For example, despite having the lowest GDP to tax ratio in South Asia, the Parliament continues to block any bill to pass agricultural tax, the burden of which would directly fall on the landlords. It is able to do this because many of these landlords are part of the Parliament. Several of them have deep ties with the military establishment as well, with members of their families serving in high-ranking posts. No government following Bhutto’s has contemplated land reforms that would reduce the size of landholdings. It remains perhaps one of the biggest ironies of Pakistan that a social class propped up by the colonial state to serve as a buffer between itself and the masses continues to determine the fate of millions of people in the postcolonial nation.
It’s a single-storey structure painted yellow, with a white dome on top. It looks more like a Mughal mausoleum than a Hindu smadh. The wide courtyard appears at odds with the encroaching buildings around it. Standing at the entrance, I bring out my phone to take a picture but a security guard jumps off his seat and tells me not to with his finger. He has been appointed by the ETPB, responsible for the maintenance of non-Muslim properties in Pakistan, which has been in charge of this building since the 1980s. The board has removed encroachments and renovated the structure, which has meant filling up an adjacent pool and constructing a courtyard on it, while also replacing the original architecture with a ‘modern’ version.
On a quiet Sunday morning, Lahore slowly stirs from its sleep and the shops begin to open. Restaurants serving breakfast, however, have been functioning since early morning. The small roads leading up to the smadh of Ganga Ram, which are otherwise congested, look wider without the onslaught of cars and other vehicles. Just off the main Ravi Road that skirts around Iqbal Park, the smadh is located within a dense community, not far from Gol Bagh, where the statue of Lala Lajpat Rai once inspired young revolutionaries.
The story of modern Lahore is the story of Ganga Ram. Lahore would not have been the city it became under colonial rule but for this man. With ingenuity, he transformed the city’s physical landscape to reflect the glory of the modern colonial state. Lahore, due to the efforts of Ganga Ram, became an icon of colonial power, its prestige, its magnificence and its ‘superiority’ to preceding native cultures.
Born to a police officer two years after the annexation of Punjab, Ganga Ram was a graduate of the prestigious Thomason College of Civil Engineering, located in Roorkee. There was no engineering course in Punjab at the time, with the first one starting in Punjab University in Lahore the year Ganga Ram graduated.44 Like many aspiring migrants, Ganga Ram turned to Lahore after his education. In the years following the annexation of Punjab, Lahore had emerged as a major economic centre of not only Punjab, but also the entire country.
From 1849 to 1901 its population had grown from an estimated 1,20,000 to 2,00,000,45 overshadowing neighbouring Amritsar which, till the year 1881, was slightly more populated than Lahore.46 With the development of the cantonment for the army and Civil Lines for colonial administrators, the city needed human power which came in the form of migrants. The census of 1911 identified that 463 out of every 1000 residents of the city were born outside the district.47 In the 1920s it was recorded to be the fifth-largest city in British India.48 In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the colleges and universities of the city were seen as a gateway to a better life.49 A degree from any of its prestigious universities or colleges was enough to secure a government job with all its perks.
At the top of this pyramid was Government College, located a little distance from the walled city, in Civil Lines, at the junction of Upper Mall and Lower Mall. A minaret with a small clock at the top is visible from afar. The building points towards the sky, the ultimate expression of neo-Gothic architecture in British India. Moved to its current location in 1877, and affiliated with the neighbouring Punjab University, Government College became Lahore’s premier liberal arts institution in British India and after.50 Amongst its alumni are two Nobel laureates, Abdus Salam and Har Gobind Khorana, poets Allama Iqbal and Faiz Ahmed Faiz, politicians Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, Nawaz Sharif and Yousuf Raza Gillani, writers Prakash Tandon, Bano Qudsia and Khushwant Singh, and the famous Indian film star Dev Anand.
