ABSTRACT
At midnight on August 14, 1947 Nehru proclaimed that India’s
“tryst with destiny,” made so long ago, would now be redeemed
as a new nation “awaken[s] to life and freedom.” Such a
moment, he continued, “comes but rarely in history, when
we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends,
and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utter-
ance . . .”.1 Despite Nehru’s proclamations of a new India, even
Le Corbusier realized the past was still very much present there.
Laminating it with the future was a unique opportunity for
