Why Chandigarh:
Chandigarh is a Union Territory (run by the federal government) in northern India that is also the capital of two states: Haryana and Punjab. I was attending a wedding in Punjab two hours away. Having heard that Chandigarh is a unique city to visit, I decided to spend a day here before heading to the wedding.
November 11, 2024: The Brasilia of India
After taking the epic UNESCO World Heritage Site train from Shimla to Kalka, I found a taxi driver to take me the final hour into Chandigarh.
Chandigarh is a planned city divided into Sectors. My hotel was in Sector 7. The entire block was furniture showrooms, but a doorway led to a stairwell to take me upstairs to the hotel. The hotel and room were surprisingly nice – by far nicer than my hostel in Shimla. I showered and went to bed.
The next morning, I got breakfast at an Australian bakery chain a few doors away and then set out to explore Chandigarh.
As previously mentioned, Chandigarh is a planned city. During the partition of India and Pakistan, Punjab’s capital city Lahore became part of Pakistan. As a result, the Indian state of Punjab needed a capital. Rather than shift the capital to an established city like Amritsar, Jawaharlal Nehru, the first president of India wanted to build a new city that would glorify the modern Indian state. The city would be named Chandigarh which means fortress of Chandi (a Hindu goddess).
The first architect of Chandigarh was Albert Mayer, an American. Mayer created the idea of the superblock However in 1950 his business partner died in a plane crash, so he stopped work on the project. The Indian government then recruited the Swiss architect Le Corbusier who finished the plans and built some of the magnificent government buildings that are now a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
My first impression of Chandigarh is that it is extremely green and calm by Indian standards. It also reminded me of Brasilia, another planned capital city. Turns out my instincts were correct; Brasilia’s architect Oscar Niemeyer drew heavily on Le Corbusier when designing the city 10 years later. So instead of the Brasilia of India, Brasilia should really be called the Chandigarh of Brazil.
My first stop was Sukhna Lake, a huge 3 square kilometer reservoir. It is (mostly) ringed by a walking path. This is the first place in India I saw people working out in public.
Continuing northwest, I eventually reached the entrance to the Capitol Complex. This is the government center for both state governments of Haryana and Punjab. The center offers free tours lasting two hours three times per day. I signed up for the 10:00 tour.
At first, I thought the tour was going to be just me and an English couple but right at the last moment a 60-person school group showed up outside. They stood rigidly in their lines, but I laughed out loud because I knew what was going to come.
After clearing the light security barrier, we reached an enormous open plaza. The Capitol Complex was designed to be hidden from the rest of the city to add to its mystique.
So why do two states share the same capital (and capitol)? Well in 1966 the Indian state of the Punjabi-speaking state of Punjab and the Hindi-speaking state of Haryana. Rather than give the capital to one state over the other, the national government decided to let both states keep their capitals in Chandigarh and the national government would control the city until they could figure out a better resolution. 58 years later, they have not figured out a better solution, so Chandigarh remains the capital of two states while lying in neither. But like Washington DC, the metro area extends beyond the federal zone into both states.
Our first stop was the High Court of Punjab and Haryana. The court has jurisdiction over both states as well as Chandigarh.
Next, we visited the Open Hand Monument. This giant monument is the official symbol of Chandigarh that appears on the city’s logo. It was built in 1964 in honor of Nehru’s 75th birthday and symbolizes peace, prosperity and the unity of mankind. Le Corbusier created many open hand monuments throughout his career, but this is the original and largest.
Next, we walked across the enormous open plaza towards the legislature. It was here that the school group’s seriousness broke down and they finally started to ask me for photos. Per my rule, if someone asks for a photo, I also get to take one with them.
At the entrance to the legislature, they formally asked to take a group photo with me.
We then entered the legislative building, the first time we got to go inside a building. After a very thorough security search and leaving our phones with the staff, we entered the Punjab side of the building. The building was designed for a bicameral legislature but after the split, each state got half of the building and one of the chambers. Each state is responsible for its own security and has its own entrance. The building is shaped very similarly to the Brazilian legislature in Brasilia.
The legislative chamber itself is one of the strangest rooms I’ve ever seen. I really do not know how to describe the room. It has a conic yellow and red conic ceiling covered in amorphous brown shapes of sheet metal. Very strange!
Our final stop for the tour was the Secretariat, a government office building. After another security check, we entered the Punjab side and took the elevator to the roof for a smoggy view of the city. We were told that we could not walk onto the Haryana side of the roof because we only got permission to visit from the Punjab police.
After leaving the Capitol Complex, I visited Chandigarh’s other major attraction: the Rock Garden. Built by Nek Chand Saini in secret in a nature reserve over 18 years. By the time it was finally discovered by the government in 1976, the park was 12 acres (how did they not see this?!?). He continued to add to it until 1996 when he left the country for good at which point it was taken over by a non-profit.
The 40-acre garden is a maze of rocks, waterfalls and figurine sculptures made from recycled materials. It has no equal, but I would describe it as a combination of the Los Angeles’ Watts Towers, Barcelona’s Park Guell and Wisconsin’s House on the Rock. It is really something.
The maze took me an hour to traverse. It combined narrow passageways, some of which required ducking, huge courtyards, and lots and lots of dolls.
In the back of the garden was a doll museum.
I then got a rickshaw to take me to Pal Dhaba, a famous dhaba (roadside Punjabi restaurant). The restaurant is older than the city of Chandigarh. There are actually two Pal Dhabas – the result a spat between brothers – I visited the indoors one. Based on their recommendation, I ordered the butter chicken (the Indian predecessor to chicken tikka masala). It was rich and delicious.
With that it was time to head to the wedding in Patiala. After walking back to the hotel, my driver was ready to go.
Final Thoughts:
Chandigarh is quite different from the rest of Northern India. It is still India (as evident by the driving) but is far greener, calmer and spread out. Because it is so different, I would not recommend the city to the average India tourist, but it is a great stop for longer term travelers who might be getting burned out or are in motion between Delhi and the Himalayas. I would also recommend Chandigarh to architecture fans.
While I saw the main sights of Chandigarh (Capitol Complex, Rock Garden) in a day, I would recommend staying a second day to see the rest of the sights (a few more museums) and get a feeling for the different master-planned sectors.
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