Chandigarh is the modern, new state capital built by the government of India in the immediate aftermath of its independence from 200 years of colonial rule. On 15 August 1947, India’s hard-won freedom was accompanied by a partition that established Pakistan as a separate country. As a result, the Indian state of Punjab lost its historic capital, Lahore, to Pakistan. Consequently, the search for a replacement capital for East Punjab was high on the agenda of the fledgling Indian nation-state. A burgeoning sense of national pride focused attention on the search for this new capital, and the project took on great symbolic value as a demonstration of the new government’s effectiveness, ideals, and abilities. Although the development of this new capital was ostensibly a state project, the central government took an active role in the endeavor, propelled by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s personal interest in it. Instead of choosing an existing city, Nehru advocated the making of a new cap...