Harking back: Permanent threats our heritage and peace of mind face

It seems like an unavoidable happening when modern developments threaten our heritage, our peaceful way of life, and even historic monuments. The fact that better solutions certainly exist make them sadder still. But over time we see them always there.

Let us examine a few developments over the last 275 years in Lahore, so that we cannot keep blaming our current ‘slippery’ politicians alone, not that they deserve any sympathy. The common factor is a tendency to avoid debate, especially with persons with better knowledge of their relevant subjects. Most of us think of the British colonial rulers as introducing some semblance of conservation laws and archaeological discipline. On paper this is partially true. But then we also tend to forget that they are primarily responsible for injecting considerable damage to Lahore monuments. Some research into the subject made alarming reading.

As I went through an archive manuscript in Cambridge, there was a letter (No. 343, dated 15.04.1886) by the Junior Secretary of the Punjab to the Commissioner suggesting that the Chief’s College of Lahore, later renamed Aitchison College, be located inside Jahangir’s Tomb. So colonial neglect and disregard was visible from the very beginning. But before the British came this was the case too. If we read Thornton and Kiplings’s book ‘Lahore’, printed in 1876, there is a claim that Bahadar Shah, son of Emperor Aurangzeb and after whom Shahalami Gate was named, allegedly removed the central dome of Jahangir’s tomb for its awning made of gold. Put in perspective that is why the Mughal Empire deserved to collapse.

The Afghan invasion period pre-1876, saw Sultan Muhammad Khan, cousin of Amir Dost Muhammad Khan, as living in the tomb for ten years. This is mentioned in ‘Tarikh-e-Makhzan-e-Punjab’ by Mufti Ghulam Sarwar who claimed that Ahmed Shah Durrani removed the exquisite carved doorways of the tomb. Then we have Maharajah Ranjit Singh removing the white marble lattice parapet which surrounded the roof and the tower galleries. Today that exquisite marble piece can be seen in the Golden Temple at Amritsar. So rulers allegedly good and bad, and terrible, are all up to the same criminal pastime.

But the most bizarre happening was to the tomb of Jahangir as given in Maulvi Noor Ahmed Chishti’s ‘Tehkiqat-e-Chishti’ where he tells of a well-known mullah of Lahore, whose ancestors still ply the ‘piety trade’, of digging a hole in the roof over the grave so that “Allah’s blessing could rain on the emperor”. Priestly knowledge, it seems, has not progressed much from the stone age of idols. Piety and politics make a lethal combination. Even today politicians never operate without a ‘pir’ to assist. One of the three Sikh rulers of Lahore pre-Ranjit Singh era, Sardar Lahna Singh, at least had the common sense to cover the hole with wooden planks. The common people always have more sense.

The stories of the pillage and damage just seem to continue. We have a list of such acts given in Kanhaiya Lal’s book. We also have the theory, supported by a lot of scholars, that the pavilion of Hazuri Bagh, opposite the Lahore Fort and the Badshahi Mosque, had the finest marble portion of Jahangir’s tomb’s roof on it. S.M. Latif, as also Rai Bahadar, the executive engineer of Lahore in the early colonial period, both have identified just which portion was removed. The 3rd Report of the Curator of Ancient Monuments, 1882-84, clearly describes them.

The destruction of the golden dome of Jahangir’s tomb seems to have been mentioned by Cunningham, as well as by Von Orlich and Thornton. Many other experts are silent about this dome which was removed in the last days of Aurangzeb. But then their silence does not explain the large hole in the roof, which the mullah opened up so as to allow “the blessings of rain on a grave”. We do know that Aurangzeb and his extremist views are the prime suspects. So no surprises as to why Ranjit Singh’s statue was recently attacked.

The immense damage to the tomb did, however, see Ranjit Singh order a ‘cover-up’ of his own stealing of marble and covering it with brickwork. The damage to this beautiful monument continued after the Sikh ruler allowed a Spanish officer of his Khalsa Army to live in the tomb, with his entire regiment. The officer called Senor Oms, or ‘Musa Sahib’ by his soldiers, actually died there and lies buried on one side of the garden.

Come the 1947 Partition and refugees built makeshift houses by digging holes into the main outer walls. A lot of building materials, especially bricks, were stolen from the main monuments, just as traders from Amritsar stole bricks from Lahore’s old city walls. Even today around the tomb you can clearly see small Mughal-era bricks in the walls, not to speak of two houses which have marble door entrances. Sadly, the tomb has experienced 12 major floods since 1947 onwards, entering the tomb with devastating consequences. The worse damage was in 1988 when ten feet of water remained in the monument for nearly six days.

Come the British in 1849 and the building of the railways saw damage on an unprecedented scale. We see the tombs of Jahangir, Nur Jahan and Asaf Khan, damaged beyond belief as they set about laying the Lahore-Rawalpindi line through them. For the first time we read in old newspapers about the people of Lahore protesting. The British immediately diverted attention thanks to official with press releases of new repairs to divert attention as appeasement. Even today this strategy provides succor to our corrupt.

The building of Lahore’s railway station, whose design is more of a fort than a typical rail station, was undertaken by Sultan the Contractor, who was allowed to steal all the bricks that could be found inside the walled city. It is almost a replicate of what the traders inside the walled city did after 1947. The end result after Partition is that a lot of illegal high-rise shops and warehouses came about. That they all violate the 15 per cent commercial allocation reaching an alarming 65 per cent has never bothered our rulers, let alone the so-called conservation agencies.

The only relief for the tombs of Jahangir and Noor Jehan is that conservation work has been undertaken by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture. Surely the once exquisite tomb of Asaf Khan, totally ripped off all its beautiful marble, should also be restored and conserved. Its condition is pathetic.

But today we have ‘destroyers’ who operate ‘profitably’ on a much larger scale. The current chief minister has given the go-ahead to lift a flyover from Gulberg, take it over this once beautiful residential colony, then over Garden Town, also once a beautiful residential colony, and over the canal and other smaller peaceful residential colonies to reach the M2 motorway. Have the residents of these colonies been consulted? Politicians have no time for such niceties. They want money to flow.

Take for example when a petition was admitted to the Lahore High Court over the increasing commercialisation of Gulberg. The then chief minister in a stroke of utter arrogance commercialised the entire colony. It was an evil that even our courts dare not oppose. So over time every ruler over the last hundreds of years has walked over the peace of mind of the people. Imagine living in Gulberg or Garden Town or any of the other colonies knowing that loud cars and trucks will pass over their head as they try to sleep. A thought worth considering.