Well, this map was an adventure to make. I gave up on it several times, but ultimately I'm glad with the way it turned out.
So, one could say this city has taken a very different path in History. Today, it is a but a village called Karaundi, in the State of Madhya Pradesh, that has very little of interest by itself, except for the fact that, in a plot of land near it, is the geographic center of India. There's a small monument, but nothing fancy, really. From what I could tell, the people there live very simple lives, build clay furnances and cultivate the countryside.
I decided to then take their area for a test and use it to design an eco-friendly Gandhian socialist city to serve as capital for an India under Gandhian socialism. Since one day I may want to work on this scenario, I won't give many details, but the general idea is the Bihar Movement of Gandhian socialists triumphing over Indira Gandhi during the Emergency, and leading to the Total Revolution movement triumphing in India and reforming the country under their principles. In my writing idea, the support of retired Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw is what leads them to victory, making him the first President under the new Constitution and giving him the statue in the city. Also representing a union between the pacifist Gandhians and the Indian Army (or better yet, National Force of Guardians) that would be quite necessary for the country, considering Pakistan was already a thing and wouldn't become more amicable by India turning a weird form of socialist.
The ideals of the new government and the nomenclature used are inspired in that of the Gandhian Constitution, written by Shriman Narayan in 1946; to put it short, the majority of power and functions would be in the local village Pachayat, elected by a council of all its citizens, around 1000 adults, which elects one of its members as President. They were to enjoy maximum local authority, being entrusted with matter such as education, recreation, protection, agriculture, industry, commerce, sanitation and healthcare, justice and taxation.
A few dozen villages would bind together as a Taluka, with a pachayat made from the presidents of each village, with one of them being elected as Taluka President; the taluka would audit the villages' dealings, provide high school eductation, maintain hospitals for more specific treatment, run cooperative banks, keep roads, maintain model farms and organise inter-village sports tournaments.
A dozen Talukas would bind together as a district, with a Pachayat made of the presidents of each Taluka, electing one of their own to be District President. They'd audit taluka accounts, provide college education, maintain hospitals for very specific diseases, maintain a reserve of Guardians for emergencies, run larger cooperative banking societies, make arrengements for irrigation and organise sporting events. In urban scenarios, the district would be a Municipality. Due to its status, Gandhinagar and its wider area form a district.
The District President is a member of the Provincial Pachayat, which elects one of its own as Provincial President. They are responsible with auditing districts, maintaining a reserve of Guardians for emergencies, arrange for university education and research centers, organise transport and communications, provide irrigational facilities, organise famine relief, run a cooperative bank for credit loans, develop the natural resources of the Province and manage its key industries. The Pachayat should also appoint a Provincial executive branch of Ministers to oversee these efforts.
Finally, the Central Government, headquartered in Gandhinagar, has its legislative branch in the All-India Pachayat, to which the President of each Province is a member and which elects one of its leaders as the President of India to serve as Head of State. They also appoint a Cabinet of Ministers. They'll have the mission of defending the country against foreign threats, develop the National Force of Guardians, coordinate provincial plans of economic development, run the key industries of importance to All India, manage the departments of transport and communications, regulate currency, customs and international trade, maintain educational institutions of All India importance to manage key research points and to shape foreign policy of the Nation.
Gandhinagar was built specifically to host the Central Government, but not only that, but to serve as a model for the reconstruction of large cities into the Gandhian way. Always advocates of ruralisation, the Gandhian socialists struggled most with adapting their ideas to an urban and industrial lifestyle and, although great opponents of the Nehrunian industrialisation of India, they nevertheless understood it was necessary for the country to maintain certain industries that produced domestic products. Gandhinagar was born out of the ideal of binding together the simple rural life of the Gandhians with the modern necessities of the world; a city made Gandhian, to show the entire nation the world they had been promised could occur. If Gandhinagar could function, then why couldn't Mumbai or Delhi be like that?
If it worked or not, and how truthful is the image of "The City of Gandhi" as the paradise he envisioned... Well, that I'll let each reader decide, to be honest, because I myself can't figure out what would be the natural evolution of things here. All I know I was challenged to change the destiny of a city, and I took a small village in central India and made it into a thriving, if odd city built around a concept that, really, is that of an "upside down town".
I hope you enjoyed the map, and the details (I stole a lot from the
Gandhian Constitution, it is a real thing, I'd suggest anyone interested reads it, as it has a very interesting manifesto of the views of the Gandhian socialists. Designing cities remains a challenge to me, but it was really fun working on this, since I basically had a blank canvas to work on, in a neat little valley that gave me limits by nature where to work the city and give it a rather natural contour. It turned really well, in my opinion. At least I wasn't expecting myself to like the design as much as I do.
