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Pakistan's First Independent Weekly Paper | November 6-12, 2009 | Vol. XXI, No. 38

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Archives November 6-12, 2009 | Vol. XXI, No. 38

My temples, too
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Arsalan Raja asks pertinent questions about our heritage n a Sunday evening punctuated by sounds of motorcycle rickshaws, I arrived at what appeared from a distance to be yet another nondescript government office. However, when I looked closer, I noticed a blackened sikhara (tower) rising above the raised walls of the rooftop. This is Krishna Temple, one of the many properties currently being overseen by the Evacuee Trust Property Board (ETPB), which seems to have failed to notice that several of its charges are slowly being encroached upon and destroyed in the name of progress.

Lahore was once a city of temples

Surrounded by police - a common enough sight at any area that attracts congregations or gatherings - the Krishna Temple's blackened walls depict a shrine that has obviously fallen on hard times. The first question that one asks when looking at it is, why is this once glorious place of worship in such a state of disrepair? Sadly, the answer can be traced back to the reaction against the Babri Mosque demolition in Ayodhya on December 6, 1992 - an incident that also led to the devastation of Jain Mandir. The interior of the building, however, is still vibrant and alive, with paintings of various Hindu gods and goddesses greeting you as soon as you enter. Hindu temple, Anarkali Bazaar The temple is divided into various chambers; each one housing statues of different gods. The first garbha griha (womb chamber) houses idols of Shankar Nath and Parvati, while another one on the first floor is dedicated to Lord Krishna and Radha. Sadly, due to the Babri retaliation, the traditional architecture of the Indian subcontinent has been replaced by modern, lifeless buildings.
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There are currently only two hundred Hindu families living in Lahore, but on the day I visited - the birthday of Baba Guru Balmik Swami - there were eighty people celebrating the occasion by singing bhajans (religious songs) and participating in various rituals. Following the event, local Hindu activist Manuhar Chand told me that the former federal minister Dr Khalid Ranjha, during a visit to the temple, had said every place of worship should reflect its origins, yet the ETPB had yet to take any action on his words. He said Raja Gurdwara Dehra Sahib, Lahore Tridev Roy, another former federal minister, had worked to have the site opened for worship and festivals in 1972. During our conversation, Manuhar criticised India for the Babri Mosque demolition, saying it had erected a wall of hate between India and Pakistan. However, the incident, while regrettable, was just another example of society's Krishna temple, Rang Mahal, Lahore devaluation of ancient traditions. Long before the 1992 tragedy, property abandoned by Hindu migrants, including temples, was demolished to make room for residential and commercial buildings. The reasons behind this are twofold: First, we are unwilling to accept such sites as part of our cultural heritage. State and society are both at fault in this, as while the state refuses to acknowledge the region's culture, heritage and identity, people refuse to resist any move to Ruins of the Wachhowali temple in Rang Mahal destroy their history. There are people who might question my connecting society with state, but until we define the differences, the degradation of our heritage is forever linked in this way. The government has appointed the ETPB to oversee the protection and rehabilitation of these sites, but it seems to prefer making money off the country's heritage sites by leasing them out at high rates, instead of preserving them for future generations. Second, while there are several cases of temples being desecrated and destroyed in the name of religious hatred or extremism, there are just as many that have no such linkages. While it can be a slow process, influential people do not hesitate to use their connections to grab any potentially commercial property. One such example is the Hanuman Temple near Shama Bus Stop on Ferozepur Road. While once a sacred site of worship, the temple was demolished years ago, and only exists in the memories of those who are willing to risk the wrath of the current property owners. Another such example was the Sheetla Devi Temple, which has gone from being one of the largest temples in Lahore to being nonexistent. This is an especially tragic case, as several notable personalities, including famous musicians Kamal and Qawwal Aziz Mian, lived in its compound for some time after migrating to Pakistan during Partition. The same story was repeated with the Ratan Chand Temple on McLeod Road, the Mata Temple near Lorry Adda and the Moll Chand Temple at Landa Bazaar near the City Railway Station. The latter used be a huge compound with over five hundred rooms. However, all that remains of it now is a ramshackle arrangement of shops. I was personally most appalled by the situation at the Ratan Chand Temple, because it was the site whose destruction I have looked at first hand.

