
The Secret Kingdom: Nek Chand, a Changing India, and a Hidden World of Art
Barb Rosenstock
The Secret Kingdom traces Nek Chand Saini’s creation of the Rock Garden of Chandigarh after the 1947 Partition of India. Raised in Punjab among family stories and traveling minstrels, Nek later resettles in Chandigarh and builds a private “village” in jungle at the city’s edge. He gathers discarded objects and remnants of former villages to create paths, mosaic walls, and sculptures of people and animals. When officials discover the work after fifteen years and seek to tear it down, Chandigarh residents intervene so he can continue creating.
This book appears on 3 reading lists across 2 editions from 3 organizations.


