Chandigarh Today
Chandigarh (City Beautiful)
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Chandigarh is a city and union territory in India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is derived from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, near the city.
The city of Chandigarh was the first planned city in India post independence in 1947 (pre-independence planned cities include Dispur in Assam, New Delhi in Delhi, Jaipur in Rajasthan, etc.) and is known internationally for its architecture and urban design. The city has projects designed by architects such as Le Corbusier, Pierre Jeanneret, Jane Drew, and Maxwell Fry. The city tops the list of Indian States and Union Territories with the highest per capita income in the country at Rs.99,262 at current prices and Rs.70,361 at constant prices (2006–2007). The city was reported in 2010 to be the "cleanest" in India, based on a national government study, and the territory also headed the list of Indian states and territories according to research conducted using 2005 data by Human Development Index.
History
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After the partition of British India into India and Pakistan in 1947, the former British province of Punjab was also split between India and Pakistan. The Indian state of Punjab required a new capital city to replace Lahore, which became part of Pakistan during the partition. After several plans to make additions to existing cities were found to be unfeasible for various reasons, the decision to construct a new and planned city was undertaken. Of all the new town schemes in independent India, the Chandigarh project quickly assumed prime significance, because of the city's strategic location as well as the personal interest of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first Prime Minister of independent India. Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Chandigarh was designed by the French (born Swiss) architect and urban planner, Le Corbusier, in the 1950s. Le Corbusier was in fact the second architect of the city, after the initial master plan was prepared by the American architect-planner Albert Mayer who was working with the Polish-born architect Matthew Nowicki.[citation needed]
Chandigarh hosts the largest of Le Corbusier's many Open Hand sculptures. Standing 26 meters high, the structure was designed to in the wind . The Open Hand (La Main Ouverte) is a recurring motif in Le Corbusier's architecture, a sign for him of "peace and reconciliation. It is open to give and open to receive." It represents the give and take of ideas.
On 1 November 1966, the newly formed Indian state of Haryana was carved out of the eastern portion of the Punjab, in order to create Haryana as a majority Hindi-speaking state (with a Hindu majority), while the western portion of Punjab retained a mostly Punjabi language-speaking majority (with a Sikh majority) and remained as the current federated state of Punjab. However, the city of Chandigarh was on the border, and was thus created into a union territory to serve as capital of both these states.
Recently, political groups such as the Akali Dal have argued that Chandigarh should become solely the capital of Punjab.
