Harking back: Grand house that Giovanni Battista Ventura built

This premises was built as the residence of Gen. Jean Baptiste Ventura, the French national of Italian descent, whose real name was Giovanni Battista Ventura. Being of Jewish origin his birth name was Rubino ben Torah and he was born in Finale Emilia in Modena and served in Napoleon’s army in Waterloo. After the defeat of the French emperor he moved to Trieste and finally found work in Istanbul as a ship broker.

Through his connections with Turkish ship owners he found work as an Army Instructor in the rank of a Colonel with the Persian Shah, who was in the process of modernising his army. On the Shah’s death intrigue followed, which made him move further eastwards ending in Lahore. Here he met Gen. Jean-Francois Allard in 1822. Ventura and Gen. Hari Singh Nalwa were instrumental in the capture of Peshawar by the Sikh Army of Punjab.

But his major role was in the modernisation of the Punjab Army and in the creation of the ‘Fauj-e-Khas’, the elite Punjabi regiments. Maharajah Ranjit Singh thought very highly of him and he was soon made the Governor of Lahore. It was in that context that the present Punjab Secretariat building was constructed as both his residence and as the headquarters of the Fauj-e-Khas. In a practical way he was known as the commander of the Punjab Army of Maharajah Ranjit Singh.

One account describes Ventura’s building of his residence as having been built in the garden around the tomb of Anarkali. For this reason the early British pre-1849 intelligence accounts described the new main building as ‘Anarkali House’ and the garden in front as ‘Anarkali’s Garden’. On the northern side of the front garden was built the long headquarters of the Fauj-e-Khas, and to the north-western part was built a huge horse stable and residences of the staff. To the back of the main residence were staff offices and residences and to one side the main kitchen stood next to the tomb.

This was the pre-British construct of the residence of Gen. Ventura, now known as the Punjab Civil Secretariat. Even before the British formally took over in 1849, the British Resident in Lahore had offered Ventura to buy the house. Gen. Ventura had stayed on after the death of Ranjit Singh and was effectively in the army till the assassination of Maharajah Sher Singh in September 1843. At that point the British knew that he would be leaving soon and made him an offer to buy the house for their Resident in Lahore. A British account states that he was offered Rs2,000 against a demand of Rs10,000.

The Punjab Gazetteer of 1916 claims the house was built in 1845, which contradicts the fact that it was built while Maharajah Ranjit Singh was alive, for he died in 1839. In 1847 when the British had taken partial control of Lahore as the last of the Anglo-Sikh Wars raged, and it became the formal British Residency, with Henry Lawrence and his brother John Lawrence as the Resident at the Court of Lahore. After Punjab was annexed in 1849 this building complex became the residence of the Member of the Board of Administration.

Henry Lawrence extended the residence as well as the horse stables. This joined the main ‘Fauj-e-Khas’ premises, and in this a British Company and part of the infantry with Indian ‘sowars’ were housed. The French officers of the Punjab Army of Ranjit Singh used green hedges and guards as the outer perimeter of this huge building. The British started off with a mud wall surrounding this residence and cantonment-type construction. With time it was replaced with a high brick wall.

From 1871 onwards it ceased to serve as a residence and became the Secretariat of the Government of Punjab. The front lawn was reduced in size as more and more construction took place. Starting from 1894 when a scheme to shift the secretariat was first floated, till this date that has never happened, and it now serves as the office of the Punjab chief secretary and a host of secretaries and their main department junctions.

What does the office of the chief secretary look like now? Almost 20 years ago the then chief secretary thought he needed still more space to relax and hold mass meeting. So the back ‘Record Office’ rare files were loaded in wheel barrows and literally thrown into the horse stables. As the Archives Department had ample space, that was also taken away from them. The result was that still more rare archives were loaded on wheel barrows and sent to the horse stables. Being that the Punjab Archives collection is the second largest in the world on the subject, a project is under consideration to finally shift it to a respectable premises. What happens now only time will tell!

What does the Punjab Secretariat premises now look like? The main Ventura residence remains intact, with an extension to the two sides of the main building. The main office has the names of the serving and former chief secretaries on two boards. In the room behind is the old meeting room has two boards with the names of the three administrators of Punjab of the East India Company, they being Col. Sir Henry Lawrence as the President, and the two Members Mr. C.G. Mansel and Lord John Lawrence.

The Board was constituted on the 31st of March, 1849 and was abolished on the 10th of February, 1853. On the 11th of February, 1853, Lord John Lawrence, who had deep differences with his real brother on policy matters especially regarding the medium of education, was made the Chief Commissioner of Punjab, a post he held till the 31st of December, 1858, after he had effectively tackled the uprising in the First War of Independence, known as the Sepoy Uprising.

On the 1st of January 1859, the Punjab administration was reorganised and the very first secretary to the Government of Punjab was appointed, and that was Mr. R.C. Temple, after whom is named Temple Road. He was followed on the 8th of January 1859, by Mr. R.H. Davies, after whom is named Davies Road (not Davis Road as is wrongly described). He continued till the 16th of September, 1864. After him till the 5th of March 1890 another 16 secretaries were appointed.

The very first chief secretary of Punjab, in yet another administrative reorganisation, was Mr. C.L. Tupper, a former secretary to the Punjab Government, who was appointed on 6th of March, 1890. Then followed scores of chief secretaries, all of British origin, that is till the 14th of August 1947, when the first Pakistani took charge of his homeland province. The life and times of each top bureaucrat is unique in its own right, be it a Maclagan, an Aitchison, a Thornton, a Brandreth or a Griffin, just as is those of the top Pakistan-era chief secretaries of Punjab.