Personal histories: attention Lahore buffs

I have received this letter from Suniti Mohindra based in the US, who is searching for many answers. This email was so interesting that I am publishing it with Suniti’s permission. I am going to look for materials but I would request the readers to help our friend in undertaking this amazing project. History is not the domain of the rulers only. Personal histories are even more important for they give us a humanistic vision of our past and the present. Please leave any information here in the comments section RR

Dear Raza Rumi,

I was researching for the history of Lahore the great City of Punjab where my grandfather Ralla Ram Mohindra came to for his college education in 1892/3 and while finishing his college he came across an advertisement in the local paper where the East India Company was advertising for educated persons for the development of the Railway in East Africa called the Uganda Railway. My Grandfather hailed from Malsian district Jullandhar from the Soodhan Mohalla his father being in the business of leasing land to the farmers and hence from a rich family that believed in Education and the values to be gotten wherefrom. My Grandfather without telling his father Lala Moti Ram (he was the only son) applied for this post was immediately called to Calcutta where he was given a crash course in Administration and telegraphy and with a handsome advance given a ticket to sail for Mombasa, Kenya to report to the General Manager George Whitehouse[who was later knighted]as the Railhead Station Master and took the Railway from Mazeras to Kisumu on Lake Victoria the period was 1896 to 1901.

I am putting together history of my family and was wondering if you may be able to help me in constructing the aura of the Great City of Lahore the then Capital of Punjab. I have pieced together some aspects but these only relate to the fact that there were four sections of the city etc. Is there any material that would help me grasp what the Metropolis of that time was and what great thing it was for some one from a village to come to this Great City, get Educated there and them get the dare devil outlook for adventure and exploration in a spirit of fearlessness to a distant part of Africa then known as KALA PANI.. my love for Punjab aside, the great adventure of my Grandfather and what motivated a young man in his late teens to embark on such a journey is what I want to get a handle on.

Any help from you would be most helpful and please accept my gratitude which I shall duly acknowledge for the courtesy extended.

With respect and regards,

Suniti Mohindra

Lahore’s Secretariat record may lose ‘shelter’

By Intikhab Hanif writing for the DAWN
LAHORE, Sept 28: There is a plan to shift the Punjab Civil Secretariat’s colonial central record room to an adjacent ‘unsafe’ location, putting at risk the province’s vital links with its past being kept alive since 1924 in the shape of official files.

The purpose behind the move is stated to be the desire to create a conference hall on the existing premises of the record room, making officials wonder as to how this was required to be done when the secretariat already has a huge committee room and the historical Darbar Hall for cabinet and official meetings.

Lawrence Gardens, Lahore

Posted by Raza Rumi -

I visited the Lawrence Gardens in August and managed to take a few pictures.

The cricket Pavillion

The relaxing policmen

Lahore as in the 19th Century – Goulding’s recollection

Colonel H.R. Goulding was ADC to the King-Emperor T.H. Thornton, a distinguished British official, was secretary to the Punjab government in the 1860s

EXCERPTS found here:

First printed in 1860 for private circulation, these summaries of the history of Lahore were incorporated, in 1876, in a guidebook which was a joint piece of work by T.H. Thornton and J. Lockwood Kipling
H.R. Goulding writes about Old Lahore and the Mall:

It is of interest to recall that the beautiful Mall of which we are so justly proud and which is admittedly one of the finest public roads in Pakistan was first aligned in 1851 by Lieut-Colonel Napier, the Civil Engineer, who described it as “a direct road from Anarkali to Mian Mir.” He submitted alternative estimates for its construction, one for Rs12,544 and the other for Rs10,428. The former was for kankar throughout, the latter for an under layer of bricks with a kankar surface. Colonel Napier thought that the cheaper design would be sufficiently durable, but, in transmitting both estimates to the government of India, the Board of Administration remarked that they thought that as this road would be “the great thoroughfare not only with Anarkali but also with the city,” it would be more economical in the long run to sanction the higher estimate.

The Government of India, however, accepted Colonel Napier’s opinion and sanctioned, in April, 1851, the lower estimate. No noticeable alteration either in alignment of width seems to have been made till Sir Ganga Ram was Executive Engineer in charge of the Lahore Provincial Division, and extensive improvements were carried out in the sections east of the Post Office crossing. Later still the whole length of the Mall was remodelled on its present lines under the personal supervision of the late Mr DuCune Smythe, Chief Engineer, who, in turn, was supervised by the then Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Charles Rivaz. It was nothing unusual to meet, on a winter’s morning, these two high officials in earnest consultation by the roadside. On one occasion the writer saw the chief Engineer kneeling on the ground with a measuring tape in his hands, while on another the Lieutenant-Governor, who never allowed the felling of a tree if it could possibly be avoided, was personally superintending the marking of certain roadside trees which had to come down when the Mall was being realigned and widened opposite the Mayo School of Art.

