Issue 62 Vol III, April 30, 2008

F E A T U R E S

Chandigarh: stones and bricks come to life
Gobind Thukral

MY first encounter with Chandigarh, the Fort of Chandi now famously called the City Beautiful was way back in 1956. Soon after matriculation, three of us traveled to the city to seek admission to a newly opened government college. Since it was a mere 50 kms from our place, it suited us admirably. Yet a ramshackle bus stand in sector 17 with tin sheds and few dhabas and tea sheds greeted us. We walked to the college, housed where now sector 23 Government School is located, filled some forms and disappeared to see the marvel what our first visionary Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had said, “World architects come to see what is going on Chandigarh. The building will be the latest major edifice to get under way in the new capital of the Punjab. This is going to be marvel”. Nehru had declared before a vast crowd of officials, clerks, labourers, housewives and children as he troweled mortar from a silver bowl and set the cornerstone for a gigantic, tower-topped legislative hall.

We moved unhindered to the Panjab University, cress crossing from one sector to another as there were no boundary walls and we could move diagonally or as was convenient to walk around. There were not many roads to lead us from one point to next place.

At several places buildings were coming and bricks lay scattered. We soon landed in sector 11, where Punjab assembly was in session in a small hall where now Government Home Science College is situated. No passes and no security checks, we were ushered into what could be visitor’s gallery and told to silently observe the proceedings. There was heated intense debate between the communists who had sizeable presence and the Congress ministers on some incidents in Amritsar district. It was sheer joy for small town lads to listen the leaders.

From there we quickly moved straight to where secretariat and Punjab assembly are located and since could see some masons and engineers and small site map to indicate what could finally be there, we were not much impressed and quickly moved back to the bus stand. Back home we had many jokes and tales to tell and comment. We were not overwhelmed by the bricks and mortar spread across and no visible sign of a modern marvel of a city. Years later I had a chance to study at the PU and finally make home in this city.

City of stones

There was much criticism and sharp attack on the very concept of the city as it was unlike any other city. It was planned from a scratch to provide a capital and cultural center for the state of Punjab which had lost its capital Lahore after independence in 1947. Work began to search the site, select the team of world class architects and administrators to plan and setup right in 1948.

Jawaharlal Nehru personally took charge and on April 2, 1952, said," The site chosen is free from the existing encumbrances of old towns and old traditions. Let it be the first expression of our creative genius flowing on our newly earned freedom. -----Let it be a new town symbolic of the freedom of India unfettered by the traditions of the past and expression of the nation's faith in the future. ---The new capital of Punjab will be christened as Chandigarh-a name symbolic of the valiant spirit of the Punjabis. Chandigarh is rightly associated with the name of Goddess Chandi -- Shakti, or power."

It is true that this kind of city could not go well with the ethos, living style and culture of people. They remembered Lahore and they loved Amritsar; they could not appreciate the wide open roads, green open spaces and houses that had no court yards and deodis. No city hustle and bustle where houses and shops were lined up cheek by jowl.  They could keep no buffaloes or cows and there were no corner sweet shops or milk vendors. It was much too wide and much too western, they thought.

American magazine Time wrote far back in April 1958, “Some of the clients are in strong disagreement with the architect—a man described by Nehru as "one of the world's great men"—France's dogmatic, bespectacled Le Corbusier, 70. The first of "Corbu's" Chandigarh buildings—the massive, sculptural High Court—has won ringing praise from architects and critics. But the men who use it most, the High Court judges, have handed down some sharp dissents.”

Chandigarhians protested for long that the plan of the city, built from the periphery inward, leaves too great distances between the buildings. While Le Corbusier did not personally design the housing, residents complain that his plan results in a built-in caste system, with income groups divided block by block and identified by the colour of their water cisterns. Late former defence minister Krishna Menon during one of his visits to the city, thought poor the designs pf the houses, though not of the total lay out design.

