Adil Najam
Our friend Darwaish posted this picture at Metroblog Lahore claiming that it is the very last statue of a human figure standing at its original location in Lahore (outside the ‘old campus’ of Punjab Univeristy).
I have no reason at all to doubt his claim and am fairly sure that he is, in fact, right. But I wanted to check with our readers if this is indeed so. Do you know of other statues; in Lahore or elsewhere?
(I recall that discussion on an earlier post about a Gandhi statue outside the Sindh High Court that now stands in the Indian High Commission; and someone on Lahore Metroblog hinted that now there are many new statues all over the major cities - mostly of Ronald MacDonald and Col. Sanders of Kentucky Fried Chicken!).
This statue, by the way, is of Prof. Alfred Woolner who was a long-serving professor of Sanskrit, as well as vice-chancellor of Punjab University between 1928 and 1936.
Being in the same profession as Mr. Woolner, I am intrigued by this picture at many levels. For example, it is ironic that the statue of a professor has been vandalized by what seems to be a student organization of some sort. Whatever this may or may not tell us about the state of statues in Pakistan, it also says a lot about the respect that professors once held in our society and now do not.
Only yesterday, Mast Qalandar was writing in these columns about Islamia College Peshawar and the discussion led to a conversation on the contribution of Prof. Hubert Michael Close, one of the College’s remarkable professors. We have, of course, also been talking recently of cheating professors at Punjab Univeristy. One wonders if there are still professors in our colleges and Universities who are revered as Prof. Woolner here, or Prof. Close at Islamia College, were.
I have a tayya (uncle) who alway very proudly, and rightly proudly, tells me that his teachers were Sufi Tabassum and Faiz Ahmad Faiz. I know there are still many who should be revered and who excel at the craft and art of teaching. Yet, do we as a society even think that teachers are worthy of respect? And, can a society that does not respect teachers, even be considered respectable?
Ustaad ki Izzat !!!
@ Teacher’s respect was the first victim of Educational
disaster the left has brought to Pakistani Eudcational
Institutions, the only autonom “idaarah” in Pakistan.
I stand witness that my respect for all my teachers
Muslims, Hindus, Catholics, Parsis men & women
was and is without any distinction or difference,
Allah bless them all, I have debts towards all of them.
Ustani Wiqar-un-nisa’a who taught me reading and
understanding Quran-e-Karim in Urdu/Arabic from
day one till Khatam-alQuran, she transmitted Lukhnowi
Urdu and Paan (Allah Bakhshay) to me as well.
Sir Mirza Abdel Hameed Baig Pricipal & English
Mrs Maryam Farooqui Head-mistress & English
Mrs. De Sousza English Litrature & poetry
Mrs. Kharrass Piano teacher
Sir Shafiullah Subconti History, (my favourite)
Sir De mello Pak History
Sir Siraj-uddin Maths (brilliant Ustaad)
Sir Jaffer Urdu, litrature,poetry
Miss. Nusrat Musique
Mrs. Noorbi Appa Urdu Drama
Sir Alam Econimics
Sir Hussaini Sports
Appa Badrunnisa P.T
Sir Hassan Adil Politcial Science
Sir Manohar Lal
Chaudhri Accounts Book-keeping
Sir Mukkaram Ali
Khan Sherwani political History of subconti
Here is one statue in Lahore (NCA?);(http://www.flickr.com/photos/brucetoombs/3 16079709/)
very interesting article. thank you
The statues went away in the 1950s and I do not think they are coming back but we do not need them. You can name buildings for people you want to pay respect to. Or have monuments without statues of people. The point is respect, not statues.
The statue has survived all the madness so far probably because its not very visible from main mall road. There are so many people i know who have never noticed it. strange but true :).
I hope it doesn’t become too popular, thanks to ATP, otherwise its days are numbered in my view.
This whole thing got me interested in mentioning some of the other statues of Lahore. Like there used to be a bronze statue of Queen Victoria that was placed in the pavilion of the Punjab assembly chambers. It was removed in 1951 and later Mr. Bhutto got a bronze replica of Holy Quran placed there in 1974 before the famous OIC summit. Then there was a marble statue of Sardar Diyan Singh in Diyal Singh library who was also the owner of famous Diyal Singh Mansion. Sir Ganga Ram’s statue stood outside Lahore Museum and I read somewhere that later it was dumped into the parking lot of NCA and from there it just disappeared.
Perhaps the most controversial statue was that of Lord John Lawrence (viceroy 1864-69 and Punjab’s former governor general). The statue, placed in a small garden near the Punjab High Court, generated huge protests in 1920’s because it displayed the following inscription: “By which will ye be governed: by the pen or the sword?â€Â? This was also removed in 1951. If I am not wrong, there used to be a statue of Jinnah Sahab somewhere in Karachi. Not sure though. There is a lot more about statues but comment is becoming a post itself so may be another time :).
It seems most of the stautes were removed from all over Pakistan in 1951. I wonder if anyone can explain the background?
There used to be a statue of an old solider,who fought in World War 2, and got Queen Victoria Cross in the Army Mueseum(near GHQ). He was from Baluch Reg. I saw it like couple of decades ago, I am not sure if its still there.
By the way, “The Malika da But” the Statue of Queen Victoria was last seen by me collecting dust in the entrance hall of the Lahore museum. The Marble building/platform where it was housed still stands at the grounds in front of the Punjab Legilature.
Talking of Teachers and Statues, they always live. Remember Socrates for Aristotle and for all of us. And of course Michelangelo.
There was a Professor G. M. Fritters, a German Jew who Headed Pol.Sc. Deptt. at Punjab University in the 50’s and with what wisdom and command. A bit of an eccentric but so what.
About the same time Lahore had Ozzir Zuby the Sculptorist.
Does anyone know what happened to these two???????