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From: "Architexturez." <admin-in@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
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Date: Sun, 28 May 2006 14:01:28 +0530
GANDHINAGAR: BUILDING NATIONAL IDENTITY IN POST-COLONIAL INDIA, By Ravi
Kalia, Oxford, Rs 495
Kalia’s study is divided into five chapters. The first is on the making
of the state of Gujarat — the name deriving from Prakrit ‘Gujjar-ratta’,
or ‘the land of Gujjars. The next chapter captures the debate around the
choice of Gandhinagar over Ahmedabad because of the former’s “open
agricultural fields”. The main section of the study focuses on the clash
of theories which went into the planning of the new capital,... H.K.
Mewada, an Indian apprentice to Le Corbusier, was entrusted with the job.
Mewada was a staunch Gandhian though he had the Corbusierian vision of
modernism. He tried to syncretize Gandhian traditionalism and Nehruvian
secular modernism. This involved a tussle of competing ideals to arrive
at an acceptable version of an eclectic Indian modernism, dovetailing
modern technology with indigenous methods. Kalia stresses the
architectural dilemma to reconcile nostalgia with visions of progress.
And it is here that Kalia touches on the problematic of the Indian
construction a postcolonial ‘self’.
cont'd....
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060526/asp/opinion/story_6265768.asp