Within walking distance of Government College, located on Mall Road, is Punjab University. Founded in 1869, it offered a number of degrees in not only Indian languages and literature but also English, modern science and humanities.51 It was regarded as a university where ‘oriental’ knowledge interacted with ‘English’ education. Even its architecture reflected an amalgamation of these two worlds. With its balconies, domes, columns and a watch tower, the building is a perfect specimen of Indo-Saracenic architecture.
A distinct form that developed in British India in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the Indo-Saracenic architectural tradition sought to combine the British Gothic tradition with Mughal and traditional Hindu architectural techniques. It grew from the realization that the colonial state needed to express its authority in India through traditional Indian symbols.52 Exploring the colonial architecture in Lahore, one can see the evolution of this thought. The earliest colonial structures in Lahore—the Lawrence and Montgomery halls—were constructed in neo-colonial traditions and almost appear as an anomaly in the landscape of the city. A transition can be noted in later constructions that began adapting traditional architectural techniques to colonial sensibilities.
Aitchison College, originally called Punjab Chiefs’ College, is one of the earliest examples of Indo-Saracenic architecture in Lahore. Constructed in the late nineteenth century, it includes features such as pre-Mughal chattris, shallow-relief patterns in the brickwork taken from the Mughals, interwoven arches and screens incorporated from Umayyad Spain and a clock on a tower rising from the centre of the building.53
Around the same time, the Punjab Chief Court was designed, later known as Lahore High Court. The building too adopted influences from diverse architectural traditions, much like the laws upheld by the court, which were an amalgamation of British and local traditions.54 Part of a similar tradition were the buildings of the post office, Lahore Museum and Mayo School of Industrial Arts that eventually came to be known as National College of Arts. Lahore was being transformed by the colonial state, modelled into a symbol of ascendant British authority. They wanted to leave a mark on this ancient city which had once been the seat of Mughal power, so it would bear the mark of the strength of the colonial state that had raised a new city, a better city, out of the ashes of its lost glory.
Ganga Ram was one of a handful of Indians who were able to help the colonial state create this narrative through architecture. When he arrived in Lahore, he was offered the position of assistant engineer, which led him to oversee the construction of some of these iconic buildings, including the high court, the Anglican Cathedral and Aitchison College.55 Due to a lack of trained architects, engineers like Ganga Ram were also expected to help design the building.
After the completion of Aitchison College, he was promoted to the post of Lahore’s executive engineer, a position he retained till his retirement. During his tenure, he oversaw the construction of some of Lahore’s most iconic structures, including the museum, Mayo School of Arts, the post office, the Albert Victor Wing of Lahore’s Mayo Hospital and the Government College Chemical Laboratory.56 His time in government service earned him considerable wealth.
He set up the Ganga Ram Trust that oversaw the construction of a hospital in the city in his name with a medical college next to it. The trust also established girls’ high schools and a Hindu widows’ home and school.57 Ganga Ram Hospital, just behind Lawrence Garden, still functions under its original name. It is one of the signifiers that continues to remind the city that there was a past to Lahore that was different from what is envisioned and desired today. For his services to the colonial state and his charitable work, Ganga Ram was awarded the title ‘Rai Bahadur’ and knighted by the order of the British Crown in 1922.58
Lik
e an anomaly, a statue of Queen Victoria sits in the middle of the Islamic gallery in Lahore Museum. Guns, swords and shields are displayed on walls behind glass enclosures around her. The statue doesn’t belong here; rather, it would seem out of place anywhere in the museum. It is a forced inclusion, the result of a lack of options, a commitment to the preservation of ‘our history’, a history that we would rather preserve in museums than on the streets of Lahore.
A few kilometres from here, at a point on Mall Road that is still popularly referred to as ‘Charing Cross’ even though officially its name has been changed to Faisal Chowk, under a marble pavilion with a small dome reminiscent of Mughal architecture, is a sculpture of the Quran. The colonnaded Punjab Parliament stands behind it. It was under this pavilion that the bronze statue of Queen Victoria was once placed. With the changing sensibilities of the city, in a culture of increasing Islamization in which the art of sculpture is looked down upon, the statue was removed in 1951, and replaced by a sculpture of the Quran during the Zia years.
