The objective of this article is to reassess the new town building movement in India from 1947 to 1965 through a re-examination of the making of Chandigarh, to show how nationalism, modernism, and local regional influences affected the design and building of new towns. Chandigarh emerged as part of the post-Partition need for a new capital for the Punjab, and involved the efforts of several people and levels of government. The context of newly achieved nationhood became important in the way it shaped the ideals of both national and local political leaders, who wanted architects to transfer these into built form. How successful the architects were in this enterprise was shaped by their professional ideologies and understanding (or lack of it) of the local. Much scholarship exists on issues such as early decisions about Chandigarh's establishment, the Mayer and Le Corbusier plans for the city, and the buildings comprising the Capitol complex that were designed by Le Corbusier. Much less attention has been given to the residential areas of Chandigarh and all that lay beyond the Capitol complex and constitutes the actual town. How did the ideas of modernism, the requirements of the nationalist state, and concern for the local shape the built environment? Was a Western urban design simply replicated here or were there modifications to suit locality and culture?
