Le Corbusier

Le Corbusier, born Charles-Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, was a Swiss-born architect, French by nationality from 1930. He prepared the master plan for Chandigarh and designed its Capitol Complex. He was not a political actor in Punjab. He is in this record because the city he designed is the capital Punjab was given after Partition, and because that city is the subject of one of the Panth's oldest unmet demands.

Why Chandigarh was built. Lahore, the capital of undivided Punjab, went to Pakistan in 1947, and the Capitol Complex was planned to give Punjab a new capital. ThePrint reports that Jawaharlal Nehru wanted a model city and that building began in the early 1950s. The Tribune records that an American team, Albert Mayer and Matthew Nowicki, began work in Shimla in May 1950, and that Nowicki died in an air crash in August 1950. Punjab officials P. N. Thapar and P. L. Varma then went to Europe, and in London Maxwell Fry and Jane Drew proposed Le Corbusier. Wikipedia says he accepted the project in 1951 on condition that his cousin Pierre Jeanneret join as resident architect. The Tribune notes that Jeanneret retired in 1965, the year Le Corbusier died.

The Capitol Complex groups the High Court, the Secretariat and the Legislative Assembly. Wikipedia says the Secretariat now houses the administrations of both Punjab and Haryana and the High Court serves both. In 2016 UNESCO inscribed the complex among seventeen works by Le Corbusier in seven countries.

The Panthic grievance. When Punjab was divided in 1966, both Punjab and Haryana claimed Chandigarh. ThePrint reports that Indira Gandhi made it a Union Territory as a temporary measure and signalled it would later go to Punjab. The Anandpur Sahib Resolution lists Chandigarh among the Punjabi-speaking areas deliberately kept out of Punjab that the Akali Dal would strive to merge with it. The Rajiv-Longowal accord of 24 July 1985 said the Capital Project Area of Chandigarh would go to Punjab, and fixed 26 January 1986 for the transfer. The Tribune says most of that accord's promises were never implemented, and Chandigarh is still a shared capital.

Key moments

• 1947: Lahore goes to Pakistan; Punjab needs a new capital.
• May to August 1950: Mayer and Nowicki begin the first plan; Nowicki dies in an air crash.
• 1951: Le Corbusier accepts the project, with Pierre Jeanneret as resident architect.
• 1965: Pierre Jeanneret retires; Le Corbusier dies on 27 August.
• 1966: Chandigarh becomes a Union Territory, claimed by both Punjab and Haryana.
• 24 July 1985: the Rajiv-Longowal accord promises its transfer to Punjab.
• 2016: the Capitol Complex is inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

What he is remembered for. Le Corbusier is remembered as one of the founders of modern architecture and as the planner of Chandigarh. In Sikh politics his name stands for the city, not for the dispute over it.