Lahore’s Lawrence Gardens

I am homesick so I am posting an old piece on the majestic Lawrence Gardens of Lahore.

Lahore ’s Lawrence Gardens, baptised the Bagh-i-Jinnah in the post-independence era, represent the quintessential Raj ethos.

Built primarily for the sahibs and memsahibs, the park has managed to maintain its dream-like beauty for a century and a half. The colonial maps drawn up in the mid-nineteenth century show that eastward of Charing Cross, Gardens existed on the right. In the place of the Freemasons’ Hall, there was once a ‘circular garden’; and what is now the Lahore Zoo was another park called the New Garden.

This was followed by the Agricultural and Horticultural Society Garden, which was the original name of the city’s beloved Lawrence Gardens. The Agriculture Horticulture Society of India established it in 1860 and years later, in 1904, the department of agriculture assumed maintenance responsibilities.

Since 1912, approximately seven acres of the park have been managed by the Government College, Lahore. To this day, it maintains a delightful botanical garden replete with a greenhouse and experimental fields.

The annexation of the Punjab in 1849 and the successful control of the 1857 uprising in many regions of northern India resulted in the consolidation of the British Empire. Due to its strategic location, the Punjab was central to the architecture of the colonial power. Lahore was to become a major outpost of the empire. Therefore, the sahibs had to create social and cultural spaces for themselves in otherwise unfriendly and unfamiliar surroundings. A garden in the heart of British Lahore was essential.

True to the colonial policy, the new garden would be a continuation of the Mughal tradition of creating baaghs as the aesthetic expression of self-indulgence. This project, however, was to reflect the expanse of the Empire. Thousands of saplings of different exotic species were imported from many colonies around the world. By 1860, all the necessary preconditions – such as identifying and acquiring hundreds of acres of land – had been met.

Alfred Woolner

Alfred Woolner

Originally uploaded by yasir nisar

“Alfred Woolner was the vice chancellor of the Punjab University from 1928 to 1936. His is the only statue left of many that were positioned in front of prominent buildings during the British Raj in a wave of imperialistic civic zeal. Now, with the title of ‘colony’ no longer hanging over our heads, we are in a better position to appreciate the aesthetic value and historical importance of these effigies. That is if it’s not too late.

The statues were a significant part of my youth,” said Sajjid Abbas, a septuagenarian Lahori who knows the city like the back of his hand. “I would often walk down The Mall and take photographs of these beautiful sculptures because I knew that they would disappear one day.” There were a total of ten such statues, each narrating the grandeur and the might of British rule, said Mr Abbas, taking a walk down memory lane and relating the history of each of the sculptures. The first on Mr Abbas’s list of these “emblems of British authority” is the bronze statue of Queen Victoria that was placed in the pavilion of the assembly chambers.

Read more here: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_6-8-2004_pg7_27

Lahore Museum has yet to catalogue its antqiues

Newsitem from here:

The Lahore Museum, reportedly the biggest museum of Pakistan, having a 113 year-old history has yet to have its own catalogue of antiques to ease visitors.

The foundation stone of the museum was laid down by Prince Albert Victor in 1890 and the construction work completed in 1894.It contains a huge collection of antiques related from the Stone Age to the freedom struggle of the Muslims of subcontinent.

Lahore: Public Sculptures from the Raj

Raza Rumi 

Sheraz from Islamabad has contributed this amazing account of Lahore’s eclectic past. The influence of the British rulers resulted in erection of sculptures at public places, not an uncommon practice in the colonies. Most of these relics of the past are no more. Some have been conserved while others were removed.

Sheraz writes

“The statue of Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1928), who, while leading a procession with Pandit Madan Mohan Malaviya to demonstrate against the Simon Commission, faced brutal baton charge and died of fatal injuries on November 17, 1928, was somewhere in the vicinity of Kim’s Gun or zamazama - the famous cannon on the Mall, Lahore. This statue is no more there.

Another statue in this area was of Sir Ganga Ram, who gave many beautiful landmarks to the city of Lahore. What happened to this statue has been narrated by Saadat Hassan Manto, the celebrated Urdu short story writer, in one of his short stories on the frenzy of communal riots of 1947. Manto writes that an inflamed mob in Lahore, after attacking a Hindu mohalla, ‘turned to attacking the statue of Sir Ganga Ram, the Hindu philanthropist. They first pelted the statue with stones; then smothered its face with coal tar. Then a man made a garland of old shoes climbed up to put it round the neck of the statue. The police arrived and opened fire. Among the injured were the fellow with the garland of old shoes. As he fell, the mob shouted: “Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.”