Chandigarh, India (2006, 2014)

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I have welcomed very greatly one experiment in India: Chandigarh. Many people argue about it; some like it, some dislike it. It is the biggest example in India of experimental architecture. It hits you on the head and makes you think. You may squirm at the impact but it has made you think and imbibe new ideas, and the one thing which India requires in many fields is being hit on the head so that it may think. I do not like every building in Chandigarh. I like some of them very much. I like the general conception of the township very much but, above all, I like the creative approach, not being tied down to what has been done by our forefathers, but thinking in new terms, of light and air and ground and water and human beings.  [- Jawaharlal Nehru. Speech, 17 Mar 1959]

Chandigarh may well be India's greatest achievement in urban town planning. But despite Nehru's enthusiasm, and the evident success of the experiment, Indians seem to have learned nothing from it. Chandigarh ought to have become the harbinger for more planned cities. What came instead was unplanned urban sprawl, dispiriting shanties, and creaking infrastructure, punctuated now by gated enclaves built for the rich by a land-grabbing mafia of private developers.  That Chandigarh didn't inspire a hundred planned cities points to a colossal failure of the Indian imagination.

Plans for building the city began soon after Punjab was split into two in 1947. Pakistan was ceded the larger western part, including the Punjabi capital of Lahore, leaving the Indian Punjab without an administrative, commercial, or cultural capital. It was hoped that a grand new capital would become a symbol of modernity, heal the wounded pride of Indian Punjabis, and house thousands of Hindu and Sikh refugees from Pakistan. Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier was commissioned to lead the city planning, aided by Indian architects and town planners. Construction began in the early 1950s, and much of the city was completed in the early 1960s.

Scenically located at the foot of the Himalayas, Chandigarh boasts a modern infrastructure, open spaces, greenery, cleanliness, and a relatively low population density. Divided into 46 rectangular sectors, numbered 1-12 and 14-47 (13 was deemed unlucky), most sectors have an area of nearly 250 acres and a housing capacity of about 15,000 people. Designed to be self-contained in civic amenities, the sectors are separated from each other by broad streets for the city's fast-moving arterial traffic. In the northeast is the artificial Lake Sukhna, a major recreational spot of the city. [Text in preceding two paragraphs adapted from Encyclopedia Britannica.]

Chandigarh is also an ancient Harappan site. In 1969, while digging for a shopping center in sector 17, a Harappan cemetery was unearthed. Remains include painted pottery (jars, dishes, goblets, vases, bowls, cups, beakers), terracotta figurines, beads, toy-cart frames, wheels, faience and copper bangles, stone querns, pestle and sling balls, etc. This, along with their Gandhara, Mughal, and Pahari art collections, makes Chandigarh's museums among of the best in India.

A wonderfully whimsical creation is Nek Chand's rock garden, made from building and industrial refuse. I'd seen it as a teen in 1983 but nothing quite prepared me for its expanded scale and the audacity of its creations when I went back in Sept 2006. I stayed in a hotel in sector 17, probably upon the still buried remains of an ancient Harappan settlement, part of a civilization best known to us for its urban town planning.  [—Namit Arora, 2006; Comment?]

   

Rose Garden (1, 2)	A tranquil spot inside	Advertising a magic show	Chandigarh City Museum
City Center Shopping, Sector 17			Chandigarh street
Taj Hotel			Rock garden visitor
Sukhna Lake (more)	An artificial lake (more)	Fed by rainwater	Amorous couple (1, 2)
Rock Garden: A Fantasy Created by Nek Chand ▒
A landscaped sculpture garden with a waterfall (1, 2)	Inaugurated in 1976	Made from scrap and other waste	Bottles, glass, bangles, tiles, ceramic pots, sinks, electrical waste, etc.
	(1, 2)
	(more)
The rock garden pictures above were taken in Oct 2014, the ones below in Oct 2006.
Entrance gate	Nek Chand's former abode	Rock art	Waterfall
Pool (waterfall)	Swings (more)	Hall	Wall art
	(1, 2)	(1, 2)	(more)
The Government Museum and Art Gallery
Designed by Le Corbusier	First hall	Phulkari textile art ▒	Sculpted panels 1-3rd cent. CE, NW Frontier
Head of Tirathankara 2nd c. CE, Kushana Period	Bust of Mahavira 2nd c. CE, Kushana Period	Yakshi 1st c. CE, Kushana Period	Salabhanjika 2nd c. CE, Kushana Period
Darpana-Dharini 2nd c. CE, Kushana Period	Head of a Lady 4th-5th c. CE, Akhnoor	Bodhisattva 2nd c. CE, Sikrai (1, 2)	Standing Bodhisattva 2nd cent. CE, Sikrai
Five scenes from the life of the Buddha, 2nd c. CE	a. Buddha's visit to Indrasala cave	b. Buddha with devotees	c. Mara and associates come to the Buddha in guise of farmers
d. Taming of elephant Nalagiri by the Buddha	e. Buddha in company of Amrapali and a representative of Licchavi community	Scenes from Siddhartha's Life 3rd c. CE, NW Frontier Province	Dipankara Jataka Late 2nd c. CE
Maitreya Late 2nd c. CE	The Buddha 2nd c. CE	The Buddha 2nd c. CE	Army of Mara 2nd c. CE
The worshippers 2nd c. CE, Sikrai	Maitreya 2nd c. CE	Head of the Buddha Late 2nd c. CE (more)	Hariti (more) ▒
Seated Buddha 4th cent. CE, NW Frontier Province	Amitabha preaching in Sukhavati heaven Late 3rd c. CE, Muhammad Nari	Padmavati The Jain Goddess ▒	Railing pillars 2nd cent. CE, Kushana period
Ganga c. 12th c. CE, Kangra, H.P.	Parvati, Pala School c. 11th c. CE, Bengal	Uma Maheshwara c. 11th c. CE, Probably U.P.	Lady churning mild Late 19th c. CE, South India
Palm leaf manuscript 18th c. CE, Orissa	A family on the move Gouache on paper, Punjab Plains c. 19th cent. CE	Hill women Gouache on paper, Punjab Plains c. 19th cent. CE	Ten Gurus Water color on paper, Sikh school Punjab Plains, Late 19th c. CE
Raja and Rani in dalliance Gouache on paper, Pahari, Kangra c. 18th cent. CE	Todi Ragini Late 19th century, Jaipur	Todi Ragini Late 19th century, Jaipur	Hunger Wood, SL Prasher
Harappan Site Density ▒	Ancient civilizations timeline	Harappan pots	Harappan seals
Harappan figurines	Harappan misc. objects	Harappan misc. objects	Harappan pottery (more)
Harappan script	Lothal dockyard (1, 2) An artist's reconstruction	Male head (replica; more) Stone, circa 2500 BCE Mohenjodaro	Male bust (replica) Stone, circa 2500 BCE, Mohenjodaro
Chandigarh Natural History Museum
Designed by Le Corbusier	Evolution exhibit (1, 2)	Rajasaurus Narmadensis	Dinosaur gallery (habitat)