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ABSTRACT
This article examines transnational planning history following the Second World War with a focus on the diffusion of Western planning principles to postwar India by US architect-planner Albert Mayer. Specifically, Mayer’s role as a foreign advisor to the Indian government from 1946 to 1958 and the application of a US communitarian regionalist planning ethos to rural village improvement and town planning at Cawnpore (Kanpur), Greater Bombay (Mumbai), and Chandigarh is explored. Using the stages of transnational planning flows as a framework, we review the foundations of communitarian regionalism in American planning practice and Mayer’s participation in the New Deal Greenbelt Town programme to inform his translation, in partnership with American and Indian planners, of these town planning principles to suit postwar Indian planning needs. This comparative assessment allows us to present a re-examination of the transfer and adaptation of Western planning as well as exchanges of knowledge and practice within very disparate contexts.
Acknowledgements
Support for this research was generously provided by the Clarence S. Stein Institute for Urban and Landscape Studies and the Special Collections Research Centre at the University of Chicago.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes on contributors
Laurel Harbin is a designer and planner with specializations in environmental sustainability, design technology, and postwar planning history. She holds an MFA in design from Florida State University and a PhD in design, construction, and planning from the University of Florida, where she currently serves as Adjunct Lecturer. Her dissertation research on Albert Mayer and postwar rural development planning in India has been supported by fellowships from the Clarence S. Stein Institute and the Robert L. Platzman Memorial Fellowship.
Kristin Larsen, AICP, is an Associate Professor and Director of the School of Landscape Architecture and Planning at the University of Florida. Her biography of Clarence Stein, titled Community Architect: The Life and Vision of Clarence Stein, is anticipated for publication in 2016. Under her direction, the first fully online graduate degree in urban planning was launched in fall 2012. Her specialties include housing policy, neighborhood planning, urban and planning history, and historic preservation.
Notes
1 Wakeman, “Rethinking Postwar Planning History.”
2 Ibid., 155.
3 Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions.”
4 Koenigsberger, “New Towns in India.”
5 Kalia, “Modernism, Modernization and India.”
6 On 12 January 1950, the Indian government renamed the United Provinces to Uttar Pradesh, a state in the newly independent Republic of India.
7 The Indian government renamed Cawnpore “Kanpur” in 1948 and Bombay “Mumbai” in 1995.
8 In 1947, the former capital of Punjab was lost in the partition of India and Pakistan that divided the state and presented a unique opportunity to design and plan a new capital city in East Punjab.
9 Vidyarthi, “Neighbourhood Unit Concept;” Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions.”
10 Larsen, “Cities to Come.”
11 Mumford, “Regions – To Live In,” 151.
12 See Friedman, “Global Postcolonial Moment.”
13 Koenigsberger, “New Towns in India.”
14 See Healey, “Circuits of Knowledge.”
15 RDCA, By-Laws, as approved at their meeting of 7 April 1949, Clarence Stein Papers, Cornell University Archives (CSP/CUA).
16 Vidyarthi, “Neighbourhood Unit Concept.”
17 Ibid.
18 Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions.”
19 Ibid.
20 See Ward, “Transnational Planners.”
21 Friedman, “Global Postcolonial Moment,” 555.
22 See The Resettlement Administration, Greenbelt Towns; Stein, Toward New Towns; and Arnold, The New Deal in the Suburbs for an overview of the programme’s goals.
23 Stein, Toward New Towns.
24 Buder, Visionaries and Planners; Sussman, Planning the Fourth Migration.
25 Buder, Visionaries and Planners.
26 See Stein, Toward New Towns; Conkin, Tomorrow a New World; and Arnold, The New Deal in the Suburbs.
27 Mayer, “Nehru, the Man.”
28 Ibid.
29 Nehru to Mayer, 17 June 1946, Box 8, Folder 1, Albert Mayer Papers, University of Chicago Special Collections Research Centre (AMP/UCSC).
30 Ibid.
31 Mayer, “Nehru, the Man.”
32 Ibid., 658.
33 Mayer, “Planning in India,” 26 December 1949, CSP/CUA, 4.
34 Albert Mayer to Hari Skanka Vidyarthi, 14 March 1949, Box 18, Folder 14, AMP/UCSC.
35 Mayer, “A New Capital,” 329.
36 Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions,” 196.
