New monuments for the new India: heritage-making in a ‘timeless city’

The ambitious Kashi Vishvanath Corridor in Varanasi (India) was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi March 2019. Set to turn the site into a ‘world-class’ pilgrimage destination, project entails construction of monumental path that connects Ganges river city’s main Hindu temple. In middle area under ‘beautification’, stands Gyanvapi mosque – longstanding target nationalist campaigns ‘liberate’ supposedly originally places worship from Muslim presence. By combining ethnographic material collected through longitudinal research with critical analysis local Hindi newspapers, I trace genesis as ‘heritage project’. suggest that, it, new heritage regime is being put forward suit, and provide evidence for, current projections India nation. However, also argue this not just result top-down agenda, but originates counter-intuitive process: bottom-up mobilisations residents (who were eventually evicted) seem have informed, if provoked, subsequent official narratives branding heritage.