And, if Punjab’s famous lyrical poet Shiv Batalvi, who had the chance to live here for some years, described the city as city of stones and with no heart, many people agreed. It was Unpunjabi and Unindian.

Architect Le Corbusier, often the center of controversy, claims to dislike the furor, but clearly is not surprised by it. "I am like a lightning conductor," he declares. "I attract storms."

Yet much has changed. Not only the citizens now love the city, but its layout, its housing plans and much of the architecture is appreciated and copied. The roads, those wide open once thought to be senseless wastage of land are now considered too narrow and are constantly widened. Travel in the north west of India; you would come across bungalows and even middle level houses designed on its pattern. Rural Punjab is dotted with these types of houses all over. Inner courtyards and deodis are the thing of the past in this global world! So are thick walls and small windows and jherokas.

Of all the new town schemes in independent India, the Chandigarh project quickly assumed prime significance, because of the city's strategic location as well as Jawaharlal Nehru's  personal interest in it. Commissioned by Nehru to reflect the new nation's modern, progressive outlook, Nehru famously proclaimed Chandigarh to be "unfettered by the traditions of the past, a symbol of the nation's faith in the future." Chandigarh became what Gandhinagar could not. Here the property value is more than double that of Gujarat’s capital.

Several buildings and layouts in Chandigarh were designed by the Swiss-born French architect and planner, Le Corbusier in the 1950s. Le Corbusier was in fact the second architect of the city, after the initial master plan was prepared by the American architect-planner Albert Mayer who was working with the Polish-born architect Matthew Nowicki. It was only after Nowicki's untimely death in 1950 that Le Corbusier was pulled into the project.

While the city has developed over the past fifty years or so its own distinct culture and life style, yet the open spaces are being usurped by the influential and the mighty, politicians and administrators have played havoc with the master plan. The Periphery Control Act has been thrown to the winds by both its cousins; Mohali and Panchkula. Rows of and rows of house have come all over the prohibited areas. The courts have their hands full of cases of violations. The babus daily play truant with the laws and bylaws governing the layouts, art architectural controls and other bylaws.  No wonder 40 per cent population lives in the hutments that dot the entire periphery and is now surrounded by haphazard towns like Zirakpur, Karsan and Kishangarh: many more almost a dozen. Punjab has played the role of real villain and Haryana has ushered in planned order growth around it.

And, at the level pf politics, the city has witnessed enough turmoil and its Matka Chowk is witness to that. It has been part of tug of war between Punjab and Haryana and wily central government has successively played mischief with it. Perhaps, it is destined to remain a union territory and continue to house the two warring guests, Punjab and Haryana, both without their capitals.

If we admit that Chandigarh is planned to human scale and it puts us in touch with the infinite cosmos and nature, we might feel guilty of tempering with it. Its Edit says, “It provides us with places and buildings for all human activities in which the citizens can live a full and harmonious life. Here the radiance of nature and heart are within our reach.” It is now partly true.

In order complete the dream of those great architects and leaders like Nehru and Partap Singh Karion we miss remember that Le Corbusier had observed “The seed of Chandigarh is well sown. It is for the citizens to see that the tree flourishes”.

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Population Policy Options
Vinod Anand

A population policy is considered to be a deliberate attempt by a government to affect the size, structure or geographic distribution of any population. Since all the demographic variables are influenced through fertility, mortality and migration, these three factors are of particular importance in the context of any population policy. Whereas, mortality-influencing policies are directed to bring about a reduction in mortality rates, migration-influencing policies seek to change the flow of internal migration as well as international migration. The fertility-related policies aim at influencing fertility rates and may include both pro-natal and anti-natal programmes, keeping in view the socio-economic needs of a nation.

