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Abstract
The heritage of Chandigarh, India is a complex subject. While widely acknowledged by academic and professional communities worldwide as a significant work of modernist architecture and urban design, Chandigarh's specific temporal, geographical and cultural contexts complicate efforts to get the city inscribed on United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization's World Heritage List. This article outlines the persistent attempts by both local and international organizations to achieve this inscription, efforts that have not yet been successful. Relying on historical scholarship and fieldwork, the authors reassess the value of Chandigarh's heritage both in terms of historical significance and contemporary planning. By addressing the complexity and scope of the design and planning process, embracing the inhabitation and appropriation of the city, and fostering an appreciation of modern architecture, Chandigarh can develop a more localized understanding of heritage – yet one that can be appreciated worldwide.
Acknowledgements
The authors' are grateful to the following individuals for support through various aspects of this work: Vikram Prakash, M.N. Sharma, Kiran Joshi, Pradeep Bhagat, Jaspreet Thakar, Madhu Sarin, Sangeet Sharma, Gaurav Chhabra and Sumit Kaur. Research for this work was conducted by the authors during their participation in the Chandigarh Urban Lab 2011 led by Vikram Prakash, Manish Chalana and Kunle Adeyemi.
Notes
Chandigarh has figured prominently in two Docomomo conferences: the Sixth International Conference (The Modern City Facing the Future, 2000), and the Tenth International Conference (The Challenge of Change: Dealing with the Legacy of the Modern Movement, 2008).
Quoted from the ‘Punjab Government construction of new capital of Chandigarh – Projected Report – undated’. Cited by Kalia, Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City, 12.
For more on planning of Chandigarh, see Kalia, Chandigarh and Sarin, Urban Planning.
For discussions on the informal settlements in and around Chandigarh, see Sarin, Urban Planning. Even though the source is old it still remains the most reliable piece of scholarship on the ‘non-planned’ developments in the context of the formal city.
Though widely recognized as a defining statement of Chandigarh's origin, the first citation is difficult to determine. Prakash states documentation ‘exists only in the oral history of the city’. Prakash. Chandigarh's Le Corbusier, 97.
This sentiment is generally common among communities seeking WHL, and was also evident in the case of Chandigarh, as seen from several newspaper stories discussing the nomination.
Notable designers like MN Sharma have continually lobbied for UNESCO recognition.
An extensive discussion of Chandigarh's capitol complex, and its contemporary condition, is provided in Bharne, “Le Corbusier's Ruin, 99–112.
Prakash, Chandigarh's Le Corbusier, 97.
The event was the “2nd Regional Meeting on Modern Heritage, for Asian and the Pacific” organized by the World Heritage Center along with the UT Administration and CCA. The case of Chandigarh was featured in the meeting.
Officials from the French Ministry of Culture, French National UNESCO commission, led by the Le Corbusier Foundation met with city leaders in Chandigarh, hoping to develop a transnational approach. Cited in Cohen, “Listing Le Corbusier as UNESCO World Heritage.”
UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, “Operational Guidelines,” 49–53.
The criteria for the assessment of outstanding universal value are discussed in: UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage, “Operational Guidelines,” 77–78; The concept of ‘outstanding universal value’ is problematized in Pendlebury, Conservation in the Age of Consensus, 144–164.
The administration and citizens of Chandigarh have repeated this faith that tourist dollars will follow WH listing – though no substantiating evidence was discovered. The fact that the Chandigarh nomination document was written by the Department of Tourism reinforces this claim. Also see lecture by Albert Potsma, regarding the tourist impact of UNESCO nominations. Accessed July 12, 2012. Source: http://www.tourismfutures.eu/blog/2012/05/90275-etfi-tram-meeting-effects-of-unesco-world-heritage-status-on-tourism.
In 1994 UNESCO adopted a ‘Global Strategy for a Representative, Balanced, and Credible WHL’ in an attempt to ‘broaden the definition of World Heritage to better reflect the full spectrum of our world's cultural and natural treasures’. Located in a non-European country, Chandigarh's nomination aligned with the UNESCO's Global Strategy to increase the geographic diversity of its WHL. For more information on this programme, see whc.unesco.org/en/global strategy.
Department of Tourism, Chandigarh Administration, “The Urban and Architectural Work of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh,” UNESCO Tentative List Submission (2006). A Tentative WHL is an inventory of those properties which each State Party intends to consider for nomination during the following years. UNESCO encourages state parties to include properties that are considered of Outstanding Universal Value and therefore suitable for inscription on the WHL.
Department of Tourism, “The Urban and Architectural Work of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh,” (2006), 26.
The conference was titled: International Conference on Four Modern Cities: Brasilia–Chandigarh–Le Havre–Tel Aviv, and held in Le Havre, France, from September 13–14, 2007. It highlighted the uniqueness of twentieth century town planning, and the value of recognizing and protecting urban heritage. Of the four cities featured, Brasilia was inscribed on the WHL in 1987, Tel Aviv in 2003, and Le Havre in 2005. The presentations on Chandigarh were mainly historical and did not address the implementation and consequences of World Heritage status. They were titled ‘Chandigarh, A Model City’, ‘Measuring Le Corbusier in Modern India’, and ‘The Sector in Chandigarh: Definition of an Urban Paradigm’. Discussed in Colloque du Havre, 53–89.
Ibid., 174. Original quote in French.
Department of Tourism, Chandigarh Administration, “The Modern Historic Core of Chandigarh,” 5.
Ibid.
