Picture of the Day: Reflecting on Lahore

Posted on July 5, 2006
Filed Under >Adil Najam, Architecture, Culture & Heritage, History, Photo of the Day, Religion
18 Comments
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Adil Najam

I had a tough time trying to decided which of Jawad Zakariya’s photographs to feature here today. I decided on this one because of the comments that were posted on this picture at Flcikr. The picture itself is of the Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, with Ranjit Singh’s Samadhi on the left, both reflected in some rain water.

I think it is a terrific picture, but many of the commentators on Flickr thought that, photographically, it would have been better if he had focused only on the mosque and removed Ranjit Singh’s Samadhi from the frame. As a photograph, it may well have been (and, in fact, he does have one of those too). But as social commentary, it would have lost its meaning. The beauty of this picture is that it so eloquently highlights something that many of us–even those of us who are from Lahore–can miss all too often: the multi-religious and religiously diverse history of Lahore.

Sitting side-by-side, these two pieces of architecture–the most glorious mosque built by the mighty Mughals and the mausoleum of Lahore’s greatest Sikh ruler–encapsulate the essence of Lahore as the multi-religious, multi-cultural metropolis that it was. Here is a captivating reminder of the social milieu in which Muslims and Islam–particularly in Lahore–developed in an earlier generation.

Jawad Zakariya is one amongst many of an amazingly talented generation of Pakistani photographers displaying their work on Flickr.com. His photographs have this ‘picture-perfect’ postcard quality to them (and not just because of the border he uses). In fact, the masthead displayed on ATP this first week of July is also from one of his photographs.

Originally uploaded by jzakariya on Flickr.com as ‘Shahi Reflection‘.

18 responses to “Picture of the Day: Reflecting on Lahore”

  1. The comments entered by various readers of ATP are anti Ranjit Singh and I don’t blame them. This is what we have been forced to read. Unfortunately most of us Pakistanis do not read much of history books and that too by different writers with different backgrounds. Unfortunately historians too have their own biases. The Muslims try to paint him as a despot who ruined the Muslim especially Mughal constructions in Lahore. The Sikhs believe he was an ideal Raja who had nothing wrong with him. Like any other being, he too had his positive as well as negative sides. But by and large he was a ruler who did justice to his subjects; irrespective of what religion they had.

    His foreign minister Fakir Syed Aziz-ud-din was a Muslim and he was the person who primarily contributed in framing of his foreign policy matters. His army generals were Sikhs, Hindus and Muslim too. I think barring the fact that he was a non Muslim, he is as much part of Lahore’s magnificent past as the one under Muslim rulers was. Again its so unfortunate that we see every thing through a religion tinted lens. We are all proud Muslims and as proud Pakistanis we should equally take pride in what is our Pakistani heritage, be it the Muslim, the Hindu or the Sikh one.

    Nayyar Hashmey
    http://wondersofpakistan.wordpres.com/

  2. Raza Noor says:

    Since, my website has been sited here in one of the comments about Rnajit Singh, I felt it prudent to submit a comment of my own on what I have read about Lahore’s history and the fate of its historical monuments under different rules.

    Adil has already mentioned a few stories that exist about what happened with Badshahi Mosque under Ranjit Singh. As a Lahori, who has been reading quite a bit about its history, initially I was also guilty of falling under the exaggerated misconceptions about the Sikh rule (for me here, I will consider Ranjit Singh’s rule as the true Sikh rule as the rulers before him were a bunch of warlords or misls who were kicked out by him when he was invited to take the city by the populace). There appears to be some truth to the misuse of Mughal buildings under Ranjit but most of it was mainly due to the fact that much of that was going on before he came in. The story about Badshahi Mosque being turned into a stable stems from the time of the three Sikh warlords who had taken over Lahore. The pilfering of marble and stones from Mughal monuments from what I can formulate was not done for revenge purposes but for the lack of resources. With the British having taken control of much of what was east of Sutluj River, there was no marble available to be mined for buildings commissioned during Ranjit’s rule and therefore, it was taken from what was already available in previous constructions. At times, it was obtained from already decaying buildings as they had been looted already while at other times there were lapses of judgement in knocking about and damaging some of the preserved monuments. History books, mostly written during British Raj, even by non-Muslims are filled with crediting Ranjit Singh or his ministers for damaging Lahore’s monuments but that I think for the most part stems from the new regime discrediting the previous one.

    In my understanding, Lahore’s population owes much thanks to Ranjit for saving it from being completely plundered by the Sikh warlords and the Muslim Afghan looters and saving it from the clutches of the British for many years. His love for the city can be seen from the fact that he chose Lahore as his final resting place. One of the only two emperors who made Lahore their final abode, the other being Jahangir.

  3. Khuram says:

    I have no intention of disappointing Adil Najm or hurt his feelings about Ranjit and his rule but he needs to go back to a recent post, which for some reason I do not find now,showing 19th century photo of Lahore Railway Station.You will find here what Ranjit and his army did to Badshahi Mosque;http://www.ualberta.ca/~rnoor/gallery.html

  4. jas bains says:

    the stories of Ranjit being a tyrant originate from pakistani’s who seek to create an fundamentally islamic history of themselves and can not conseed to a person of another faith helping them in any way. Sad how to be pakistani now implies to hate india (vice versa also).

  5. Chirag says:

    TO ALLL MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS se this pic shows we alll are one . somewhere down the line we have same links.we all have been a target of politics lets unite! cos all of us have to go to one place tht is to god! and yes sab log mitti mein he millenge be it a muslim,hindu,christain,sikh allll of us are one!!!!!

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