["Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, Volume 47, Issue 1, Page 167-184, January 2026. ", "\nIn India, economic liberalization, which began in the early 1990s, marked a pivotal shift from the Nehruvian model of a planned economy to a market‐oriented economy, which transformed the Indian middle‐class in both size and socioeconomic aspirations; and by extension, the texture of the urban form. In this paper, we focus on Rajarhat – a rapidly developing township located in the eastern fringe of the metropolitan city of Kolkata – as a case study to illustrate how, following the deregulation of the Indian housing market and subsequent inflow of global capital, the middle‐class navigates identity, status and power in the transitioning city space. We are particularly interested in the symbolism immanent in their perception and articulation of city‐making. Drawing on ethnographic research, we highlight how the spatial production of Rajarhat in the middle‐class imagination is steeped in mental geographies that amplify the existing fault lines of city‐making and furnish imaginary border(land)s that lead to territorialization of the urban space, as the city undergoes a radical shift from an ‘organic city’ to a ‘commercial hub.’\n"]