India, June 1 -- The first three decades after Independence were marked by an extraordinary burst of building. Driven by imperatives of urbanisation, industrialisation, and institution building, Modernist architecture became the idiom of a forward-looking democracy. The promise that Modernist architecture would lead us to a modern world permeated in popular culture. Movies like Hum Hindustani (1960) and Satyakaam (1969) used massive infrastructure and engineering projects to invoke an idea of a modern India that was forward looking and open to new ideas. On the other hand, Arati, the protagonist of Satyajit Ray's Mahanagar (1963), moves between the traditional domesticity of a middle-class home and the glass partitioned offices of Calcutt...