Author: Vikramaditya Prakash

Publisher: University Of Washington Press

ISBN: 0295982071

ISBN-13: 9780295982076, 978-0295982076

Format: Hardcover

Language: English
 

About this Book:
When India emerged from colonial rule in 1947, the division of Punjab left its historic capital, Lahore, in newly created Pakistan. India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru insisted that Punjab's new capital, Chandigarh, be a city "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future". Its design and construction galvanised national attention and Le Corbusier, the icon of European architectural modernism, was invited to help remake India's national idea. He arrived in the early 50s, in the twilight of his career, and set to work appropriating primitive symbols, alternately wooing and clashing with Nehru and with the Indian planners and builders. He ultimately prevailed in the design of just a few administrative buildings, the ceremonial core of the city as well as in the construction of his enduring symbol of peace and non-alignment, the Open Hand. Chandigarh's Le Corbusier is the story of the making of an Indian modern architecture as both an aspect and an engine of postcolonial culture.

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