“We must become the change we want the world to become.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi

On August 15, 1947, after three hundred and fifty years of conflict and colonial rule, India achieved independence from Britain. Lord Louis Mountbatten, who had been appointed viceroy of India the previous February, was charged to oversee the transfer of power. Mountbatten was to determine whether India would be divided into more states and, if so, where and how the boundaries were to be drawn. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mohandas K. Gandhi dreamed of a united India, but years of pressure from the Jinnah-led Muslim League divided this effort. Although at one time Muslim leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah also favored a unified India, he came to endorse the idea of a separate state. On August 14, the day prior to leaving the country, the British divided India into two independent states - India for Hindus and the newly formed Pakistan for Muslims.

“I worked to the limits of my imagination.”- Nek Chand

Located at the foothills of the Himalayan Mountains, Chandigarh was the premiere planned city in modern India. The country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, conceived of the modern Punjab capital as "symbolic of the freedom of India, unfettered by the traditions of the past…an expression of the nation's faith in its future." The French architect of Swiss origin Le Corbusier, the leading Modernist architect of the International Style, was hired to design Chandigarh as the new Indian capital when Lahore, the former capital, became part of Pakistan.

Le Corbusier was appointed consultant for the project and designer of the municipal buildings. His main contributions were designs for the High Court of Justice (1956), the Secretariat (1958), the Palace of Assembly (1964), and the unexecuted Governor's Palace. Constructed primarily of concrete, the government buildings were monumental and reflected Le Corbusier's confidence in the country's anticipated progress and his utopian plans of a community perfectly controlled by architecture. He worked on Chandigarh from 1951 until his death, in 1965.

As conceived by Le Corbusier, the generally austere, monochromatic city is built on a symmetrical geometric grid of zoned sectors interspersed with landscaping and waterways. The strong horizontal and vertical layout is only occasionally interrupted by curvaceous moments. This geometric and open approach to architecture contrasts with India's densely congested cities, and from Nek Chand's unscripted Rock Garden.

The master plan for Chandigarh has been criticized as inappropriate for its intended population and many declare that Le Corbusier's urban plan failed to respect the vernacular traditions of a people accustomed to narrow streets and closely integrated residential and shopping areas. Yet despite this, the coherent government complex remains a powerful symbol for a state establishing independence and self-government. Prime Minister Nehru said, "It doesn't really matter whether you like Chandigarh or whether you don't like it. The fact of the matter is simply this; it has changed your lives."

“There was nothing here before – it was all flat. There was nothing but sand.” - Nek Chand

Nek Chand conceived of Rock Garden in 1958 when he began collecting rocks, industrial waste, and salvaged objects from demolished villages every evening before returning home from his job as a road inspector. Working in secret for eighteen years on forested city property not designated for construction, Chand built his “kingdom” from the wellsprings of his imagination and the observations of the building of Chandigarh. Both Le Corbusier and Chand created their sites in phases, explored the endless technical possibilities with material, particularly concrete, and adapted the landscape to suit their end goal. Nek Chand’s artwork reflects the influence of Le Corbusier’s architecture, as well as illustrates visual and philosophical revolts against it.

In keeping with the Hindu belief in the interrelationship of everything in the world, Nek Chand’s Rock Garden epitomizes the unity in nature of all things: humans, animals, birds, fantasy creatures, water, and rocks. Rock Garden is an organic experience, with curving paths opening to arched walkways, walls, terraces, and even waterfalls. Flowers, plants, trees, shrubs, and waterways that Chand has cultivated over the years dot the landscape and offer a vernacular contrast to the austerity of Le Corbusier’s vision of Chandigarh.

Organizing his project in three general phases, Nek Chand spent the first phase working alone and illegally on six acres of land, where he arranged natural zoomorphic rock forms and terracotta vessels on platforms against walls of boulders, rocks, pebbles, and broken crockery embedded in concrete. In the second phase, Chand constructed a miniature replica of his birthplace orchestrating dramatic arrangements of figures, animals, and natural forms. The third phase is a work in progress for the 81-year-old artist and includes a great waterfall, an amphitheatre, and giant swings for public use.

Without preparatory drawings or written plans, Chand developed an environment that includes thousands of sculptured figures ranging in size depicting guards, musicians, fantasy figures, queens, women fetching water, officers, a wedding party and scenes of village life, along with many animals, such as dogs, birds, horses, bears, monkeys, elephants, and camels.

A recycling master, Chand creates this populated universe from discarded materials. While some sculptures are minimally adorned with brick dust, for example, the artist frequently embellishes his forms. He uses everything imaginable: broken tiles and ceramic kitchenware, bricks, glass bangles, plastic dolls, fluorescent bulbs, rags, bicycle parts, foundry waste (such as clinker and slag), stones, human hair, and other miscellany. It is a tribute to Nek Chand’s audacity that he has received recognition in India, where recycling is often frowned upon. The stoic presence and elegance of Nek Chand’s figures fulfills his intent to create a “Kingdom of Goddesses and Gods,” an evocation of an organic world where all living things can unite in mutual respect and peace.

On a visit to India in 1983, Ann Lewin, then director of the National Children’s Museum, visited Nek Chand’s extraordinary Rock Garden, where she viewed the thousands of human, animal, bird, and fantasy figures and architectural elements set into a cultivated and constructed landscape. Impressed by the garden’s artistic merits as well as by Chand’s vast imagination, she requested that Chand create a smaller model in Washington, D.C. Lewin’s idea was to illustrate for the youth in Washington one man’s devotion to creativity and cultural preservation. She felt that Nek Chand had accomplished the impossible through sheer willpower, determination, and talent.

The 1984 installation of Nek Chand’s “Fantasy Garden” in Washington was part of extensive cultural celebrations in India and the United States to honor Indian independence from colonial rule and forty years of significant cultural exchange between the two nations. The project became the artist’s first large-scale undertaking outside of his country.

More than thirty tons of concrete and cloth sculptures were shipped by boat from India (where they were constructed) to be installed on the three-acre museum site in Washington. As an artist in residence, Nek Chand supervised the installation of the sculptures at the museum’s entrance, in its courtyard, and its covered walkways and high terraces. Local volunteers – including artists and school children – worked closely with the artist to realize this project.

“A nation’s culture resides in the hearts and in the soul of its people.” - Mohandas K. Gandhi