CHANDIGARH

city, joint capital of Haryana and Punjab states and a union territory of India, situated in the plain just south of the Shiwalik Hills. A major communications junction, the city of Chandigarh is connected by road and rail with Delhi, Ambala, Kalka, and Shimla. The site was selected to replace the former capital city, Lahore, lost to Pakistan at partition in 1947. Planned by the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier, in collaboration with Indian architects, it is divided into rectangular sectors. Government buildings are located in the north, and there is a large artificial lake in the northeast. The industrial areas in the southeast are separated from the city by a greenbelt. Chandigarh is the seat of Panjab University and many affiliated colleges, including nursing and engineering institutes. There is also a government museum and art gallery. The union territory of Chandigarh has an area of 44 square miles (114 square km); it contains the city of Chandigarh and the immediate surrounding region. Pop. (1991 prelim.) city, 502,992; metropolitan area, 574,646; union territory, 640,725. city and union territory of India. Located on the plain just south of the Shiwalik Hills, about 150 miles (240 kilometres) north of New Delhi, Chandigarh is bounded by the state of Haryana on the east and by the state of Punjab on all other sides. The territory is administered by a chief commissioner, who is appointed by the president of India's union (central) government. The city of Chandigarh is the capital of the territory, as well as the joint capital of the states of Haryana and Punjab. The union territory of Chandigarh was constituted on Nov. 1, 1966. It includes the city of Chandigarh, four towns, and a number of adjoining villages, which together cover 44 square miles (114 square kilometres). Chandigarh derives its name from Chandi Mandir (Temple of the Goddess Chandi), located in the village of Mani Majra. Additional reading Victor S. D'Souza, Social Structure of a Planned City (1968), is the first comprehensive sociological study of Chandigarh. Ulrich Bichsel, Periphery and Flux (1986), is an intensive study of four villages adjoining the city of Chandigarh. Ravi Kalia, Chandigarh: In Search of an Identity (1987; also published as Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City, 1988), is also useful. History Plans for building a new city on the present site of Chandigarh were begun soon after the partition of India in 1947, when the old British province of Punjab was divided into two parts. Pakistan was ceded the larger western part, including the Punjabi capital of Lahore, which left the Indian state of Punjab without an administrative, commercial, or cultural capital. It was hoped that a magnificent new capital for the state would become a symbol of modernity, heal the wounded pride of Indian Punjabis, and house thousands of mostly Hindu and Sikh refugees who had fled from Muslim-dominated Pakistan. The site chosen for the new Punjabi capital, scenically located at the foot of the Himalayas, required the relocation of some 21,000 people from 58 villages. The city was planned by the Swiss-born architect Le Corbusier, aided by Indian architects and town planners. Construction began in the early 1950s, and most of the city was completed in the early 1960s. The Chandigarh union territory was formed in 1966, when Punjab was reorganized along linguistic lines into two new statespredominantly Hindi-speaking Haryana and Punjabi-speaking Punjab. The city, straddled between Haryana and Punjab, was made the shared capital of the two states. Under the terms of the 1986 Punjab Accord, the entire union territory was to become part of Punjab, while the agriculturally productive, mostly Hindi-speaking areas of Fazilka and Abohar were to be transferred from Punjab to Haryana. Because of political uncertainty and protracted violence in Punjab, the agreement was not carried out. Chakravarthi Raghavan Surinder M. Bhardwaj