TY  - BOOK
AU  - Prakash,Vikramaditya
TI  - Chandigarh's Le Corbusier: the struggle for modernity in postcolonial India 
SN  - 9780295982076 (alk. paper)
AV  - NA1508.C44 P73 2002
U1  - 720.954552 21
PY  - 2002///
CY  - Seattle
PB  - University of Washington Press
KW  - Le Corbusier,
KW  - Architecture
KW  - History
KW  - 20th century
KW  - India
KW  - Chandigarh
KW  - City planning
KW  - Architecture and Planning
KW  - ukslc
KW  - thema
KW  - Architecture: public buildings
KW  - Individual architects & architectural firms
KW  - Architectural structure & design
KW  - History of architecture
KW  - Architecture: professional practice
KW  - Chandigarh (India)
KW  - Social conditions
N1  - Acknowledgments -- Introduction: The "East-West" Opposition in Chandigarh's Le Corbusier -- The Master Plan: Contesting Conceptions of the Modern -- The Capitol Complex: The Rousseauesque Garden of Eden -- With Open Hands: Architectural Symbolism and the Vagaries of Political Claims -- Afterword: Notes on Inheriting a Postcolonial Modernism -- Notes -- Chronology -- Bibliography -- Index -- Illustration Credits
N2  - Describes the creation of the new capital of Punjab in 1947; When India emerged from colonial rule in 1947, the division of Punjab left its historic capital, Lahore, in newly created Pakistan. Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru insisted that Punjab's new capital, Chandigarh, should be a symbol of the nation's faith in the future, unfettered by the traditions of the past. Its design and construction galvanized national attention, and Le Corbusier, the icon of European architectural modernism, was invited to help remake India's national ideal.Le Corbusier arrived in 1950, in the twilight of his career. He set to work alternately wooing and clashing with Nehru and with the Indian planners and builders, prevailing ultimately only in the design of the Capitol Complex and a few buildings in the Museum Complex, as well as in his enduring symbol of peace and nonalignment, the Open Hand.Vikramaditya Prakash tells the fascinating story that lies behind the planning and architecture of Chandigarh. Drawing on his intimate knowledge of the city, where he grew up as the son of one of the nine Indian architects who assisted in designing Chandigarh, Prakash brings to light stories of town planners, bureaucrats, and architects vying over the colonial past and the symbolic future of India. Different conceptions of the modern and the role of Indian civilization clashed and coalesced in a process that highlights the mutual interdependence of "East" and "West," and the fact that architecture and aesthetics cannot be separated from ideological claims and political implications.Prakash skillfully unfolds the intricate layers of the Capitol's symbolism, tracing the cultural preconceptions and influences that produced Le Corbusier's understanding of India and animated his obsessions, desires, and aspirations. Chandigarh's Le Corbusier is the story of the making of an Indian modern architecture as both an aspect and an engine of post-colonial culture
ER  -