History of Chandigarh

Chandigarh History

On attaining Independence from the British in August 1947, India had to surrender quite a lot of its northern territories for formation of Pakistan, Punjab was also split into two parts with Lahore its biggest city going to Pakistan. Then a need to create a new capital for Punjab led to many options but the most suitable one was creating a new modern city as the capital. This proposal was selected by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. A Swiss born French architect Le Corbusier was commissioned to design a new city Chandigarh as the capital of Punjab. Later in the year 1966 Haryana state was created from the eastern portions of Punjab. Chandigarh was at the border of both Punjab and Haryana hence it was made a union territory and appointed as the capital for both the states.