Harking Back: The day half of Lahore’s walled city was flattened

Nearly every description by British writers of Lahore’s history mentions that when the East India Company took over the Punjab in 1849, Lahore was a city in ‘complete’ ruins, almost totally destroyed.

This is partially true. So let us start our story from the beginning when Maharajah Ranjit Singh died on the evening of the 27th of June, 1839. The Lahore of 1839 was among the grandest cities of Asia, its clean streets and education levels were unmatched in the sub-continent and Asia. But on his death his biggest failure came to the fore. There was just no one of substance to take over. All his sons, as he himself used to lament, were useless. “What they lack is rustic common sense”. Not one of the courtiers had the guts or drive to take forward his vision. “So used to comfort is everybody that all they want is more wealth and power”.

The power centres were, first and foremost, the Royal family itself. Then came the Khalsa Army, followed by the Dogra brothers Gulab Singh, Dhyan Singh and Suchet Singh. Also in the running, with the backing of Royal wives, were the Sandhawalias, the Attariwalas and the Majithias. The Sandhawalias constituted of Lehna Singh, Ajit Singh and Attar Singh, brothers of Kharak Singh’s wife Chand Kaur. The same was the case with the other families. As events unfolded it was seen that almost all of them were British spies.

Amazingly, events proved that those loyal to the Royal family were the Fakir brothers and the Kashmiri Brahmin and finance minister Dina Nath. The Fakir family still live in Bazaar Hakeeman inside Bhati Gate. The original house of Dina Nath is inside Delhi Gate in a lane opposite Wazir Khan’s mosque. Also true to their salt were the family of the artillery generals Sheikh Ghias, whose ancestors still live in Rang Mahal. I provide these facts because the families of all the traitors of Sikh and Dogra officials are today among the richest in Indian Punjab. Loyalty has an enduring price.

But let us move on. The cremation of Maharajah Ranjit Singh outside the Lahore Fort was slightly delayed because all the court officials and the different chiefs would not pledge loyalty to the ‘maharajah-to-be’ till the eldest son Kharak Singh and his son Nao Nihal Singh pledged on the Granth Sahib that all their grants and estates and wealth would continue to remain with them. The rot was very much there. They had correctly assessed that on assuming power the rulers would rush to accumulate wealth and they would all suffer in the process. So the royal family succumbed and Kharak Singh was made maharajah.

The person who feared Kharak Singh most was his brother Sher Singh, who felt he would be murdered. “The nearest is always in the greatest danger,” he used to say. So Sher Singh moved to Batala and remained there till events presented him a safe return. Then as events unfolded we see Kharak Singh imprisoned by his son Nao Nihal Singh with the assistance of Dhyan Singh Dogra, in his ‘haveli’ between Mori Gate and Bhati Gate. Nao Nihal was now effectively the ruler. They had objected to the influence of Chet Singh Bajwa, who on the 8th of October 1839 was murdered inside the Lahore Fort by Dhyan Singh Dogra.

Nao Nihal Singh proved an effective ruler, for he increased the size of the army and defeated the Afghans, whom he accused of “always stealing the wealth of the Punjab”. He advanced past the Khyber Pass and captured Kabul. But his real enemy lay to the east. The British wished a passage to Afghanistan, which Nao Nihal allowed once. Later he was to regret that decision when the British allegedly influenced the Dogras.

That came in the shape of the imprisoned Maharajah Kharak Singh being given poisoned medicine, and while Nao Nihal Singh while returning to the fort after his father’s cremation the to-be-crowned son was killed after Roshnai Gate collapsed on him. We will dwell on that incident in another piece.

The new situation saw Dhyan Singh, Fakir Azizuddin and Jemadar Khushal Singh agree that Prince Sher Singh, the next son of Maharajah Ranjit Singh, be asked to return to Lahore and take over as the next maharajah. Meanwhile Kharak Singh’s widow Chand Kaur claimed her place as the rightful heir to the throne. Everyone else thought that Sher Singh was the legally correct heir. At this point Chand Kaur let off the news that Nao Nihal’s wife was expecting a child. Hence she was crowned ‘Malikah-e-Mukaddas’. Sher Singh returned immediately to Batala.

At this juncture we see that Sher Singh was popular with the Army, and they started deserting and heading towards Batala. Rumours started floating of Mai Chand Kaur having affairs with a few officials. The British forced her to allow free passage to Afghanistan. The Army would not agree, so the |British declared that the Treaty of 1809 was now null and void. The governors of the distant provinces stopped sending revenue. Panic further spread when the British moved their troops to the frontier. Unpaid soldiers started looting Lahore and other smaller towns and villages.

On hearing this Sher Singh decided it was time to move to save the Punjab. On the 14th of January, 1841, he left Batala and camped outside Lahore at ‘Buddhu da Awa’. From the Lahore walled city happiness went wild as everyone yelled “Sher Singh Badshah tay Dhyan Singh wazir”. The surrounded Chand Kaur and her Dogra supporters locked themselves inside Lahore Fort. She quickly made Gulab Singh Dogra her prime minister.

On the 15th of January 1841, Prince Sher Singh moved towards the city with 26,000 infantry, 8,000 horsemen and 45 cannons. Inside the fort Chand Kaur had 5,000 men and little gunpowder. Sher Singh had the services of three top European generals, they being Ventura, Court and Van Cortlandt. The fort was surrounded and soon Sham Singh Attariwala, Fakir Azizuddin, Bahi Gobind Ram and Bhai Ram Singh joined Sher Singh.

Chand Kaur had inside the fort Gulab Singh Dogra and the Sandhiwalas. On the 16th of January, 1841, Sher Singh opened fire with all his cannons. His snipers posted on the minarets of Badshahi Mosque were picking out anyone who moved on the Diwan-e-Aam and inside the Sheesh Mahal and beyond. The first volley came from the south, or from the walled city. In return a massive volley of cannon fire hit the northern side of the walled city. Buildings started to crumble all over.

For two days this firing continued till, as Sohan Suri was to write, nearly half of the walled city of Lahore houses were destroyed. The bazaars of old Lahore was littered with bodies and rubble. The stink of human and animal corpses filled the air. The estimate is that in the walled city itself over 5,000 persons were killed and over half of all houses were destroyed.

The next day Chand Kaur agreed to a ceasefire. The tricky Dogras agreed to leave taking with them almost the entire treasury of the fort, which included 16 cartloads of gold, silver and bullion and 500 bags of gold ‘mohurs’. While leaving Gulab Singh handed over the Koh-e-Noor diamond to Sher Singh. Attar Singh and Ajit Singh sought asylum in British territory. The traitors were the gainers.

Never in the times since Babar the Mughal razed Lahore to the ground had the city been so badly destroyed. For the next eight years the old walled city constituted a half destroyed one. Come the British in 1849 and reconstruction started. In 1947 a major portion, especially the Shahalami area, was again destroyed by communal hatred. Since then the remaining cultural damage our traders have managed with concrete plazas and dangerous warehouses full of chemicals. Such is the politics of power as it still plays out.