“In the 8,500 acres of agricultural land that became part of the first phase of Chandigarh there were 17 villages that were to be acquired. Five others would lose some of their land. A total of 22 villages were affected by the first phase of construction at Chandigarh. He (the prime minister) seemed to have forgotten that there were already over 20,000 people living in the villages that were to go under Chandigarh.”

“Yet a significant body of the original inhabitants of the villages is still around (in Chandigarhgarh). Some have done rather well for themselves with the coming up of the city, other have not been able to cope with the changing circumstances equally. But till now we were not able to find any one of the original villagers who had integrated with the new middle class city in the same way as the new settlers did. Maybe we could discover some of them through a longer search, publicised through newspapers and other mass media. That precisely is the point: a negligible number of the original villagers have integrated well with the middle class ethos of Chandigarh. Those of them who were not thrown out of the Chandigarh region altogether still live in the villages on the periphery, providing services of being involved in small time business activity.”

Source:
Sharma, Kavita/Chitleen K, Sethi/Meeta/Rajivlochan (1999): Chandigarh Lifescape. Brief Social History of a Planned City. Chandigarh: Goverment Press. 22/23.

(MH)