Chandigarh
(2001 est pop. 808,000). Chandigarh became the capital of the Punjab and Haryana states in northwestern India in the 1950s. After partition in 1947, when Punjab's principal city Lahore was claimed by Pakistan, the new state needed a capital. Premier Jawaharlal Nehru (1889–1964) seized the opportunity to realize his vision of a city symbolic of the future of India. The originally chosen architect, Matthew Nowicki, was killed in a 1950 airplane crash. Swiss-French modernist architect Charles-Édouard Jeanneret (called Le Corbusier; 1887–1965) produced the master plan. Chandigarh is orderly and regulated, with modern concrete buildings, broad boulevards, and open parks; it has an air of prosperity and is considered the cleanest and healthiest city in India. Yet it has been controversial ever since it was completed in the 1960s. Detractors complain that its design was flawed, self-indulgent, and "un-Indian," with provision for fast-flowing traffic, unnecessarily large parking lots, and buildings requiring expensive air conditioning. The premier attraction of Chandigarh is the Rock Garden, a series of interconnected rocky grottoes, walkways, and landscaped waterfalls, including more than five thousand animal and humanoid figures fashioned from discarded materials. Also of interest are the Museum and Art Gallery, the Science Museum, and a large Rose Garden containing over a thousand varieties of roses.
Further Reading
Kalia, Ravi. (2000) Chandigarh: The Making of an Indian City. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
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