is particularly evident among women and the elderly. These results suggest that preservation as it is currently administered manufactures the very commercialisation it claims to prevent, and that humane, participative governance is needed if heritage and habitation are to coexist.

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