Land(e)scapes of Utopia: Reconciling old ways of living in New Towns in India

by Rachna Mehra

Mehra writes about the new towns built in India post-1947 that were intended to exhibit the vigour and vitality embodied in the actions of the fledgling nation state. As a result, the objective was to create new human relations as a corollary to planning. It implied that people could transform civic life if they embraced and optimized the hard-won gains of citizenship over the kinship ties.

Assistant Professor in Urban Studies Program, Ambedkar University, Delhi; interested in Partition Studies, gender and refugee rehabilitation policies in India, and the urban history of small towns and cities.