“Local resistance to the acquisition of land is divisible into three phases. The first lasted from the spring of 1948, when the acquisition of land was announced, to approximately 1950, when the actual possession of the land began and alternative land was offered in compensation. The second phase, marked by sporadic protest, lasted through the 1950s, when the land of a village was actually occupied by the government. The third phase was in the 1960s and 1970s by which time the people had become better aware of the institutional set-up of the government and had greater ability to demand a better deal for themselves from it. Each phase was marked by an effort by the local people to urge the government to listen to their point of view and take a decision more in favor of local interests. In the first phase there was overt protest to stop the land from being acquired. The government took care of that protest by using police force to cow down the people and by offering land compensation at an alternative site. The second phase saw people, having taken their dues from the government, refusing to let go of their fields and homes in the acquired villages until all their legitimate dues were paid in full or until pushed out by the government (...)“

“Immediately after the acquisition of the land was announced in the spring of 1948 there were murmurs of protest from the local agriculturists. Political parties too joined the fray. The district wing of the Indian National Congress, the Akalis, the Socialists, and the Hindi Kisan Panchayat representing virtually the entire spectrum of formal political parties launched their own agitation against the formation of Chandigarh at the present site.”

“The people’s resistance to displacement was formalized in the anti-Rajdhani (Rajdhani: capital) committee that was formed in 1948. The anti-Rajdhani committee had promised the government to launch a satyagraha involving over 30,000 people all over the state to stop the construction of Chandigarh. It does not seem as if this massive agitation ever got off the ground. What did was a series of protests at the village level involving the local people. (...) Yet the agitation was fairly influential. Not much work could be done between 1948 and 1951 (...) because of the agitation by the local villagers. People would not allow the survey of ground water or the construction of sheds from where the engineers might function.”

Source:
Sharma, Kavita/Chitleen K, Sethi/Meeta/Rajivlochan (1999): Chandigarh Lifescape. Brief Social History of a Planned City. Chandigarh: Goverment Press. 24-26.

(MH)