The image of a British regent sitting under a Mughal-style marble dome was meant to symbolize a continuation of the imperial history of India, with Queen Victoria meant to be portrayed as a successor of the Indian royals. The technique was aligned with the colonial state’s strategy of using local architectural traditions to depict British symbols of power.
The pavilion was designed by another prodigal son of Lahore, whose imprint on the city, much like his contemporary Ganga Ram, continues to survive in a Lahore that is eager to forget its past. There was no doubt that for Bhai Ram Singh, designer of this pavilion, Queen Victoria held a special place. During his long and prestigious career as an architect, arguably, the highlight was a commission which came from the Queen herself, to design and fabricate, in ‘Indian’ style, the banquet at the Osborn House on the Isle of Wight, her palatial holiday home.59 In 1891, Bhai Ram Singh was sent to England to oversee the construction of the ‘Durbar’ room. Throughout his life he enjoyed the patronage of the queen and the prince regent.
Born in Rasulpur, a village in district Gurdaspur, Bhai Ram Singh studied carpentry at the Mission School in Amritsar. He became a student of Mayo School of Arts in Lahore, a college set up by John Lockwood Kipling, who also served as the first principal of the college, to promote ‘indigenous’ art traditions. John Lockwood was the father of the famous writer Rudyard Kipling. After his graduation, Bhai Ram Singh started working at Mayo School of Arts and, along with his mentor, Kipling, designed several structures around the city including Lahore Museum and Aitchison College.60
In 1909, he became the first Indian principal of the college.61 On many projects Bhai Ram Singh and Ganga Ram had the opportunity to work together. Perhaps their most important collaboration was the design and construction of DAV College, which today serves as the Islamia College.62 The purposeful use of Hindu motifs in the design of the building reflected the revival of Vedic philosophy followed by the Arya Samaj, the patron of the college.
Together, Ganga Ram and Bhai Ram Singh represent the transition of Lahore into a colonial metropolis that became an ultimate symbol of British ‘modernity’. In many ways, Lahore today is a descendant of the colonial city. The institutions and infrastructure laid down by the British still function and shape the city’s political and social milieu. It is still regarded as the educational capital of the country. The colleges and universities established during the British era are still regarded as the premier institutes of the country. Along with them, the city is now home to hundreds of new private colleges and schools that have sprung up in recent years following the privatization of education.
Migration has only increased after the creation of Pakistan. Lahore still serves as a major economic hub, with numerous industries functioning on its outskirts. Given the political uncertainty in Karachi, Lahore has in recent years emerged as the prime choice for several investors.
Much like how the colonial state used architecture and the development of infrastructure in the city as a tool to construct a certain narrative about its benevolence, the ‘development’ of Lahore and its infrastructure continues to be used as a political statement. It boasts of the best roads and public transport system in the country. While law and order remain a perennial concern in the administration of Karachi, Lahore, despite its massive size, seems to be in a much better situation, apart from petty crime. Lahore is a model city, used by the state and competing political claimants to express their ambitions.
The British completely transformed Lahore by imposing their definitions of modernity, progress and development on the people of the city. But in the 100 years of British rule over Punjab, not only was the British framework accepted, it was also internalized by the local populace in such a manner that it paved the way for the death of existing pre-British institutions, some of which had evolved over centuries. The ‘development’ of Lahore had a price: the destruction of indigenous institutions and traditions—a price that the city continues to pay.
The turret of a Hindu temple rises unexpectedly from somewhere amidst the shops. A black corrosive powder has settled over the structure. The turret is the last remaining evidence of the temple. The rest of the building has been transformed into a government school while other parts of the property have been taken over by shopkeepers. The turret remains visible as one drives around the circular market in D-Block in Model Town.
