Name the common capital of two states in India.
This was my 4th class Social Studies question and the answer is 'Chandigarh'.
Now, the question is... Chandigarh belongs to whom?
Is it the capital of Punjab or the capital of Haryana? Have found few interesting things on this.
Almost after eighteen years of agitation , creation of a Punjabi speaking state was announced. On 1 November 1966, the Indian state of Haryana was carved out of the Punjab, in order to create a majority Hindi speaking state, while the western portion of Punjab remained as the current day Punjab.
However, it was Punjabi speaking people's demand for separation and they forced Hindi people to create a new state. By that time Chandigarh was the capital of the then Punjab. And Hindi people were asked to move out of Chandigarh in search of a new capital for which, they had disagreed.
Chandigarh was on the border, and both the states needed that city to be their capital and thus, it was created into a union territory to serve as capital of both these states. It was the capital of Punjab alone from 1952 to 1966. Later, the commission which created this state allocated Chandigarh to Haryana as it had more Hindi speaking population .
On this issue, many agitations took place again. Many fasts unto death were kept by Sikhs and Hindus. Sardar Darshan Singh started fasting unto death and died on 74th day of his fast. Later, Sant Fateh Singh, President of Shiromani Akali Dal went on fast declaring that if demand for restoring Chandigarh to Punjab is not met, he would burn himself alive. The Government later announced its decision to hand over Chandigarh to Punjab, in lieu of some areas to Haryana.
Chandigarh was supposed to be transferred to Punjab in 1986, in accordance with an agreement signed in August 1985 by Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, with Sant Harchand Singh. Chandigarh functioned as a common capital for both the states and Haryana was given 15 years of time to build it's own capital.
Since then, the creation of a new capital for Haryana and the transfer had been delayed. Government is still not clear about which villages in Punjab are to be transferred to Haryana, and vice versa.
It is now believed that transfer is not possible as none of the states would like to give up their claims and Chandigarh would remain to be the capital of both states and also an union territory.
May be, in near future, we see the same thing to happen with Hyderabad. Whatever it is.... I can say that it is not an easy task for an aspiring state to grab the capital city of the existing state.
This was my 4th class Social Studies question and the answer is 'Chandigarh'.
Now, the question is... Chandigarh belongs to whom?
Is it the capital of Punjab or the capital of Haryana? Have found few interesting things on this.
Almost after eighteen years of agitation , creation of a Punjabi speaking state was announced. On 1 November 1966, the Indian state of Haryana was carved out of the Punjab, in order to create a majority Hindi speaking state, while the western portion of Punjab remained as the current day Punjab.
However, it was Punjabi speaking people's demand for separation and they forced Hindi people to create a new state. By that time Chandigarh was the capital of the then Punjab. And Hindi people were asked to move out of Chandigarh in search of a new capital for which, they had disagreed.
Chandigarh was on the border, and both the states needed that city to be their capital and thus, it was created into a union territory to serve as capital of both these states. It was the capital of Punjab alone from 1952 to 1966. Later, the commission which created this state allocated Chandigarh to Haryana as it had more Hindi speaking population .
On this issue, many agitations took place again. Many fasts unto death were kept by Sikhs and Hindus. Sardar Darshan Singh started fasting unto death and died on 74th day of his fast. Later, Sant Fateh Singh, President of Shiromani Akali Dal went on fast declaring that if demand for restoring Chandigarh to Punjab is not met, he would burn himself alive. The Government later announced its decision to hand over Chandigarh to Punjab, in lieu of some areas to Haryana.
Chandigarh was supposed to be transferred to Punjab in 1986, in accordance with an agreement signed in August 1985 by Rajiv Gandhi, the then Prime Minister of India, with Sant Harchand Singh. Chandigarh functioned as a common capital for both the states and Haryana was given 15 years of time to build it's own capital.
Since then, the creation of a new capital for Haryana and the transfer had been delayed. Government is still not clear about which villages in Punjab are to be transferred to Haryana, and vice versa.
It is now believed that transfer is not possible as none of the states would like to give up their claims and Chandigarh would remain to be the capital of both states and also an union territory.
May be, in near future, we see the same thing to happen with Hyderabad. Whatever it is.... I can say that it is not an easy task for an aspiring state to grab the capital city of the existing state.
Good one sir.. have you ever heard of union teritory demand made by Gujju's for Mumbai City ..similar stuff :-)
ReplyDeleteYes Amaresh.. Bombay was the capital of both Maharashtra and Gujarat.. And almost 60% of population of Bombay are Gujjus.. But anyway.. they have now built Gandhinagar / Ahmedabad which is more organized and safer/problem-free than Mumbai... One thing is clear.. no one can halt the development of a deserving state..
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