hen JawaharlalNehru had tochoose an archi-tect to design thenew capital for di-vided Punjab inthe newly inde-pendent nation,he was building an

ideology as a city. And this ideology was sup-posed to self-consciously deny tradition. Tra-dition, he felt, would bring with it the memoryof a nation divided along lines of caste, lan-guage, race and gender. Instead the rational-ism of science, it was thought, would be able tocreate a city for the future a city unfetteredby the weight of tradition. He chose Le Corbu-sier, the Swiss-French architect, in the hopethat the new city would be built on modernrationalist principles. Science was to trumphistory. Chandigarh was planned using theseprinciples a neat grid patterns with sectorsfor governance, commerce, various housingtypes. The city today that epitome of mod-ernist planning in India is a great place tostay for car-owners who live in the single-family homes around the parks in the varioussectors; the poor often have no place and haveto live in slums on the outskirts.If there is acommon feature in the profession of the ar-chitect/planner and that of the politician it isthe promise of a better future. Both dangleutopian chimeras in front of us that theypromise to deliver if we choose their services.These include a better world to live in betterliving conditions, better employment oppor-tunities, better environmental conditions,more transparency and accountability in gov-ernance among many more imaginations of abetter life. These become a constellation ofideas that represent the aspirations anddreams of all. The current government wasable to package this together

WEEKLY EDITION 2. SUNDAY JULY 26, 2015

under a convenient and catchy slogan: AccheDin (Better Days). These better days weremainly defined by their difference from theprevious years, which were projected to befilled with corruption, nepotism and all kindsof darkness. The campaigns success was clearin the result of last years elections. TheSmart Cities project was one vehicle to deliv-er on the governments pre-election promisesof development.

What are we to make of the Smart inSmart Cities the new catchphrase that thegovernment has introduced to our vocabulary.Not that this phrase is new in urban planningparlance. It is yet another in the never-endinglitany of latest, newest, cutting-edge andavant-garde terms used by architects, plan-ners and, above all, Information Technologygiants as the panacea to all the evils of ourcities. Although there is great deal of ambigui-ty about what the term smart city means inour context; around the world, the formulathat is being used to create the Smart Cities isthat an information technology company pro-vides a highly technologically advanced in-frastructure system that is involved incollecting and analysing the data of differenttypes from within the city. These involve thenumber of people, the number of cars, theamount of water needed, the electricity. Theother aspect is that these cities are to be builtlargely by the private sector. In a sense, thismodel of development seems to be very closeto the model of the Special Economic Zonesthat were being touted as the vehicles throughwhich rural India was going to betransformed.

Fuelled by airbrushed images of high-risetowers glistening in the sunlight, parks wheremiddle-class children and expatriates jog inthe mornings, and metro lines zooming over-head, these impressions convey a sort of city-ness where all the existing complex social in-

equities and economic travails are magicallywhisked away. Perhaps it was no accidentthat the first imagination of the smartcities were self-contained enclaves thatwould rise like mirages in the hinterlandaround existing cities. These gave rise tothe thought that some sort of shelter couldbe found in the security of the known. Theidea was that the danger of the unknownwould be kept away and managed by thismega-machine that would keep the envi-ronment safe.

Speaking about smart cities, Dutch archi-

tect Rem Koolhaas said that the traditionaltrinity of liberty, equality and fraternityhave been replaced in the 21st century bycomfort, security and sustainability. Thusthe older, traditional cities where onemet strangers were painted as a lostcause. It was here that danger, corruption,fear, crime and all kinds of darkness lurk.The Smart City, it seemed, lay in a spaceof infinite light. As a propaganda piece, itwas perfect.

This techno-utopian imagination is notnew to urban planning and architecture. To

consolidate their claim over being theprofessionals most capable of managing therapidly growing urban landscape, plannersand architects especially over the lastcentury have often made a case for themathematical and rationalistic justificationof their plans. Multitudes of data have beencollected and processed though variedanalytical systems to arrive at probabilitiesand projections of the future of cities. Citiesand neighbourhoods have been built in themisplaced faith that, if we understand themath, it will be automatically an ideal placefor living. The cities that emerged becauseof this were banal, joyless and oftencompletely inaccessible for most of theIndian urban population.

The fundamental belief that shaped thisoutlook was that peoples lives, desires andaspirations can be understood through amathematical model. The failure of thisidea of planning dots the contemporaryworld. Perhaps the most notorious exampleknown to architects is the demolition of thePruitt Igoe housing projects in St Louis,Missouri. A high-rise complex of slab-likebuildings set in a landscape to house theurban poor was demolished a few yearsafter they were built, as they were per-ceived to be centres of crime and corrup-tion. This contrast between the supposedorder that lies within a techno-utopia andthe impossibility of pinning down real lifeand desires has been a common theme inliterature and films over the past century;whether it is George Orwells 1984 with theall-seeing and all-knowing Big Brother orJacques Tatis French classic Playtimewhere the bumbling Monsieur Hulot en-counters an alienating and cold modernistParis where everything is in its right place;

Utopian chimeras of the futureWhat makes a smart city? Can technology alone help build cities of tomorrow? Interventions are needed to enable local communities to use

information technology in shaping their environments, says Rohan Shivkumar

Patricia Rosario on her plans for an annual opera in India P34 6

2 5Megaphones remain mute in Chhattisgarh. By Debarshi DasguptaTalking Point

Journeys

Buskers are a major part of sightseeing in Europe. By Ashis Dutta

Literary ReviewAvirook Sen on his bookAarushi, and the Indian legal system

Literary Review

Jerk? Genius? N.S. Ramnath reviewsBecoming Steve Jobs

CM

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