ONE OF THE MOST BRILLIANT MIND OF TWENTIETH CENTURY
QUAID E AZAM M.A. JINNAH WAS NOT CONFUSED IN ANY WAY

PSYCHOS PUTTING THEIR OWN CONFUSION FOR FINANCIAL TERMS

I grew up in a Pakistan which had no confusion about its Icons. The intellectual as well as the man on the street knew what was best for Pakistan. I think the most outstanding thing about Pakistan was utter clarity in all matters. In recent years it started coming up, then more and more, hired nobodies trying to derail our Ideology with stupid, crass street smart ideas. As they are no intellectuals, how could they understand the struggle of intellectualism in Pakistan? We went abroad many times. Met hundreds of goras everywhere and talked with pride about our country and its forward looking ideas. We were always appreciated by others.

Three people made Pakistan. Dr Allama Iqbal with the Idea of Pakistan. Quaid e Azam by implementing it against all odds. And G.A. Pervaiz who brought the Mullahs under control, although a thousand Mullahs could declare him as a Kafir. In fact Mullahs have always condemned all three makers of Pakistan as Kafir e Azam or Kafirs. Pakistan was not made for Mullahs to reign or Seculars to confuse the Nation. It was made to restore the pristine qualities of Islam as the first step towards a global revolution. No one can deny that!

If the confused people really want to undo their confusion, they should read two essential books. One Dr Allama Iqbal’s RECONSTRUCTION OF RELIGIOUS THOUGHT IN ISLAM and the other G.A. Pervaiz’s ISLAM A CHALLENGE TO RELIGION. Everything will become crystal clear.

THE MANTRA OF AKHUND BHARAT AND SAME CULTURE
NO OBJECTION TO WHAT HINDUS DO, IT IS THEIR RIGHT

BUT OUR CULTURE NOT IN ANY WAY LIKE THAT, SO WHO IS CONFUSING

The Two Nation theory is not legend, it is a fact of life. We have no objections to the believes of other religions. It is their due right. But for people like us, even a drop of urine soils our clothes and we are unhappy with ourselves, till we wash ourselves by taking a complete bath or otherwise. Why then the Mantra of same culture? In what way are we the same? No public relationing in the world can erase the differences. I do not carry any hatred or prejudice against any one else. They are welcome to their way of life. But that is not our way.

Was this Akhand Bhaat ever there? Yes once in history it became one and that was under Emperor Aurangzeb Alamgeer. The name hated by the protagonists of Akhand Bharat. Were the Rajas of various areas friendly to each other? Was there peace or fighting and bickering all the time. And what about the various castes in India. In Islamic culture there was egalitarianism but there was rigid class system with Hindus. The amazing part was that the common people were not even permitted to take part in wars and other matters. Too low to even read sacred books of their own. Obviously Islam had an impact on India, and that impact can be seen to this day.

We want India and Pakistan to live in peace and co-exist with each other harmoniously. To accept each others way of life. That is okay! But to dub the same as one culture is a figment of imagination which no heart and mind can ever accept in any way. Peace is our ultimate aim in life.

PANIC OF SMALLPOX EPIDEMIC IN LAHORE 1850

HENRY LAWRENCE ORDERS DRIVE AGAINST ITS SPREAD

VARIOUS AREAS OF LAHORE IN PRECAUTIONARY DRIVE

A Smallpox epidemic swept Hindustan in the 19th century. There was no cure, just precautions. Probably millions died all over India in the spread of disease. Countless disfigured for a life time. Smallpox came to Lahore too but a lot of precautions were taken by Sir Henry Lawrence. We introduce an order by this Administrator of Lahore for clean sweeping all areas and the possible cure of same. The Hindus believed that the disease was started by Goddess Shitala and the cure was also given by her. The Muslims also must have resorted to prayers. The real need was cleanliness and it was undertaken by Henry Lawrence. The details can be read in his order for dealing with the disease in Lahore.

DEATH OF ANOTHER ICON OF PAKISTAN

On 17th January, 2016 Ms Shameem Anwar died in bed. She was responsible for teaching at Kinnaird College for a number of years, as well author of a few books. Her most famous book was the IDEA OF PAKISTAN. She worked all her life for Women emancipation and was loved by both her students and colleagues. Allah bless her soul!

THE REAL QUEST FOR CHUGHTAI MUSEUM OF LAHORE

Highs and lows of life and endless horizons

In 1932 M.A. Rahman Chughtai was on a quest to Europe and in Amsterdam, visited the house of the artist Rembrandt. He was told that Rembrandt died in a stable, his body stenched for days in same. Later the Government picked up his house and bought similar Etching presses etc and re-established the house as Rembrandt Museum. His travelling guide and companion Elza Huiffner explained all this to him. M.A. Rahman Chughtai said that he will build a museum of his arts in Lahore, enrich it with the best of his works a well as other artists, and it will be a center point of aesthetics development in Lahore and regional Muslim World.

