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Queering utopia: Pride walks in modernist Chandigarh

Author

Listed:
  • 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)

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.

Suggested Citation

  • Preetika Sharma & Kanchan Gandhi & Anu Sabhlok, 2023. "Queering utopia: Pride walks in modernist Chandigarh," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 60(14), pages 2799-2815, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:urbstu:v:60:y:2023:i:14:p:2799-2815
    DOI: 10.1177/00420980231164074
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Alison L Bain & Julie A Podmore, 2021. "Placing LGBTQ+ urban activisms," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(7), pages 1305-1326, May.
    2. Ganeshwari Singh & Simrit Kahlon & Vishwa Bandhu Singh Chandel, 2019. "Political Discourse and the Planned City: Nehru’s Projection and Appropriation of Chandigarh, the Capital of Punjab," Annals of the American Association of Geographers, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 109(4), pages 1226-1239, July.
    3. David Pinder, 2015. "Reconstituting the Possible: Lefebvre, Utopia and the Urban Question," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 39(1), pages 28-45, January.
    4. Yvonne P. Doderer, 2011. "LGBTQs in the City, Queering Urban Space," International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 35(2), pages 431-436, March.
    5. Max J Andrucki, 2021. "Queering social reproduction: Sex, care and activism in San Francisco," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 58(7), pages 1364-1379, May.
    6. John Nagle, 2022. "‘Where the state freaks out’: Gentrification, Queerspaces and activism in postwar Beirut," Urban Studies, Urban Studies Journal Limited, vol. 59(5), pages 956-973, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

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