It is among the best preserved of the temples that were once constructed in Model Town—a planned residential scheme in Lahore. The man responsible for its construction outside the walled city of Lahore, the first of its kind not just in Lahore but also in all of British India, was Diwan Khem Chand, a barrister who had studied law in England. There, he had come across the ideas of Ebenezer Howard, founder of the garden city movement, which aimed to combine open gardens within residential schemes and to have a decentralized civic society with industries, shops, professional services, schools and other facilities. In his book, Howard included diagrams of the garden city with a circular geometry, and a community garden at the centre. Additionally, there was a park at the centre of each block which would have buildings of public use. Established in 1921, Model Town was based on the plan published in Howard’s book, with gurdwaras, mosques, schools, temples and churches constructed alternately at the centre of each block.63
While schools, mosques and some churches have survived, the temples and gurdwaras have been transformed, with traces of their original structures slowly removed. In B-Block, for example, I unexpectedly came across a Sikh gurdwara, a single-storey building, without any dome or mark of religious identification, standing in the middle of the park where children play cricket. The gurdwara had been converted into a residence. Only the older members of the residential complex were aware of the building’s history.
Similarly, on the western edge of the complex, there was a shamshan ghat. A vast ground, it was converted into a graveyard after Partition, a function it continues to serve.
Constructed with funds collected through private subscriptions, Model Town till the time of Partition was dominated by wealthy Hindu capitalists who owned about two-thirds of all the properties.64 Retired provincial and municipal government employees who were accustomed to living in bungalows were the initial residents of the society.65 The first houses in Model Town followed the British bungalow style, with shaded verandas, axial symmetry, open spaces around the construction and other smaller constructions to serve particular purposes, such as vehicle parking and servants’ quarters.66 All houses had to conform to strict planning restrictions.67 Incidentally, Model Town was the first residential scheme in the city to introduce the flush toilet system.68
In many ways, the construction of Model Town in the 1920s was a culmination of the city’s adaptation to British residential sensibilities. The process of course had begun soon after annexation. While a majority of the population in 1849 lived within the confines of the walled city, in multistorey houses, the British introduced a new model of living in C
ivil Lines and the cantonment with their wide avenues, spacious bungalows and compartmentalization of rooms for different uses, in a stark departure from the traditional houses in the walled city. There, hardly any compartmentalization of rooms existed and each floor was one big room, with the pattern replicated on higher floors. Even the houses of the elite were no different. Many of these houses within the walled city also had shops on the ground floor that opened on to the street.69
Sensibilities began to change as the affluent class took to emulating the lifestyle of the British, as the state also adopted a paternalistic attitude. In 1862, the Lahore Municipal Committee was established, laws for which were revised in 1884, allowing the committee to regulate construction policies. This involved beginning the inspection of building plans, comparing the construction of the structure with the alignment of the street and also inspecting the drainage system, which was lacking in traditional houses constructed within the walled city.70 In 1922, the Town Improvement Act was passed, which planned the growth of Lahore’s suburbs.
Influenced by the British concept of space, the influential residents of the city started moving out of ‘congested’ localities in the walled city and into the suburbs, preferring to live in British-style bungalows. The first to adopt this new lifestyle were the educated elite, the doctors and lawyers, who began moving into Civil Lines. Soon, new suburban localities sprang up, such as Nisbet Road, Sant Nagar, Krishan Nagar, Ram Nagar and Gowal Mandi.71 Like Civil Lines, these suburban communities had wider roads and spacious houses compartmentalized into different functional rooms. Most of these houses were multistorey structures, with shops on the ground floor, amalgamating Indian architectural techniques with British sensibilities.72 However, with Model Town, the bungalow became the preferred way of living for the educated Indian elite. While there was hardly any space between residential units in the walled city, there were vast empty spaces between bungalows.
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