The Story of Chandigarh
Chandigarh is synonymous to a certain kind of architecture, along
with planned landscaping which is, not found in other cities of
India, and not amenable to being strait jacketed. Here's the story
of 'The City Beautiful' for you.
The Government of Punjab, initially approached American town planner
Albert Mayer who along with architect Mathew Nowicki became the
key planners for the new city. The master plan conceived by them
had a fan-shaped outline filling the site between the two seasonal
river-beds. Against the beautiful background of the Shivalik Hills
was located the capital complex, at the northern edge of the city.
The City Centre was sited in the middle, and two linear parklands
ran from the northeast to the southwest. The Mayer wanted to create
a self-sufficient city, restricted in size and surrounded by green
belts. Areas for business, industry and cultural activities were
clearly demarcated. In August 1950, his co-planner Nowicki died
in a plane crash and Mayer withdrew from the project.
This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual
maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to
be translated into brick and mortar. Eminent architect and urban
theorist, Le Corbusier, was then selected to carry forward this
task. He chose to retain many of the seminal ideas of Mayer and
Nowicki, like the basic framework of the master plan and its components;
the Capital, City Centre, besides the University, Industrial area,
and linear parkland. Even the neighbourhood unit was retained as
conceived by the previous architects. However, the curving outline
of Mayer and Nowicki were redeisgned into a mesh of rectangles,
and the buildings were characterised by an 'honesty of materials'.
Exposed brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced
unfinished concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became
the architecture form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped
gardens and parks.
The Master Plan
Le Corbusier saw the master plan of Chandigarh as analogous to
a living organism, with a clearly defined head (the Capital Complex,
Sector 1), heart (the City Centre, Sector 17), lungs (the leisure
valley, innumerable open spaces and green sector), the intellect
(the cultural and educational institutions), the circulatory system
(the network of roads, the 7 Vs), and the viscera (the Industrial
Area).
Historical Circumstances for need of Chandigarh
August 15, 1947, the day of independence of India was also the
day of division of a nation into India and Pakistan, this was also
the day of division of State of Punjab (Punj+Aab) named so for being
the land of five rivers being divided into two states West punjab
gone in Pakistan with retaining Lahore as its capital and East Punjab
in India became a state without a capital. Shimla which used to
be the summer capital of India and had the infrastructure was salected
as the temporary capital of Punjab.
The Government of Punjab selected brilliant young engineer Mr.
P.L. Verma to undertake the tasks of search for a premanent Capital
City for the State of Punjab.
At that time the Punjabis were very nostalgic about Lahore. Till
the last moment they hoped that Lahore would remain with India.
The loss was felt acutely and people were eager for a city similar
to Lahore be built. So Verma and his team of engineers savoured
the concept of a larger independent town, when most of the bureaucrats
and politicians favoured the concept of a small settlement attached
to one of the existing towns. Bureaucrats were conscious of the
acute shortage of funds and the very small financial outlay for
Punjab. Each politician was eager that this capital be built in
the area from where he came. All politicians were trying to pull
the capital towards their own constituency.
Under such circumstances Mr. Verma had to lobby intensively with
the bureaucrats and the politicians. And it was essentially an account
of his dedicated and relentless efforts and lobbying that this idea
of a large independent town was finally accepted by Government of
Punjab.
Selection of Site
After investigating a no. of sites, the team of engineers &
bureaucrats headed by Mr. P.L. Verma, selected the existing site
of Chandigarh which met almost all the requirements for a new city.
The area was a flat, gently sloping plain of agricultural land
dotted with groves of mango trees which marked the sites of 24 villages
or hamlets -- one of which was named Chandigarh on account of its
temple dedicated to the goddess.
The general ground level of the site ranges from 305 to 366 meters
with a 1 per cent grade giving adequate drainage. To the northeast
are the foothills of the Himalayas -- the Shivalik Range -- rising
abruptly to about 1524 meters and a dramatic natural backdrop. One
seasonal stream, the Patiali ki Rao, lies on the western side of
the city and another, the Sukhna Choe, on the eastern side. A third,
smaller seasonal stream flows through the very center of Chandigarh.
The area along this stream bed has been turned into a series of
public gardens called the Leisure Valley.
And finally in March, 1948, the Government of Punjab in consultation
with the Government of India, approved a 114.59 sq. km tract of
land at the foot of the Shivalik Hills in Ropar district as the
site of the new capital. An existing village gave its name (Chandi
- Goddess of Power + garh - fortress) to the new city.
Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, the First prime minister of India was
also quite initimately involved wioth the Chandigarh project.
Pandit Nehru immediately took the final decision and on his visit
to the project site on April 2, 1952, said," The site chosen
is free from the existing encumbances of old towns and old traditions.
Let it be the first expression of our creative genius flowing on
our newly earned freedom.-----Let it be a new town symbolic of the
freedom of India unfattered by the traditions of the past and axpression
of the nation's faith in the future.---The new capital of Punjab
will be christened as Chandigarh-a name symbolic of the valiant
spirit of the Punjabis. Chandigarh is rightly associated with the
name of Goddess Chandi -- Shakti, or power."
>>More..
The name of the city is derived from Goddess of power known as
Shri Chandika whose temple is on Chandigarh-Kalka Road. The temple
is known by the name of Chandi Mandir. It is considered to be an
ancient site and has a major religious significance for Hindus.
After India's independence from British rule Punjab became a state
without a capital. Though there was a temporary secretariat at Shimla
in Himachal Pradesh, the political leadership decided on the construction
of a modern and accessible capital. This was Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru's
Dream City of modern India. The city was named as Chandigarh. This
is the first planned city of India.
