City, Multiplicity, and Specificity

One of the legacies of the British colonial rule was that independent India inherited large infrastructural provisions such as roads, railways, dams and bridges and, with that, a large number of professional engineers. The architectural profession, however, was out of balance, practically non-existent. Jawaharlal Nehru, the first modernist of independent India, was well aware of the developments being made globally in architecture in the 50’s. His desire to put India on the world map resulted in an invitation to Le Corbusier to plan and design Chandigarh, which is the most significant milestone in the development of modern Indian architecture.