The modernist city, given to transformative social change, is both celebrated and criticized for its ambitions. Today, at a time of massive urbanization, does the modernist tryst with city making have useful lessons for the present and the impending future, especially in the face of the climate crisis and rising authoritarianism?

Using the life and career of Aditya Prakash as our starting point, this panel discussion will discuss this topic in terms of its various contemporary postcolonial contexts such as the Nehruvian state and modern architecture, the green revolution and the farmers' protests and the imperatives of new town building.