The responsibility for the design was given to the French architect
Le Corbusier or the Crow. With the help of his cousin Pierre Jeanneret,
and that of the English couple Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew (alongwith
a number of Indian architects prominent amongst them Chief planner
Narinder S. Lamba & Chief Engineer J.C. Verma) Chandigarh, the
present capital, came into existence at the foothills of the Shivaliks
(the first of three parallel chains of the Himalayas).
It was built in 1953 and serves as the capital of two states, i.e.
Punjab and Haryana. It is administered by the Central Government
and is hence classified as an Union Territory. Since 1986 there
has been much talk about officially handling it to Punjab on the
basis of demography. The issue however continues to be a matter
of discussion with many political disputes.
Chandigarh has become synonymous with a certain kind of architecture,
along with planned landscaping, not found in the older cities of
India. And so we begin the story of Chandigarh.
Chandigarh was designed and constructed as the new Capital of the
State of Punjab. The second important objective was to rehabilitate
the refugees from Pakistan. The search for the new Capital began
immediately after independence and by early 1948, the choice for
the new Capital was finally narrowed down to three sites which came
to be known in order of preference:
Ambala site
Chandigarh site
Ludhiana site.
The cost of acquisition for Chandigarh site was much less as compared
to Ludhiana and Ambala site. The Chandigarh site was also at a safe
distance from the Pakistan border. It was felt that instead of siting
the Capital at the existing town, it would be better if a totally
new town was built for that purpose. The Government of Punjab in
consultation with Government of India in March, 1948 selected the
Chandigarh site which was located in the Kharar Tehsil of Ambala
District.
The city was to be built in two phases over an area of 28000 acres
of land in 58 villages. A total of 21000 persons or about 6228 families
were likely to be affected. The local people vehemently opposed
to the idea of the New City. They formed Anti Rajdhani Committee
(Anti Capital Committee) and protested against the Government move
to site the new Capital here. The work proceeded at slow pace for
about two years. It was only in December, 1949 that the Architect
was selected and the government reached the final decision of constructing
the capital at the Chandigarh site. The early development of the
City was guided by Shri P.N. Thapar, a member of Indian Civil Services
who became Administrative head of the Capital Project in 1949 and
Shri P.L. Varma, Chief Engineer of Punjab.
Although eager to build a new capital that would compensate for
the loss of Lahore, the Indians were nevertheless poorly equipped
to carry out their intention. Administered by a large and sophisticated
bureaucracy trained in the impersonal idiom of colonial rule, India
was still woefully inexperienced in technical areas. Architectural
schools were virtually nonexistent, indigenous architectural tradition
had practically faded and local craft skills were visibly on the
decline. Initially, the Government of Punjab approached American
town planner Albert Mayer who along with architect Matthew Nowicki
became the key planners for the new city. Albert Mayer was appointed
as project architect on 28/12/1949.
Albert Mayer was a Graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology
and he started his career as a Civil Engineer. World War II brought
Mayer to India as a United States Army Civil Engineer. He built
airfields in Bengal. After the end of World War, he started his
Indian career by proposing to build model villages to the new Government
of Pandit Nehru. He built some villages in Etawah district of Uttar
Pradesh . The master plan conceived for chandigarh by the American
team had a fan-shaped outline filling the site between the two seasonal
river-beds. The plan also had the sectors concept which in this
case were called Super Blocks. Each Super Block was divided into
three parts, the middle part of which was devoted to the provision
of public amenities like shopping, recreation, education and health.
At the northern edge of the city was the Capitol Complex against
the panoramic back drop of the Shivalik hills. The City Centre was
sited in the middle, and two linear parklands ran from the northeast
to the southwest. Mayer sought to create a self-sufficient city,
restricted in size and surrounded by green belts. Areas were clearly
demarcated for business, industry and cultural activities. On 31/8/1950,
his co-planner Nowicki died in a plane crash and Mayer could not
continue the work.
This vision of Chandigarh, contained in the innumerable conceptual
maps on the drawing board together with notes and sketches had to
be translated into brick and mortar. Administrator P N Thapar and
Chief Engineer P L Varma then went to Europe to look for a substitute.
Le Corbusier, eminent architect and urban theorist, was finally
selected (20/12/1950) to carry forward this task. Le Corbusier was
to be the author of the master plan and the designer of the principal
buildings. The rest of the work was to be carried out by a team
of three foreign architects, who would be stationed in Chandigarh.
They were Maxwell Fry, his wife Jane Drew and Corbusier's cousin
Pierre Jeanneret.
He retained many aspects of the original concepts and its components
: the Capitol and the City Centre, besides the University, Industrial
area, and linear parkland. Even the neighbourhood unit was retained
as the basic module of planning. However, the curving outline of
Mayer and Nowicki was reorganised into a mesh of rectangles, and
the buildings were characterised by an 'honesty of materials'. Exposed
brick and boulder stone masonry in its rough form produced unfinished
concrete surfaces, in geometrical structures. This became the architectural
form characteristic of Chandigarh, set amidst landscaped gardens
and parks.
The revised master plan was finalised in early 1951 and the work
on the sites began soon after. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru laid
the foundation stone of Chandigarh on 02/04/1952 at a spot which
is now in Sector 9. The earliest activities were building of roads
and laying of service infrastructure. The earliest permanent constructions
were pockets of all categories of government houses spread out all
over the City. Included in this phase were shops, schools for various
age groups, a health centre, a cinema and a swimming pool and Maxwell
Fry's government press. Sector 22 with all its facilities and variety
of type designs was developed earliest to serve as the model neighbourhood.
In the absence of City Centre, it soon became the cultural focus
of the City.
The capital of Punjab was officially shifted from Shimla to Chandigarh
on 21/9/1953. The President of India Dr. Rajendra Parsad inaugurated
the City on 7/10/1953
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