After the Second World War, the World Health Organization (WHO) resolved to eradicate mass killer diseases (like malaria and cholera) and promote the concept of positive health with the aim to reduce high mortality rates prevailing at that time in most of the countries of the world. The organization was entrusted by late sixties with the responsibility of providing advisory services to government at their request on the health aspect of fertility, sterility, and fertility regulation methods, including the organization of family planning services as part of its organized health services with special emphasis on maternal and child health components. The International Conference on Primary Health Care, 1978, organized jointly by the WHO and UNICEF, at Alma Ata resolved to emphasize the need for health education and adoption of public health measures, keeping in view the social and cultural settings and technical requirements in each area. It was also stated that the highest priority should be accorded for services to the needy and under-privileged persons such as children, women, and rural population by including birth control services in maternal and child health programmes. The conference set the basic objective of ‘HEALTH FOR ALL BY 2000 A.D.’ to the World community.

One of the most pressing population problems today is the internal migration from rural to urban areas. This leads to increasing pressure on urban services, particularly in metropolitan regions. Another problem is differentials in density per square kilometer and flow of people from low density to high population density areas. National governments cannot prevent flow of internal migrations from one region to another or from rural to urban area (essentially because of regional imbalances) except through some incentives and encouragement policies, as it is considered to be a constitutional privilege of the citizens. To prevent this volume and directions of internal migration, therefore, the policy options like spatial distribution of population through suitable development strategies, tax incentives and disincentives for location of industries, subsidies to industries in favoured areas, investments in public enterprises, decentralization of government services, establishment of national capital in sparsely populated areas, formation of capital regions, etc. could be incorporated in population policies by the governments. As far as international migration is concerned, regulation through legislations could be adopted to maintain desired level of entry into and exist from a country.

The two types of fertility-related population policies, pro-natal (Ash et al, 2002) and anti-natal, are adopted by the governments of different nations with reference to the social needs and priorities of their societies. Justified on the ground of high mortality rates, pro-natal policies have existed since ancient times. The large numbers were equated with power and prosperity. Between the two World Wars, Italy, Germany, and Japan pursued pro-natal policies through propaganda, cash payments, repression of birth control, honouring of mother-hood, regulations for emigration drives for large native populations, etc. to realize their expansionist motives. Today, several developed countries adopt these policies, though each has different motives and different approaches. In most of the countries, three types of approaches are generally adopted to have an effective pro-natal policy. The first approach is to accept existing values and attitudes and eliminate or diminish economic liability of having children. The second is to modify norms by glorifying values relating to reproduction, and the third is to relax taboos on illegitimacy, though most of the cultures oppose this approach.

Among the direct anti-natal policies, provision of contraceptive services, organizing family planning educational programmes, etc. have remained to be the most popular programmes throughout the world. By the acceptance of these programmes, individual couples are expected to adopt family planning, reduce fertility at micro-level and, therefore, bring about a reduction in the birth rate. By the mid-seventies, almost all the countries of the world had adopted these methods of reducing the number and spacing of children. India was the first country to adopt such a policy in 1952 followed by China and Hong Kong in 1956. Another method that is expected to control population growth rate is the liberalization of abortion laws. These laws bring down population growth rate provided medical infrastructure and health services are easily available. In most of the developing countries, however, these services are not adequate. Another policy option of raising the age at marriage, especially for women, is adopted to cut down on their reproductive span and thus reduce fertility. This hypothesis works only when the time of delay in marriage is utilized to provide more opportunities for education and employment to women that indirectly give maturity to these females to subscribe to the idea of voluntary parenthood.

Apart from these direct anti-natal policies mentioned above, there are a few indirect anti-natal policies that are used to deal with the problem of rising population. These are: provision of incentives, disincentives, improving the status of women, population education besides nutrition and health services for children, urbanizing rural communities, raising the level of social and economic development. These indirect programmes are expected to influence people in a way that they start accepting direct anti-natal policies, and the rate of population starts showing a downward trend.

The author was earlier placed as a Fellow at the Indian institute of Advanced Study, Shimla (India), and also at the University of Allahabad as Professor and Head of Economics.
E-Mail: vinodkanand2002@yahoo.co.uk

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