Erasing The Past

AUGUST 2004 - Now that the Punjab Government has undeservedly inherited the Lahore Fort and the Shalimar Gardens, we should all prepare ourselves for the days ahead when there will be unending reports about misuse of these grand old buildings. Unless of course a miracle occurs and changes the thinking of people into whose hands our past and present heritage is frequently gifted.

In the case of the Lahore Fort, we haven’t had to wait too long. At least on this score, the local government has scored swiftly. Hardly has the ink dried on the orders passing these threatened monuments into the hands of the Punjab Lordship and we have an extravagant dinner thrown at the Fort – the Shalimar is too dilapidated and filthy to even visit let alone have a meal in its stinking environment. In attendance amongst the other glittering figures that make up Lahore’s social scene were the Nazim Sahib and Secretary Information Punjab, the latter having vowed just a few days earlier that these monuments will not be misused anymore. Well, well, well. We can all suppose that the Defence Team visiting from somewhere had to be feted and pampered and where else but the Fort, the scene of so many more festivities for many other nameless and quickly forgotten dignitaries? Unesco which has placed the Fort and the Gardens on its threatened list was quick to fire a salvo at the government and categorically stated that they would strike these two off their list unless the government functionaries could be restrained from further damaging the monuments. Following that, the Chief Minister has this Friday morning sternly taken note of the infringement and ordered that no further festivities will be allowed at the two venues. Why has it been necessary for the CM to do this and how many warnings will continue to be issued to keep in check a tendency that has already had tragic results? Can anyone care to explain why it was necessary to take the Defence Team to the Lahore Fort, pitch Shamianas, cook dhegs and toss chicken bones towards the general direction where the emperor held court? How the Mughals must be turning in their graves seeing the penguins shuffling about belching and tooth picking after their sumptuous meal. Was there no other place in Lahore where they could be fed? Of course there were, but since the Lahore Fort, in this case, is your personal back garden, why go elsewhere? Violation of the Chief Minister’s fresh orders is only a question of time. It’s always been like this.

As for the fabled Shalimar Gardens, the less said the better. What we have of these dream gardens is a crumbling façade, pools where dead tadpoles float amidst the stirring company of plastic shoppers, cigarette buts and crushed cartons of juices. The lawns are still there, as are the trees but for that we should be thankful to nature more than the Feds who had possession of the gardens till recently and who did nothing for them. The famous fountains only work for VIPs and since these come in fewer and fewer numbers, Shalimar Gardens have no electricity. The sight of these splendid gardens must have been awe inspiring at one time but we have successfully sunk them into the huge quagmire where we usually consign our past. Ancient monuments should not be preserved in moth balls – they are the heritage of the common people who are well within their rights to ask that these be maintained in some acceptable state. But when these special treasures become the sole domain of whoever is running the sweat shop and whose maintenance is confined only to the moments when the dreaded VIP locusts swarm in here, then things do rot and this isn’t even Denmark. Our heritage has fallen into the wrong hands. This new lot is only concerned with making money, illegally preferably. It has no sense of history or the past – about which most Pakistanis are anyway most confused. What few understand or realise is that our country has swiftly started to lose monument after monument, artifact after artifact to this apathy and insensitivity that shapes our thinking and worse, (mis)guides the policy makers and its executioners to perpetrate one wanton act after another.

The Mall, where mercifully the restored Tollinton Market is now rising, having resisted the Plaza mafia for a long time, is a sight for sore eyes as are the old buildings, lit up brilliantly and giving a fairly passable appearance during the day. However, there is a whispering campaign that something is going to be done at the High Court. What murder is planned there and why is it so far, cloak and dagger stuff? The takeover of the two Clubs, the Cosmopolitan and the Ladies Club at the Bagh e Jinnah, is horrible. In one case, the reason cited is that the Ladies Club was doing nothing worthwhile so it was decided to put it to ‘better’ use. The ‘better’ use here is an Art Institute where God knows what crafts are going to be practiced. The CM has asked my friend Nayyar Ali Dada to make sure the Institute has a touch of the ‘haveli’ once designed. Haveli? We have plenty of those down the road. Why plant one in the gardens and throw out the ladies? The Cosmo Club, circa 1927, has been taken over because two rival groups were not getting along. In both cases, police moved in, threw out the staff and fixtures and since then, there has been general contempt for the process of law or various appeals that the members have cobbled together. Long-term leases have been annulled in a flash and the writ of the lords reigns supreme. The Institute already has a BOG and cars are being ordered. Bravo. Mr. Nawaz Sharif, when he was CM, was all for pulling down the Cosmo Club (“Let’s make a new one with marble,” he said). He almost got away with it but was prevented by some spirited members who defended the premises. However, the cricket pavilion barely managed to survive his bizarre architectural vision and got ‘marbleized’ much to Mian Sahib’s delight and those of his long retinue of ‘certified chamchas.’

Of the ten statues that lined The Mall, only Alfred Woolner miraculously survives. Queen Victoria was abducted from Charing Cross and sent to the Lahore Museum where she was contactable along with her two sons George V and Edward VII – but if they are still there, I wouldn’t know. John Lawrence stood in a small garden in the High Court but was deported to England where undoubtedly he is happily camped. Sadly, Sir Ganga Ram’s statue, a unique one carved entirely out of bronze, was dumped in the parking lot of NCA from where it has disappeared as have statues of Lala Lajpat Rai and Sardar Dyal Singh to name a few. One only wishes that the virus that eliminated these remnants of our past could get to work on the hardware and weapons of mass destruction that blot the landscape from one end of the country to the other. There are countless other examples of how badly we have neglected our past not understanding that those who do so, jeopardize their future. But that’s thinking ahead which we all know is a sin in Pakistan. Our mindset is fixed and sadly it is warped as well. We think nothing of erasing things which form the very basis of what we are and who we are. Lost somewhere between the Aryans and Mohammad Bin Qasim, we are meandering and nothing is sacred anymore. We defile buildings, change names at whim, pull down relics and replace them with plazas, neglect what must be preserved and preserve what must be abandoned. We have no sense of history and we have no spirit of protecting the very environment we live in. We cut trees as if they had committed grave offences and when faced with a choice of restoring or rebuilding, happily opt for the latter replacing beauty with warts. We can’t see beyond our noses, which is probably why we don’t grow olives. The olive tree takes 20 years to give fruit, but then – and here’s the catch, it gives fruit for the next 2000 years.