Redefining urban heritage: The case of Chauta bazaar, Surat

Chauta bazaar, a continuously evolving marketplace in the old city of Surat, India, offers a compelling case for rethinking urban heritage beyond the confines of monumentality and visual permanence. For over two centuries, this bazaar has served as a socio-religious and commercial hub, shaped by the intersecting forces of sacred practice, informal commerce, and adaptive spatial use. Its narrow lanes, mix of historic and new shopfronts, and street vending form a built environment that resists conventional heritage categorization, yet reflects a deeply embedded cultural and economic continuity. This thesis explores Chauta bazaar as a living cultural landscape, one that embodies spatial improvisation, intergenerational commerce, and the coexistence of the formal and informal built environment. Using spatial mapping, secondary and primary literature, field observations, and stakeholder interviews, the study traces Chauta’s evolution from a religious marketplace adjacent to Mota Mandir to a dense commercial environment shaped by regulatory shifts, urban migration, and infrastructural neglect. It critiques the limitations of India’s existing heritage policies, which prioritize static, monumental sites and overlook the everyday heritage of dynamic, lived spaces. By engaging with frameworks such as cultural landscape theory, everyday urbanism, and informality studies, the thesis argues that Chauta Bazaar’s spatial hybridity and cultural resilience are not signs of disorder, but indicators of heritage in action. The study calls for a more inclusive and context-sensitive approach to heritage recognition, one that embraces complexity, temporality, and the socio-spatial realities of sites like Chauta bazaar