Discover the Open Hand Monument of Chandigarh

The sprawling Capitol Complex parks of Chandigarh have a strange statue. From a distance, it looks like a large bird. On getting nearer, we realise it’s shaped like a bird, but is actually a giant open human hand. What does a 46 feet high and 50 ton heavy hand, mounted on a high base, rotating in the wind mean? It’s clearly more than just a massive wind vane against the backdrop of the faraway Himalayas and the city all around. Let’s find out more about it today.  

Who made the Open Hand?  
Charles-Edouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier was a French architect, who also wrote, painted and worked as a designer. He was one of the most influential, admired and also controversial architects of the modern era. He designed the city of Chandigarh for only 1,50,000 residents in 1950. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru got him involved in the project. The city was to have ample greenery, water bodies, simple but uniformly well-made and well-ventilated houses, administration blocks and an industrial area. Le Corbusier left his mark on the city by installing the Open Hand, a recurring motif he has installed in several other places that he designed and built. But he only designed the Open Hand of Chandigarh, he did not build it.  

How did the Open Hand get built? 
Le Corbusier kept writing to Nehru about installing the hand at Chandigarh. He had deep philosophical reasons for this, and declared it his dream project. The hand was originally supposed to be a colourful structure, and Le Corbusier suggested an alternative site too at the Bhakra Nangal Dam. With no government approval forthcoming, he even tried to raise funds from corporates. But he died in 1965, and it was 20 years after that, in 1985, that the Open Hand monument finally got made as a sculpture from a hand-cast sheet metal at the Bhakra Nangal Management Board's workshop.  

What is the philosophy behind the Open Hand structure? 
The Open Hand, for Le Corbusier, was a symbol of peace and reconciliation, of acceptance and unity among humans. An open hand signifies that a person is willing to give as well as receive. The architect remained deeply involved with this idea throughout his life. The Open Hand Monument has been adopted as the city emblem for Chandigarh.