Building Capital: Contesting the Political Construction of India's Architectural Identity Part 1 Dissertation 2021 Elaine Stephen University of Strathclyde | UK Following the political changes festering within India at the turn of the century, the intensity of religious political narrative and proliferation of architectural monumentality and spectacle has fundamentally altered the imagined and realised landscape of India. Within this context, it is crucial to explore the relationship between politics, place and the construction of Indian identity to ensure a nurturing continuum of cultural processes that can propel the institution of secular democracy into the future.Incessant demands of the growing urban population have garnered contradictory responses from government initiatives with their measures to impress a global presence increasingly leading to the imitation of Western styles and sterilisation of cities that have represented centuries of tradition, cultural process and heritage. This trifecta is the crux of the Indian identity and while policies attempt to preserve these distinctions, disparities within local and national administration, exclusivity to urban elites and the amplification of political particularism has had a deleterious effect. As politics continues to veer into the territories of religious nationalism, identity continues to be disfigured and appropriated to promote political agenda at the cost of a nation's hard-fought freedom. Elaine Stephen Tutor(s)Dr Ombretta Romice