Gandhinagar : building national identity in postcolonial India / Ravi Kalia.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

The making of the Gujarat state -- The politics of site -- The Kahn seminar in Ahmedabad -- The plan and architecture.

"Exploring the impact of modernist architecture on India as a whole, Kalia suggests that the style gained acceptance because its parsimonious designs and unadorned spaces never represented a threat to a religiously pluralist country anxious to create a secular identity. He explains how two competing versions of Indian history and ideology - Gandhi's and Jawaharlal Nehru's - employed modernism's ideals for their own separate ends. Serving two masters, as Kalia illustrates, created constrictions and tensions evident in the building of Gandhinagar and in the careers of many Indian architects, including Doshi, Charles Correa, and Achyut Kanvinde."--BOOK JACKET.