Exploring City Branding through Place-Making in Megacities of Indian Subcontinent: Case of Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, and Dhaka

Post-industrialization, globalization, and accelerated urbanization are shaping the megacities of the twenty-first century. However, these forces have created repetitiveness in the built environment, thus leading to a growing desire for distinctiveness. Hence, cities must brand themselves to remain competitive in the global market. Historically, spatial interventions in the form of iconic buildings and megastructures have worked as an effective branding strategy. Redevelopment of urban quarters, historic precincts, and open spaces has helped create new ‘place-brands’, as testified by ‘Gaudi Barcelona’ and ‘Bilbao Effect’. However, most of these examples are from the Global North which are believed to have shaped place branding in megacities of the Global South, ignoring the characteristic differences between them. Given this context, the chapter aims to appraise the contemporary discourse on city branding through placemaking as witnessed in megacities of the Global South in the last two decades. The study focuses on how these cases differ from their counterparts in the Global North. Four megacities of the Indian subcontinent, namely Delhi, Mumbai, Karachi, and Dhaka have been selected, these being important political-cultural centres and economic powerhouses in respective nation-states and aspire to turn themselves into ‘world-class’ cities. Strategies such as iconic architecture and hosting of mega-events are heavily inspired from the Global North, without considering their ill effects. Instead, regeneration of historic precincts and creative-cultural quarters, along with promotion of citizen-led placemaking initiatives, looks promising for megacities in the Global South.