Breaking the Past

MARCH 2002 - When a brigade of morons from some dim-witted government agency demolished the ancient water supply system to Lahore’s legendary Shalimar Gardens some time back, there was widespread protest that achieved next to nothing. The gang out to widen yet another Lahore road, thought little of the unique system built ingeniously by the Mughals some four hundred years earlier which fed the gardens the waters it needed to run its fountains and irrigate its lawns. To the men who bulldozed it, the structure must have looked decrepit and ready for razing down. Now, the gardens are on the list of threatened buildings and since we can’t be trusted with our heritage, foreigners have taken it over, so to speak – protecting the heritage from the people who own it. There is irony in it, but it depends how you look and mostly, we don’t look – or understand.

Earlier this month, another farce took place, this time not at the gardens – incidentally they are in deplorable condition and getting worse by the day, when more eager beaver organizers decided to launch an antique car rally from Maharaja Ranjeet Singh’s marble pavilion at Hazoori Bagh, Lahore. A contractor – and one can readily picture the party, simply ‘took over’ the monument and decided to string up canopies, banners, streamers, floral decorations and other garbage that is standard fare at such events. Steel spikes were hammered into the centuries old marble which is designed to survive the onslaught of nature to a large extent, but the original builders had obviously not calculated for contractors and their keepers who think nothing of history and for whom a historical monument and a shopping plaza are the same since both are made with bricks. Chunks of marble pieces – irreplaceable of course, fell off and littered the floor while the organizers merrily went about their business. When a general alarm was triggered off, all kinds of malpractices popped up. Necessary permissions had not been taken, procedures not followed, responsible supervision not carried out and the result was severe damage to the walls and ceilings of our dwindling heritage. Various factotums particularly at the TDCP, the Tourism Development Corporation of Punjab, made appropriate noises.

Anxious to distance themselves as fast as possible from the mistake, they took ‘action’. A few lowlies were transferred or suspended – which simply means they are back as soon as things cool down, the contractor was reprimanded and life resumed its bumpy journey again. Another sin of officialdom buried under the bulging carpet. More skeletons in the overflowing cupboard.

Such vandalization is daily business in a country where heritage is a big mystery and baffles our thinking. Lack of education may be a good reason why people simply have no regard for what constitutes their past, but it doesn’t require the mind of an Einstein to understand that relics of the past are not to be tossed about. Perhaps the average citizen, in India or Pakistan may not know the importance of the Shalimar Gardens or the Red Fort, but the same citizen would display considerable insight were he to stumble upon a coin of the Greek period. Then all his instincts would be razor sharp and all his decisions, right on target. Most people are not turnips and those in Lahore who were hammering away at the pavilion, were not beasts from another planet that didn’t know what they were doing. No, the reasons are indifference, not information or the lack of it and because there is no real accountability for the offenders, one more spike and one more bulldozing is not going to hurt. In the case of the rally, permission from the Archaeology Department was never obtained and while the Tourism Department should be penalized more effectively than they have been so far – in fact they have gotten away scot free, where in the world was the Archaeology sleuths who we all understand are on government pay rolls and are paid by the tax payer’s money to perform their jobs. They cannot pass the buck and claim to be an innocent party to whatever destruction took place and their chief’s point of view that ‘the damage is not that serious as is being claimed’ is insulting. For anyone heading a tourism body, one chip broken on a ancient building should be ‘serious’ enough – his statement is proof, if any was ever needed, of the callous indifference that officials manifest on such occasions. One agrees with his perception that since the two-storey pavilion did not exactly cave in, the damage was not serious, but anyone who has seen pictures of the damage would be inclined to think that here is more obduracy at play and utter lack of responsibility.

There are no details of precisely what followed the revelation of the damage other than a general regret and suspensions. What action was taken by the departments – we cannot say ‘concerned’ because that would be a fat lie. What amounts of fine were imposed on the happy nail-driving contractor and has that firm been barred from doing any more work for the Tourism Department? What about the officials from the department who were ‘supervising’ the festivities? Who among them have been formally reprimanded and what precise action has been taken? What kind of ‘suspension’ has been enforced? What has the Archaeology Department taken against its people who were obviously sleeping on the job? These are relevant questions, but there are no answers because it is not necessary to provide answers and all that matters is to lie low till the noise abates, then resume regardless. While the Tourism MD’s cheerful assessment of minimal damage holds us up, one wonders to what extent he and his cohorts have been involved in the restoration of the damaged marble? Are they planning to put in some bathroom tiles to restore the pavilion or are they planning to pilfer the marble from some other forgotten Sikh pavilion rotting in some part of this country? I suppose there is little point in holding one’s breath and hoping for the best. This is not the first time and certainly not the last, when our past heritage will be victimized, particularly by those who are entrusted to look after it in the first place. The numerous ‘civic’ functions that the government never tires of holding, are all staged at places that now seek sanctuary amongst the world’s threatened buildings and all those who are at work here, show little respect to their surroundings. The spikes that went into the pavilion were not the first. We have repeatedly damaged our heritage and no one has paid the price for it, so the destruction continues.

Many people believe that ancient monuments cannot and should not be placed in cocoons, that they must be enjoyed since we own them. There is nothing wrong with this thinking but access to these buildings has to be very strictly monitored and allowed only when all assurances are obtained that nothing will happen that will damage the building under use. That of course means responsibility of the real kind and that is a monument that we lost decades ago.