|
|
|
May 26, 2005
A silent witness
Standing 102 feet tall and at the confluence of the city’s two major thoroughfares, namely I.I. Chundrigar and M.A. Jinnah Roads (previously known as McLeod and Bunder Road respectively), Merewether Memorial Tower appears to be lost and lonely.Built in the latter half of the 19th century when Queen Victoria reigned as Empress of India, it took eight years to complete (1884 to 1892). Designed by engineer James Strachan and evoking memories of medieval England, it was named after General William L. Merewether, who served as Commissioner in Sindh from 1868 to 1877. The total cost incurred on the structure including its imposing clock was Rs37,178.
With the famous Rustomji Building (now demolished) serving as its backdrop, it dominated the city skyline and witnessed its evolution from a small trading post to a premier port on the coast of the Arabian Sea.As irrigation canals were laid in Sindh and Punjab and the Sindh Railway linked Karachi to these cotton and wheat producing areas as far as northern India, its port became the largest exporter of these two commodities in the East by the year 1868. The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 further enhanced its status, as it was now nearer to the shores of the United Kingdom than any other Indian port.
By 1885 the steam tramway of the East India Tramway Company was plying on its roads, which had now acquired kerosene oil lamps lighting up the dark streets every night. Merchants stationed in Bombay started opening their offices on McLeod Road, and trade and telegraph flourished side by side. Karachi Port Trust (1915), Bank of India (1923) and Chamber of Commerce (1923), all appeared in the immediate vicinity of the Merewether Tower.
In 1924, British India’s very first airport started operating flights from Karachi, and World War II (1939-45) established its importance as a military base for allied forces.
The site where camel caravans bringing wool from Khorasan, Iran till 1878, became the commercial hub of the city. The Bombay Bank had already opened its branch on McLeod Road in 1866 and this was followed by the Post Office Building in 1868. Many British companies also opened their offices over here, including the famous Mackinnon Mackenzie & Company.On the eve of partition in 1947, the city’s population stood at 450,000, having multiplied from 105,199 at the time of Merewether Tower’s construction (according to the 1891census). By 1951, with an influx of 600,000 refugees from India, it had reached 1.137 million. Recent figures suggest it to be over 13 million.
In the last 113 years of its existence, Merewether has seen it all. The emergence of the city as a premier port under the Raj, its selection as the first capital of the newly established republic in 1947, and its success as a thriving commercial centre in the region.
The industrialization of the Ayub era (1958-68), the construction boom of the Bhutto years (1972-77), the influx of arms, drugs and Afghan refugees during the Ziaul Haq regime (1977-88), the adhoc experimentation of the Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif governments, as well as the city district government initiative of the present Establishment. To the list can be added the recurrent bouts of ethnic and sectarian violence, the collapse of its institutions and environmental degradation.But then, in its immediate neighbourhood lie the premises of the Abdul Sattar Edhi Foundation. Further down the road and close to the Dow University of Medical Sciences is Professor Adeebul Hasan Rizvi’s Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation.
In the midst of swirling traffic, it stands like a silent witness to the fulfillment of Sir Charles Napier’s prophecy, “You will yet be the glory of the East, would that I could come again to see you, Kurrachee in your grandeur!” (farewell address of Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Napier, December 1, 1847).
|
|
|
|
