The Region and Its Margins

What is Gujarat? This paper addresses the question drawing on ethnographic research from Kutch and discusses the historical process by which a modern Gujarati identity has been constructed for the region, stressing the importance of representations of the border in the state's depiction of itself. It shows how advertisements, songs and other visual and aural productions have been used by the state to portray consensus over the cultural parameters that define the state. Regional histories are never uniform constructions and Gujarat has not been a stable construction through time.