Chandigarh History, India

Chandigarh is a city which is located in the state of Punjab but it serves as the capital for Haryana and Punjab (both being states in India). Chandigarh is also one of the few union territories for India. The meaning of the word is Chandigarh, ‘The Fort of Chandi’ where Chandi was a Hindu Goddess during the medieval periods. The word ‘garh’ actually means ‘fort’.

Initially Lahore was capital of Punjab, but after India was divided into two countries, Pakistan and India the state of Punjab was also split between the two countries and this is when the need for another capital for Indian state of Punjab was required. Government officials worked hard to find a city that was worth the status of capital. The hard work of officials was a waste of time, as they couldn’t find any city suitable for this status. This is when they made up their minds to build a city from scratch and give it the status of capital.

Polish architect Matthew Nowicki and American architect Albert Mayer were the ones responsible for the design of this new city. Later on, the services of French architect Le Corbusier (who was actually a Swiss) were used somewhere in 1950s so as to get the buildings of this new city designed to abide international norms. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru was very serious about giving Chandigarh the look of a modern city which was not focused on preserving the cultural history of India. He wanted this city to reflect that India is ready for the future.

It was November 1 1966, that the eastern section of Punjab was split into another state Haryana as that region contained inhabitants who used Hindi in their day-to-day work. The other part was using Punjabi and hence it was named Punjab while the other Haryana.

Chandigarh lies within the border of Punjab and Haryana and hence it was given the status of Union Territory and finally it was declared the capital for both Punjab and Haryana.

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