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South Asia holds a unique place among the many regions of the world where modern architecture in the second half of the twentieth century was understood as a tool for social progress. Following the end of British rule in 1947/48, architects in the territories of today's India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka proposed a novel understanding of modernity, disrupting the colonial hierarchy of center and periphery by challenging modernism's universalist claims.
In dialogue with global developments, South Asian architects sought to break with the colonial past, whether by creating new cities and spaces for political representation, establishing institutions that embodied the societal aspirations of the period, or pursuing the theory and practice of low-cost, climatically and socially responsive design. Complemented by a newly commissioned portfolio of images from architectural photographer Randhir Singh, this richly illustrated and meticulously researched exhibition catalogue features essays by the curators and leading scholars in the field on subjects such as the politics of concrete, institution-building, higher education, housing, infrastructure and industry, landscape, and design pedagogy, as well as presentations of seventeen transformative projects from around the subcontinent.
While several of the architects appearing in these pages have been the subject of monographic exhibitions In recent years, The Project of Independence : Architectures of Decolonization in South Asia, 1947-1985 is the first transnational consideration of their work within the ideological frameworks of its creation and the political context of the region as a whole.
