Urban planning in the third world: The Chandigarh experience. Madhu Sarin. Mansell Publishing Limited, London, 1982, 266 pp
| Date | 01 October 1984 |
| Published date | 01 October 1984 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230040408 |
| Author | Leslie Green |
PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION AND DEVELOPMENT, Vol.
4,
381-392 (1984)
Book
reviews
URBAN PLANNING IN THE THIRD WORLD: THE CHANDIGARH EXPERIENCE
Madhu
Sarin
Mansell Publishing Limited, London,
1982, 266
pp.
The subject of this interesting book is not in fact urban planning in the Third World; nor is it
even new towns in developing countries,
or
the new towns of India, where there are plenty to
study. The focus is actually Chandigarh, the new capital of Punjab State, and in passing
comparative references are made to the new towns of Brasilia, Tema and Cuidad Guayana.
The author’s theoretical approach is by way of the procrustean bed of Marxist ideology, as
opposed to Ebenezer Howard’s ‘unique combination of proposals’ which, steering
a
course
between ideological extremes, formed the foundation of the British new towns movement.
Since the author mentions Howard as the inspiration
of
Albert Mayer’s original plan for
Chandigarh, of which she appears to approve, it may be of interest to quote Osborn
(1946,
p.
35)
on Howard: ‘His approach was rather that
of
an inventor of
a
type of new town suited
to the conditions of the age, and meeting the wants of all classes and interests in the light
of
current knowledge and techniques
...
His unique triumph as an inventor in this new field is
that when he got his models constructed, they worked’. Is this approach not good enough? It
is certainly contrary to that of Le Corbusier, whom the author rightly castigates for his failure
to consider the real, day-to-day needs of the people destined to live and work in his grand but
inoperable conceit-the new capital.
Apart from the preliminary theoretical framework with its unfortunate ideological strait-
jacket, the book well covers serially Chandigarh’s historical setting; the origins of the
planning concepts used in its design and development (excluding Howard); the preparation of
the master plan, completed by Le Corbusier within a week of his arrival and after jettisoning
Mayer’s original plan; and the internal inconsistencies of I,e Corbusier’s design. The author
then outlines the development
of
Chandigarh from
1951
to
1981
and, using especially
interviews with the low-caste poor, describes, analyses and discusses the growth of non-plan
settlements
in
terms of their population, housing, employment and enterprises. The final
chapter attempts to draw conclusions for urban planning in general, in terms of Marxist
ideology and
a
criticism of conventional planning as ‘effectively, an instrument for serving
the interests of
a
particular class’. The validity of this criticism, it is claimed, ‘has been amply
demonstrated by the Chandigarh experience and that of other planned new towns’.
With respect, one reader must beg
to
differ. All the author has in fact shown is that, like
any other governmental process, the public planning process will inevitably be used in their
own vested interests by those who gain political power.
A
Jesse Jackson and
a
Marion Barry
understand this very well, and they
know
what
to
do. Jesse Jackson has just won the
Democratic primary in Washington, D.C., once itself a new town in
a
developing country and
designed by another Frenchman. Marion Barry has been re-elected as the city’s Mayor. Both
are Black Americans.
The author’s burning desire for social justice should not aim its arrows at the public
planning process as such. The proper target
is
the political process by means of which power
can be won to determine both the substance
of
planning policies and their implementation.
Since India now enjoys universal suffrage, she should be actively wielding her sword to get the
voters out. China has already begun to discard collectivization and the socialization of labour
as means to the building of
a
new Jerusalem.
LESLIE GREEN
Institute
of
Public Administration
New
York
and Washington,
D.C.
REFERENCE
Osborn,
F.
J.
(1946).
Green-belt Cities: The British Contribution,
Faber and Faber.
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