Chandigarh: In Search of an Identity

In 1949 the Indian government created a clean slate on which to plan, design, and build a totally new city to serve as the seat of the Punjab government and to replace the ancient, traditional city of Lahore, which had been lost to Pakistan.

That city was Chandigarh, the most visible planned city in India and the present capital of Punjab and Haryana. Kalia provides a history of the planning and development of Chandigarh, focusing on the major figures involved—Nehru, Albert Mayer, Charles Edouard Jeanneret (popularly known as Le Corbusier), and the husband-and-wife team of Edwin Maxwell Fry and Jane Beverly Drew. Kalia unravels the fascinating combination of practical politics, personal ambitions (of both politicians and planners), and the high ideals of Nehru and Le Corbusier.

Hopes ran high for this planned city, but from the beginning the emphasis was too much on designing buildings, ignoring traditional, economic, and social issues. Finally Chandigarh “turned out to be a designed city, not a planned one.” Tradition and social tension have flown in the face of the master plan.

Ravi Kalia teaches history at Occidental College in Los Angeles and business and economics at Whittier College.