Queering utopia: Pride walks in modernist Chandigarh

Preetika Sharma, Kanchan Gandhi and Anu Sabhlok
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Preetika Sharma: Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, India
Kanchan Gandhi: Dr BR Ambedkar University, India
Anu Sabhlok: Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Mohali, India

Urban Studies, 2023, vol. 60, issue 14, 2799-2815

Abstract: In this paper, we queer the understanding of urban spaces to move forward a utopian project. ‘Let this be a new town unfettered by the traditions of the past, a step into the future’, proclaimed Nehru about Chandigarh. Designed by Le Corbusier and his team in the 1950s, Chandigarh was symbolically and materially meant to propel India into modernity. Although built with the ideals of socialism and secularism, Chandigarh is very much an elite city. This paper traces the Queer Pride parade initiated in the year 2013 to appreciate how non-normative groups challenge and subvert the planning of Chandigarh. Our attempt in this paper is to queer the utopian understanding of Chandigarh. We do this through a reading of pride walks as disruptive moments that assign new possibilities and meanings to public spaces. Technocratic solutions proposed as part of grand urban planning imaginations can never take us closer to utopia. Instead, we argue, it is through disruptions caused by events like pride parades that we slowly inch towards utopia. In making the above argument, this paper pushes the boundaries of both queer theory and urban utopian imaginations.

Keywords: architecture; Chandigarh; gender; queer; utopia; 建筑; æ˜Œè¿ªåŠ å°”; 性别; å Œæ€§æ ‹; 乌托邦 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:14:p:2799-2815

DOI: 10.1177/00420980231164074

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