ABSTRACT
In the Global South, development-induced displacement has been the normal order of doing business. Any resistance to this has been framed as a struggle between modernity and an irrational, selfish impulse to hold on to non-existent idyllic village communities. The Sabarmati river cuts through the heart of Ahmedabad city in western India, dividing it into east and west. The displaced self-conceptualize the material context of displacement and abstract it as an inevitability. It is in this self-conceptualization that the author moors his conceptual musings to rethink how we do displacement theory by letting the displaced push the limits of Anglophone urban theory. This chapter addresses the Sabarmati story in the context of Mohammad Pathan Aliyar Khan's statement that displacement is an inevitable reality of a poor person's life. It allows rethinking how we use displacement theory by letting the displaced push the limits of theory.
