History of Chandigarh

In 1947, because of India and Pakistan’s partition, the Punjab province was split into two parts. Lahore went to Pakistan, so India needed a capital city for the Indian state of Punjab. All existing cities in the state were found unsuitable to serve the purpose of a capital city and hence a new planned city was proposed after a survey. Jawaharlal Nehru took deep interests in creating a new and planned city that could be strategically located to serve the purpose of the capital city. Commissioned by Nehru, the French architect Le Corbusier prepared the city plan in the 1950s. This way a completely new city was born to showcase progressive moves of the independent India.

 

In 1966, a new state Haryana was formed carving out some of the Hindi-speaking portions of Punjab. However, Chandigarh was retained as the capital of this newly formed state and still today, the city serves as the capital of both Punjab and Haryana states. Some activists from the Sikh majority of Punjab demand Chandigarh to be included in the Punjab state only. In order to avoid any sort of controversy, the city has been given a status of a Union Territory of India.

15 Places to Visit in Chandigarh