UNESCO's approach to authenticity was defined by the ‘Nara Document’ (1994) which builds on the Venice Charter (1964). See UNESCO, “Convention Concerning the Protection,” December 12–17.
UNESCO officially lists this event on their website as ‘Site Management and Urban Conservation Workshop’, yet other UNESCO documents refer to it as the ‘Workshop on the Management of Historic Urban Landscapes’. Local newspapers title the event ‘Management of Historic Urban Landscapes of the twentieth Century’. All listings place the events at the identical date and location. With a lack of further clarity, the authors presume these titles refer to the same UNESCO-sponsored event.
The ASI is a colonial–era cultural agency currently housed under the Ministry of Culture. Much of its work focuses on the protection of ‘ancient monuments and archaeological sites’ of national importance. The Agency has been less successful in protecting heritage outside of the monuments and sites framework, including developing management strategies for historic cities. For more on ASI, including a critique on their work, see Chalana. “Redefining Delhi's Heritage,” 94–95.
UNESCO, “Workshop on the Management.”
Ibid., 2. This meeting cited the lack of a ‘conservation cell in the planning department’ that included ‘professionals in all relevant fields’, and recommended an allocation of resources for its establishment.
In the article ‘Chandigarh may join UNESCO's World Heritage sites list’, the author states how “generations have talked about Chandigarh being a reflection of Le Corbusier's philosophies of life.”
The Urban Development Ministry gave its approval to the application in early 2008. However, in the chain of bureaucracy surrounding World Heritage listing in India, the application required a final approval from higher up – the Home Ministry – before it could be sent to UNESCO. It did not, however, proceed beyond this stage.
Although the city was originally designed as the capital of the Indian State of Punjab, it no longer lies within that state. Indian Punjab was further sub-divided into two states in 1966, Punjab for the Punjabi-speaking parts and Haryana for the Hindi-speaking parts. Chandigarh, lying on the border between the two, and only recently completed as the capital of Punjab, was set aside as a Union Territory (UT), much like a capital district in other countries. Chandigarh is thus the capital of both Punjab and Haryana, and a UT with a federal administrative structure).
In addition, the sites in the collection were asked to improve protection zones and establish clearer management systems to involve local authorities in the preservation of the work.
UNESCO, “Convention Concerning the Protection,” June 22–30. The Architectural and Urban Work of Le Corbusier, ID: 1321, Draft Decision: 33 COM 8B.19. Source: http://whc.unesco.org/archive/2009/whc09-33com-8Be.pdf. While the language was softened in the Decision Document, the intent of the World Heritage Committee is clear.
Some concerns about the city's ability to gain such a prestigious recognition were raised, given the lack of coordination among various agencies and limited capacity in terms of conservation cell, heritage programmes and legislation. See recommendations in UNESCO, ‘Workshop on the Management of Historic Urban Landscapes’.
UNESCO expects from properties nominated under criteria (i)–(vi), to have their physical fabric and/or its significant features in good condition, and impacts of deterioration controlled.UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, ‘Operational Guidelines’, Section II E, 79–95.
Perera, “Contesting Visions,” 175–199.
The public funded projects were almost three-quarters complete by 1956, but private improvements were slow to catch up.
Nowicki had become the preferred designer after his 8 weeks in India, and had tentatively agreed to return under a separate contract which allowed payment in rupees. Funds were limited from the start, and fluctuations in currency value (relative to the US dollar), placed the project under great restrictions. After Nowick's death, the Indian administration took the opportunity to seek a design team willing to accept payment in a non-US currency. See Evenson. Chandigarh, 25–28.
Kalia, Chandigarh.
Perera. “Contesting Visions,” 175–199.
“Urban and Architectural Work of Le Corbusier in Chandigarh,” Tentative List Submission. Accessed February 21, 2012. http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5082/.
Perera, “Contesting Visions,” 176.
Girard, Human Sustainable City, 168.
Prakash, Chandigarh's Le Corbusier, 14; Bahl, “Aditya Prakash: Indian Modernist.”
Prakash, Chandigarh's Le Corbusier, 15.
Le Corbusier Foundation lists ‘The Maison des Peons, Chandigarh, India, 1950–1965’ as the work of Le Corbusier alone. Accessed February 12, 2012. http://www.fondationlecorbusier.fr/corbuweb/morpheus.aspx?sysId=13&IrisObjectId=5963&sysLanguage=en-en&itemPos=102&itemSort=en-en_sort_string1%20&itemCount=216&sysParentName=&sysParentId=65; Nilsson, “New City, 201.
Department of Tourism, “The Urban and Architectural Work,” 21.
Author Interview with M. N. Sharma, February 10, 2011, Chandigarh, India.
Moulis, “Questions of Authorship.”
In addition, personal communications with local architects and planners revealed similar views on the periphery as having lost its original use due to poor planning and management.
Bakshi, Chandigarh.
For a larger discussion on the interaction of urban life with its built environment, see Mehrotra, “Negotiating the Static and Kinetic Cities.”
Labadi and Long, Heritage and Globalization.
UNESCO, “Convention Concerning the Protection,” December 12–17.
UNESCO recognizes that while ‘attributes such as spirit and feeling do not lend themselves easily to practical applications of the conditions of authenticity, but nevertheless are important indicators of character and sense of place, for example, in communities maintaining tradition and cultural continuity’ (UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee, “Operational Guidelines,” Section IIE).
Kalia, “Modernism, Modernization and Post-colonial India,” 133–156.
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Monuments.
Sandhu, “Heritage Call.”