December 4, 2004

Lovers of the heritage, in fact the whole nation which prides itself on the historical heritage, will be relieved to hear that the Shish Mahal, that jewel of a Mughal residence in Lahore Fort, which was threatened with the collapse of its roof due to rain-water seepage and rotting timbers, has been saved by a process combining strengthening and repair.

This has been made possible through aid from UNESCO and Norway. I do not know why the Pakistan government wanted to stint on spending money on this precious structure, but the UN cultural body and the friendly European country expressed their readiness to associate themselves with the work, an offer that was readily accepted. UNESCO paid the bill while Norway financed the much-needed technical expertise pertaining to centuries-old building techniques without which the repair would not have been possible.

For visitors to the fort, the Shish Mahal is the most favourite spot. An attendant closes the doors of the main room, rotates over his head a small lamp whose light is reflected by the thousands of little mirrors embedded in the walls and the ceiling, and the illusion is created of a revolving starry sky. It is a truly beautiful and memorable sight and people love it.

My memories of Lahore Fort go back to childhood before Partition. An uncle was Superintendent in the Archaeology Department and was given a portion of Jehangir’s Quadrangle as his official residence. You can imagine our excitement whenever we paid him a visit. The wide open spaces to play in, the old firearms and coins and implements of torture in the fort museum and innumerable places to hide were a great attraction. Most of all we loved the Shish Mahal.

The Shish Mahal job was only a small part of the wholesale renovation of the massive fort. The big news is that UNESCO has taken upon itself to get the entire work executed. The project of repair and preservation is going to take three to four years. Alongside with the fort the international organisation is also going to revamp Emperor Shahjehan’s pleasure resort, the Shalimar Garden, which is badly in need of attention. A portion of its boundary wall has collapsed and there are signs of crumbling in the pavilions and the buildings within the garden.

There is another aspect about the future of Lahore Fort and Shalimar Garden. Readers might recall an earlier column about the insistence of the Punjab and Sindh governments that archaeology should be a provincial subject. That was not conceded, but the federal cabinet decided some time ago to transfer the control and upkeep of the two historical monuments from the Ministry of Culture to Punjab, and the agreement for their repair and renovation was signed between UNESCO and the provincial government a few days ago. This transfer is a significant administrative measure.

To start with, the Punjab Parks & Horticultural Authority will pay immediate attention to putting the lawns and greens of both the fort and the garden in proper shape within three months. This was the first of Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi’s directives about the two Mughal Monuments. He feels that with the two magnificent structures spruced up they would become great attractions for tourists and local visitors alike. In keeping with his wish, entry into the garden will be free for women and children from coming January 1.

Lahore already has a reputation as the cultural capital of Pakistan. All foreign tourists and visitors have heard of the city and want to see its sights. In fact it is the only city in the country that boasts of so many Mughal monuments, although the condition of most of them has been nothing to boast about. Maintenance has been so shoddy that repairs are undertaken only when something falls, as was about to happen in the case of the Shish Mahal. But there has been another reason too for what happened to it.

Both the governments, federal and provincial, have been over-fond of honouring foreign guests (particularly heads of state) with receptions and cultural shows in this small building. For this, iron spikes were hammered into the walls just below the roof to tie the shamianas and provide ample space for seating and entertainment. This must have happened at least thirty to forty times within my knowledge. How long could the hundreds of years old walls take this cruel treatment? In fact it’s a surprise the roof didn’t give way much earlier. It is not admitted, but I am sure UNESCO must have cautioned the government against this practice, because the Lahore Fort is on its World Heritage List, as is the Shalimar Garden.

It is indeed heartening (and a radical change from previous official attitude, whether provincial or federal) that the Punjab government is taking bold strides in the matter of the heritage. The Chief Minister has directed the Information & Culture Department to catalogue all monuments of historical and cultural importance in the province. (I presume that the list will also mention their state of repair.) Pending the completion of this scholarly and not-so-simple task, he has told it to make preparations for putting up museums in the bigger cities. So far there is only one general museum, and that is in Lahore. There are also the two in Taxila and Harappa but they are exclusively for the finds unearthed at the two archaeological sites.

Connected with his above desires is the fact that he wants preparation and implementation of a comprehensive programme for the restoration, renovation and conservation of the entire historical and cultural heritage in Lahore and other parts of the province. He told a meeting called by him in this behalf that concerted efforts should be made to finalise the programme, so that, to begin with, the special identity of Lahore as the repository of innumerable old monuments can be highlighted, with other cities like Multan (and I hope Bhera, which is full of old houses which need to be preserved as is done in civilised countries) receiving similar attention.

Let me say something about which hardly anything is ever written in newspapers and which also escapes the attention of lovers of the heritage. The fact is that while the Mughal buildings are always in the public eye, there are innumerable (literally hundreds) of other buildings in Lahore, particularly in the Mughalpura and Baghbanpura areas, which are even older than the Mughal period and are hopelessly neglected.

Most of them are mausoleums of members of some royal family or those of sufi saints. Last year I wrote about the Saroo wallah maqbara (the Cypress Tomb) of a Lahore governor’s lady, a structure which could be preserved with very little effort. The shocking thing about it is that the Punjab Auqaf leased out the land around it, and the lessees, in collusion with Auqaf, promptly turned it into a residential colony, against the lease terms.

Of course, among the sufi saints, Data Ganj Bakhsh is the cynosure of the whole country’s devotion by virtue of the special nature and popularity of the saint, though the tomb of Hazrat Mian Mir (a friend and intellectual companion of Shah Jehan’s son Dara Shikoh) in the cantonment is also highly venerated. Data Darbar is looked after by an exclusive high-powered committee. Prime Minister Z.A.Bhutto installed in the shrine a gold and silver gateway, specially ordered from Iran. It’s a most beautiful object.