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During a visit to observe the remaining temple site, I encountered some locals who were attempting to find a way to stop the ongoing "heritage carnage". They were collecting material about the history of Lahore for research, and had a lot of photos showing what the city used to look like before Partition. One such photo from 1870 was of the Ratan Chand Temple. The picture showed a site vastly different from the one I was familiar with. It depicted an expansive, magnificent structure surrounded by gardens that opened onto a vast pond - most likely used by worshippers for cleansing themselves before they entered the temple, as there were no water supply schemes at the time. This trend was also reflected in the mosques built throughout the Indian subcontinent, with the pool at Badshahi Mosque being a typical example of local Indian architecture in former times. Encouraged by the picture, I decided to revisit the Ratan Chand Temple and travelled to Rang Mahal in the Walled City. It was here that I learnt the true extent of the commercialism that now pervades former Hindu worship sites throughout Lahore. The entire area was ringed with narrow streets that were made all the more claustrophobic by the small businesses that have been tacked on, one after the other, along the street. Talking to locals, I learnt that the commercialism of this particular area started in 1985, when Nawaz Sharif became chief minister of the Punjab. According to them, Nawaz Sharif, as the ambassador of the business class, supported the traders over everything else. It must also be remembered that the 1980s were a time when killings and arson had become so commonplace in Karachi that thousands of businessmen were forced to move to the Punjab, especially to Lahore. The vast majority of this business focused on garments and jewellery, and the businessmen set up shop anywhere they could find room. One former local whose family had lived in the Walled City during the 1980s told me how astronomical the prices in the area could get due to their central location. "Look! This semi-old structure on a 1.5 kanal property, surrounded by narrow streets, has fetched Rs 420 million in a recent sale," he said. Shocked at the high property value, I asked him what the price of the same land would have been in 1985. "Maybe Rs 1.5 or Rs 2 million, but certainly no more than Rs 2.5 million," he replied. "You don't need to wonder about the prices in the suffocating streets of this locality. People are aware that you need to spend money to make money, and the rates can easily become astronomical," he added.

I met another person whose house - property abandoned by a Hindu family - was demolished in 1983. He said the debris alone sold for Rs 0.3 million at the time. One can only imagine the magnificence of the structure itself. "When I was a little child, I went to a friend's house and was amazed by its splendour. It was full of marble of many colours. I remember asking him how he could live in such beauty," he added during our conversation. Moving on, I encountered a Bangles Market established in the area soon after Partition. However, pre-partition, this entire area used to be the Bengali Temple. Now, all that remains are a few residential and commercial buildings that are centred on a mosque. Similarly, moving deeper into the streets of the Sarafa and Kinari Bazaars, one encounters over sixty shops, most of them brand new constructions. The temple compound here used to be so immense that it took land encroachers several decades to completely demolish it. In fact, the most recent construction took place in 2005. Not surprisingly, local businessmen are reluctant to talk about the area's history. "I am a trader and am trying to earn an honest living for my family. I don't have time to think about what this land used to be," said one shop owner. "There is another temple not far away from www.thefridaytimes.com/cgi-bin/tftstoryfeatures.pl

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what this land used to be," said one shop owner. "There is another temple not far away from here," the former local accompanying me said as we continued deeper into the area. "It is called Vichho Temple. The land mafia is already targeting it, with intense competition among the parties vying for its occupation." According to some estimates, there used to be around twenty Hindu temples in the Walled City prior to Partition. However, there are very few left now, and the ones that are present are in a very dilapidated condition. The heritage of the city, in fact the country, is being abandoned in the name of commercialism, as we shape everything in a manner that will generate maximum profit. The encroachment, however, is by no means restricted to temples alone. In fact, the Rang Mahal temple itself has fallen victim to the scourge of commercialism. It doesn't end there either; another hundred and fifty yards onwards, the road splits into a fork due to a small market. This market used to be one of the smaller Hindu temples of the city, but was converted into a market complex a long time ago in the name of progress. Finally, we must look upon another victim of the encroachments that have overtaken so many heritage sites: the Baoli Sahib (Sikh Baoli). Traditionally, a Baoli was a community centre built around deep, sunken wells that provided water to the surrounding areas in the drier parts of the subcontinent, especially Rajasthan and Gujarat. Some historians believe the idea dates back to the twelfth or thirteenth century, but several older Baolis have also been discovered. Due to their central water source, villages and temples would be built around Baolis, making them an essential part of the Hindu and Sikh tradition in the subcontinent. This particular Baoli is said to have contained several underground rooms that were constructed over the well to provide cool rooms for use during the hot summer. However, due to the encroachments on the site, no pathway remains to confirm these claims. The only option would be to, quite literally, "dig for the truth", but that itself comes along with several problems, as the current owners do not want their way of life to be disturbed. Currently, this once proud centre of a Sikh community is home to a series of poorly constructed small shops. Unless one is aware of its background, the only way to perceive the site's true history is to observe the small red bricks used in the construction of one of the boundary walls. Perhaps this was the boundary wall of the Baoli itself, which has now been incorporated into the new community that has usurped the old land for itself. What is particularly troubling, more so than the people's unwillingness to recognise their heritage, is that the ETPB, the one organisation that is supposed to oversee the preservation of such sites, seems to have given up on the matter entirely. Its inaction and lack of interest can be gauged by the treatment I was accorded when I visited its office in Lahore to obtain some information for this article. Every single employee seemed to be desperately anxious to hide their affairs from me - despite a senior official directing them to help me with my queries. However, no one was willing to so much as point me in the right direction. "We are serving the country, and Pakistan always comes first," was the only answer I got when I asked why it was so hard for them to help me obtain information on a single temple in Lahore.

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Arsalan Raja lives in Lahore

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