Harking Back: Where is the once ‘walled city’ going: doom or bloom!

For two days last week we spent marking out a few important high points for a planned archaeological expedition from Cambridge to collect critical data about our city. The driving proposition that needs proving is that Lahore belonged to the Harappa Age.

Though some irrefutable data towards this proposition is certainly available, much more painstaking work is required to conclusively prove this. Along the way I managed to revisit Gali Surjan Singh, and then revisited the amazing Shahi Hammam inside Delhi Gate. The condition of the ‘gali’ made me sad and shows the total absence of maintenance and care. The ‘hammam’ entrance has a lot of gaudy furniture for an eatery. Have the authorities gone off its planned track? Food at every historic site should not be a priority. It should be conservation and restoration, and in the process the city should be spotlessly clean.

The Walled City of Lahore Authority claims, with reasonable accuracy, that the city is probably the largest walled city in the world. For that matter it could well be among the oldest. But then given the relentless drive of our ruling trader-politicians to knock down historic buildings and monuments to build warehousing, the authority certainly has their work cut out. I know for sure, despite pious protestations, that our rulers do not back the WCLA. It is merely criminal neglect. There is no profit in conservation. Yes, new warehousing certainly lines the pockets for their main political financiers.

Let us examine just what exactly is a walled city and what is its value in this time and age. The classical definition is that a walled city is “a defensive fortification to protect the population within against potential aggressors”. In ancient times, as also in modern, walled cities enclosed settlements. That is the simple part. The earliest walled cities came about as the initial process of urbanisation started, probably around 6,500 years ago. So far we have conclusive data aging it at 4,500 years. Our effort will be to add to existing data.

The salient feature of a walled city is that it has gates and watchtowers. Gates facilitate the controlled movement of people and watchtowers keep an eye on external, and internal, security. Most walled cities also had a ditch, or moat, filled with water around them to restrict approaching armies from attacking them. Lahore had one till its Sikh days. The British filled it up to prevent future sieges by the local population. The Delhi of 1857 made them knock down the fort’s southern walls and two portions of the old city’s walls.

Today all the major existing walled cities are all, without fail, major tourist attractions. In fact tourism of walled cities is a major foreign exchange earner. They enhance the image of a country, helping to upgrade their economic and social status. So just where does Lahore’s walled city stand when judged from these parameters?

For starters we must all accept the undeniable fact that Lahore no longer has a ‘walled city’. The area that we call the Walled City of Lahore does not have any walls left, none at all. Hence it is not a walled city in the acceptable definition. Yes, a few gateways are left of the old walled city and they represent an outline of what was once this great city.

If these undeniable facts are acceptable to our readers, then we must seriously think just what does the Walled City of Lahore Authority propose to achieve. Does it want to restore the once walled city back to its original state? Can all the missing walls ever be rebuilt as near to the original missing ones? Over the last ten years this basic first step has not been tackled. They inform me that it is not politically possible. Imagine!

This simply means that existing economic, business and political structures within the old city are working against WCLA efforts at conservation and restoration. The question really is can the hundreds of historic structures within the confines of the old walled city be restored within the rules and laws that govern historic sites? If the answer is positive then can the authority change the economy of the once walled city from a massive and complex wholesale market into a mega tourist and historic city, the largest and among the oldest in the world? This is the stark choice we all face. It is the only option.

The ultimate goal is to restore and conserve the world’s largest once walled city - a cultural touchstone of Punjab, of Pakistan, and indeed the entire sub-continent. Can this dream ever be achieved? We must ask ourselves the question: “Have we as a people become so morally weak that we have accepted the dominant role of our tax-evading trader-politicians in our national life. The troubling times in which we live are really our acceptance of the dominant role of these very trader-politicians. Machiavelli was not wrong when he wrote: “When a trader becomes the Prince, all he knows is to sell off the State.”

If we do not accept this undeniable fact, which it seems we deliberately do, then we might as well forget about the dream we call the ‘Walled City of Lahore’. The mere fact that our ruling classes, our decision-makers, our so-called elite classes, as also the trader-politicians who work in the wholesale markets, do not live within the old city, means that decision-makers do not have any stake in its conservation and restoration.

Those who do live within this sacred space are mostly Afghan refugees who work as cheap labour. They have started the emergence of a new cultural ethos. The old families no longer have the economic clout to move to the newer colonies, and with time are becoming meek. The very sociology the old city has changed. By encouraging dubious Afghan refugees a major security threat could be said to exist. Because of the political clout of traders, the powers that be are helpless to act. This again is a dangerous reality we must confront.

The undeniable and historic role of profiteers is to keep knocking down historic monuments and buildings to build massive warehousing. They have to do this to survive and grow. The movement of goods and clients in and out of old Lahore needed that all walls be knocked down. That is why all the walls have disappeared and might never be rebuilt. That process surely continues. The Walled City of Lahore Authority was primarily created to reverse this process. This is, and should be, its primary role.

Experts inform us that it is normal that 15 per cent space be set aside to support healthy commerce. Today over 63 per cent of the physical space is occupied by wholesale markets. This ‘Fatal Fact’ makes sure that of the old walled city of Lahore can never be regained and made a major tourist mega city. Our dishonest bureaucracy, given the economic incentives, surely have helped them to achieve this evil aim.

Last week as I walked through the Aga Khan’s once impressive ‘Demonstration Project’ called Gali Surjan Singh, it was painful to see the filth and the ugly overhead wires dangling about. Cultural heritage needs strict maintenance. At the nearby Shahi Hamman a gaudy food street at the entrance instead of a sedate structure of immense beauty has emerged. The rot here is just beginning. The trader-politician is winning.

Is there a solution? Yes, there was an excellent proposition that the wholesale markets be moved outside to a new and bigger ‘new walled city’ on the banks of the river. The very emergence of such a ‘New Walled City’ is the reason the idea of the WCLA emerged. It would considerably solve the traffic mess we see about us.

What is now needed is a clear-cut long-term plan to roll back the expanding tentacles of commerce into peaceful residential areas of old Lahore. A clear-cut plan to rebuild the walls should be the priority. Commerce should be restricted to 20 per cent of the space available. This is the only way forward. If not then we should forget the dream of being a Taroudant of Morocco, or Seville of Spain, or Itchan Kala of Uzbekistan or even a Carcassonne of France.