January 4, 2004

Jewel in the Crown did the city an invaluable service by documenting many a missing link in Karachi’s vernacular colonial history

EWEL in the Crown was the title of a singular exhibition to celebrate Karachi’s colonial past in an unapologetic and stylish manner. The good thing was that even though the majority of exhibits came from personal collections of the city’s elite and from the Sindh Archives locker room, it was open to the public.

Harking back to Karachi’s colonial past, the show brought together some 400 old photographs, paintings, lithographs (or their copies), classical furniture items, architectural drawings, statues, mannequins, etc. that were selected and borrowed from a number of institutions and private collectors by curators Hamid Akhund and Hameed Haroon. The venue was the spacious Hall 4 at the Karachi Expo Centre and the occasion, Dawn’s bi-annual Lifestyle exhibition.

At the academic level, Jewel in the Crown did the city an invaluable service by documenting many a missing link in Karachi’s vernacular colonial history, as seen by scions of the notable families whose elders made the city their home during the Raj. The citations included in the catalogue that served as a guide to the show prove to be part of a historical document that completes the story behind the exhibits, explaining why a certain exhibit was there in the first place.

The story of colonial-era Karachi would not have been complete without the write-ups that date back to the period. This was made possible by the publication of a book titled Visions of Empire: Karachi under the Raj 1843-1947. Opening with the curators’ notes, the 200-plus-page photo-studded book contains excerpts from authoritative works on Karachi’s history by Alexander F. Ballie and Herbert Feldman as well as passages from the Imperial Gazetteer of 1920. This is followed by personal accounts of the city’s development by the early settlers here during the Raj, a section cataloguing the city’s key institutions and reprints from a special issue of The Star published in 1984.

Also launched at the exhibition were two CDs containing music dating back to the era. Not necessarily about Karachi, the songs contained in the CDs give a good flavour of the times the exhibition celebrated. The first CD titled Adaab Arz Hai, Begum Sahiba contains ‘Love Melodies from Kurrachee Mehfils at the end of the Empire’, while the second one titled Save Our Souls, Roma Shabana (named after a night club once located on old Bunder Road) contains ‘Anthems from Kurrachee Nightlife at the end of the Empire. The old pictures of Karachi, taken at various times during the Raj or culled from museum and government publications, were blown up for better viewing and presented a rare treat to behold. Foremost among these was a picture taken from the Trinity Church tower in 1860 looking westwards to what is now the concrete jungle of Saddar, Bunder Road and adjoining congested localities. Another 1872 reproduction of a photograph showed a fisherman catching pala fish in the river Indus.

Arif Hasan’s scroll-collage documenting the buildings on Bunder Road stretched over 300 feet, capturing 19-20th-century historical buildings from Merewether Tower to Saeed Manzil on both sides of the road. Pictures of the missing buildings, many of which were pulled down in post-independence years to make room for commercial plazas, were inducted in their original place to complete the documentation.

The show was curated to offer a “promenade through Kurrachee’s past.” The promise was more than fulfilled. One of the most outstanding features of the exhibition was a good number of 19-20th-century original statues. Another section documented Seafield’s 20th-century art deco interiors (Sir Abdoola Haroon’s residence) through photographs taken back in 1936. This was the venue where many important decisions were taken during the Pakistan Movement when Muslim League leaders, including the Quaid-i-Azam, gathered there on a regular basis.

Jewel in the Crown is an exhibition that requires a longer showing. It is perhaps for this reason that the curators have decided to re-mount it at the Mohatta Palace Museum later this year. When that is done, the organizers might want to revise the prices of the book, the catalogue and the CDs so that students and others who have interest in collecting material on Karachi’s cultural heritage can also benefit from these souvenirs. One way of making these available to a wider audience at affordable prices would be to get the city’s prosperous corporate sector on board and have them subsidize these collectibles.

On a totally different note, the organizers might also want to give a thought to expanding the scope of the exhibition and making it a more comprehensive celebration of Karachi — not just colonial Karachi — through the years. Obviously, this would require going back to murkier times and into largely uncharted territory, when the city was no more than a small fishing village with early settlements of Baloch (and other) tribes that inhabited the Kharadar/Mithadar/Lyari areas.

The story of Karachi’s complete chronological documentation can begin at the old fish harbour and go on to incorporate the port development next to the old harbour, which can then lead one into the era of Karachi’s colonial past that is already well documented. The post-colonial early development of the city as Pakistan’s capital, the removal of imperial sculptures from conspicuous public places, the re-christening of the city roads, and the building of the so-called emblems of the new state, etc. can warrant another revealing and interesting study.

This city and its runaway growth are fascinating phenomena that are unfolding in our own times. The few dedicated people still around, especially those who have shown that they can take a holistic approach to such documentation, should complete this task. The story of Karachi, told in spurts, will remain a story incomplete and untold.

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