Chandigarh : Historical Facts

Chandigarh has a pre-historic past. The sloping plains on which modern Chandigarh city exists, was in the ancient past, a wide lake ringed by a marsh. The fossils excavated from the site indicate a large variety of aquatic and amphibian life which was supported by that environment. About 8000 years back the area was inhabited by the Harappans.

The history of modern Chandigarh is not very old. The place was in the province of Punjab with its capital at Lahore. But due to the division of India and Pakistan in the year 1947, Lahore came in the side of Pakistan leaving Punjab without having a capital. To fill up this vacancy the government of India decided to construct a new capital in the year 1948.

An area of 114.59 sq. km was approved at the foot of the Shivalic hills in Ropar district. An existing village gave its name to the new capital. The name is derived from two words i.e. Chandi-Goddess of power and Garh-Fortress. The then prime minister of India Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru supported the project and took interests in its execution. The Swiss-French architect Charles Edouard Jeanneret (Le Corbusier) was the creator of the city. This is India’s cleanest city and perhaps Le Corbusier’s lasting legacy.

In March, 1948, the Government of Punjab, in consultation with the Government of India, approved a 114.59 sq. kms of land at the foothills of the Shivaliks as the site for the new capital. The location of the city site was a part of the erstwhile Ambala district as per the 1892-93 gazetteer of District Ambala. The site was selected by Dr.M. S. Randhawa, the then Deputy Commissioner of Ambala. The city has a unique distinction of being the capital of both, Punjab and Haryana while it itself was declared as a Union Territory and under the direct control of the Central Government.

Chandigarh was due to be transferred to Punjab by an agreement signed in August 1985 by Late Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime minister of India, with Sant Harchand Singh Longowal of the Akali Dal. But the transfer has been delayed due to a pending agreement that should be made to offer a district of Punjab to Haryana in exchange.