37 Nehru to Mayer, 1 May 1946, Box 8, AMP/UCSC.
38 Mayer, “Training of Workers and Potential Village Leaders,” 18 December 1946, Box 12, Folder 21, AMP/UCSC, 1.
39 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 27 October 1946, Box 12, Folder 19, AMP/UCSC.
40 Mayer, Pilot Project, India, 22.
41 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 20 January 1947, Box 12, Folder 19, AMP/UCSC.
42 The Pilot Development Projects in rural UP were transitioned to National Extensions Service and Community Development blocks in 1957.
43 Mayer, “The Greater Bombay Master Plan: Remedy for Overcrowding and Neglect,” September 1948, Box 17, AMP/UCSC.
44 Mayer, “Letter to Jawaharlal Nehru,” 19 December 1945, Box 8, Folder 1, AMP/UCSC.
45 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 30 June 1949, Box 12, Folder 21, AMP/UCSC.
46 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 29 August 1947, Box 12, Folder 20, AMP/UCSC.
47 Mayer, “Nehru, the Man.”
48 Mayer, “Footholds for a New India.”
49 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 27 October 1946, Box 12, Folder 19, AMP/UCSC.
50 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 14 November 1946, Box 12, Folder 21, AMP/UCSC.
51 Ibid.
52 Albert Mayer to Sir Edward Souter,” 30 April 1947, Box 18, Folder 16, AMP/UCSC.
53 Stein and Bauer, “Store Buildings.”
54 Albert Mayer to Sir Edward Souter, 30 April 1947, Box 18, Folder 16, AMP/UCSC, 2.
55 “Master Plan Cawnpore: New Design for City by Development Board,” 29 August 1948, Box 18, AMP/UCSC.
56 Albert Mayer to Hari Skanka Vidyarthi, 14 March 1949, Box 18, Folder 14, AMP/UCSC.
57 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 28 February 1947, Box 12, Folder 20, AMP/UCSC.
58 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 1 August 1948, Box 12, Folder 21, AMP/UCSC.
59 Ibid.
60 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 29 August 1947, Box 12, Folder 20, AMP/UCSC.
61 Ibid.
62 Modak and Mayer, Greater Bombay Master Plan.
63 Ibid.
64 “Master Plan for Greater Bombay: Full Measure of Civic Life,” The Sunday News of India, 8 August 1948, Box 17, AMP/UCSC.
65 Ibid.
66 Ibid.
67 Modak and Mayer, Greater Bombay Master Plan.
68 Ibid.
69 Mayer and Cox’s initial outline produced in 1947, called for one satellite town but this was increased to seven following Mayer’s review of the Master Plan in 1949.
70 Modak and Mayer, Greater Bombay Master Plan.
71 Ibid.
72 “Master Plan for Greater Bombay: Full Measure of Civic Life,” The Sunday News of India, 8 August 1948, AMP/UCSC, 1.
73 Albert Mayer to Jal F. Bulsara, 14 March 1949, Box 17, AMP/UCSC, 1.
74 Ibid., 2.
75 Ibid.
76 Ibid.
77 Albert Mayer to E. Maxwell Fry, 31 January 1951, Box 18, Folder 25, AMP/UCSC.
78 Ibid., 3.
79 Ibid.
80 Ibid.
81 Ibid., 3.
82 Stein to Mayer, “Location of Public Buildings in Capital of East Punjab,” 22 February 1950, Box 2, Folder 35, CSP/CUA.
83 Ibid.
84 “Meeting Minutes,” 31 March 1950, Box 18, Folder 4, AMP/UCSC.
85 Kalia, Chandigarh, 64.
86 See Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions” and Perera, “Contesting Visions.”
87 Nehru to Mayer, 17 June 1946, Box 8, Folder 1, AMP/UCSC.
88 Mayer, Pilot Project, India.
89 Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 2. 27 October 1946, Box 12, Folder 19, AMP/UCSC.
90 Ward, “Transnational Planners.”
91 Banerjee, “U.S. Planning Expeditions.”
92 See Mayer, “A Letter from Albert Mayer,” 1946–1950, Box 12, Folder 19–22, AMP/UCSC.
93 See Albert Mayer to E. Maxwell Fry, 31 January 1951, Box 18, Folder 25, AMP/USC.
94 Geddes and Tyrwhitt, Patrick Geddes in India, 63.
95 Ibid.