The first thing he did was to start collecting Art in Europe itself and collected 1500 European Engravings, including that of Rembrandt, Durer and Rubens. He also started amassing a valuable collection of Art books for the library of the museum. And then he did one another remarkable thing. He stopped selling his Masterpieces and started differentiating between his Museum and Commercial Art. A term, he used himself. The quest was then to acquire land for same.

Requests to various authorities fell in vain and the artist realized no Government will ever come forward to help him in his quest. He himself bought land in Garden Town for his museum in 1960 and would have built the same then, only conspiratorial forces were there to stop him. And LIT invented foolhardy reasons to stop him in his tracks. It took nearly 35 years to rid ourselves of the LIT now LDA problems and we built the museum on the land. And then another sabotage came in to question our ownership of the land. The case is in front of the full bench of the Lahore High Court, frivolously trying to undo the efforts of Chughtai and his family. In 41 years of existence as a Chughtai Museum, we have not received ONE PAISA nor ONE FAVOUR from any official quarters or otherwise. We were on our own the first day to this day. But we never gave up. The heartbeat of Pakistan was in our blood and both local and foreign lobbies were determined that we do not make it in any way. From far away they can pull the strings of our politicians as well as bureaucracy.

The opposition is not to us in any way. It is to the Ideology of Pakistan which sends shivers through the enemies. In 1975 my faher entrusted this task to me and I have hundred percent well laid plans for the future. We will survive. The enemies will see their faces bite into dust. My mother used to recite this verse to m again and again:

AIHAY THAY JO SANG RA BAN KAR,
SAB UR GAYE BARG KA BAN KAY.

Those who came as Stones to stop our way, evapourated into thin air like autumn leaves.

PANIC OF EARTHQUAKE DEVASTATION IN LAHORE 1904
THE FAMOUS EARTHQUAKE OF QUETTA ALSO HIT LAHORE

Fading memories of phenomenal loss in city 4th April

A magazine in London carried the news of the Earthquake in Lahore on 4th April. The magazine is dated 1905, the earthquake could have been in 1904. Maybe 1905 is also possible. We have no access to detailed record. Suffice that the event was important enough to be a news item in England of that time. That besides photographs of the devastation, even paintings were made with the Wazeer Khan Mosque in the background. Keeping the history of Lahore alive is one thing. Imagining the terror of those days is another. Lahore has certainly been a witness to the strangest things possible.

The sad part is that to this day here is no Rapid Response Team in Pakistan to such catastrophes. They happen all the time, the Army comes in, the Civilians talk loud, go for photo sessions but COMPASSION none for victims. Only people care for people. The Government sits idle in the true way of NERO FIDDLING WHILE ROME BURNT.

A RAVAN FESTIVAL IN LAHORE 1923
SUNDAY COURIER LAHORE REPORTS FESTIVAL

Not even in peoples memory today

The area in front of Lahore Fort has witnessed many things. The Minar of Pakistan stands there today, but in the same vicinity there used to be many things. Known to us as Minto Park, it housed an annual exhibition of things. Ladies of Lahore thronged there not only to see things but buy things of their choice. Regular Kite flying (Patangs) were there on holidays and the standard was the peak of Lahore. Fondness for research is there now and a student from NCA, Ms Zoya Hassan is researching a thesis on Guddi ground.

We came across a reference in newspaper magazine of France, namely Sunday Courier in 1923, with a drawing of a RAVAN FESTIVAL in Minto Park Lahore. We are told by the paper that there were 200,000 spectators to see the event. Obviously not all would be Hindus as the drawing itself shows Muslims enjoying the show too. Strangely we do not see anything like that today, but it is a thing that is there all over India, to this day, as can be seen by various images. So enjoy a page from the past!

Strangely on one side, outside Taxalli Gate Lahore was the HINDU WOMEN BURNING GROUND, where they cremated their dead Hindu ladies. People recall the smell of burning flesh in the area. On the other side was the place where Zorastarians or our Parsee brethern left their dead bodies behind for the traditional end of being eaten by birds and animals and the throwing of the remains in a traditional well, the Silent Tower of Lahore. The symbolic killing of Raven no one remembers at all.

WALL PAINTING IN LAHORE AS TRADITION, YES
LAHORE BOASTED PICTURES AND SCULPTURE ON ROOFTOPS

INFLUX OF RURAL MIGRANTS DESTROYED LAHORE’S LEGACY

The pictorial fancy was very much a part of the legacy of Lahore. I remember we used to admire Lions in bricks and choona on the roof tops of Lahore. This was a legacy of old times. Similarly pictures of Lions as well as other subjects adorned the walls of Lahore’s houses but there is little visual evidence left. Why? For nobody bothered to take care of that legacy. Obviously artists were there and they were either masons or attached to masons, as these kind of pictures required scaffolding on high walls of Lahore’s houses. Strangely this tradition goes back to centuries as we trace its origin to Turkey as well as Byzantine Empire.

In a city where lions were used in the Lahore Fort as watch dogs, what could be expected? Heroes were supposed to be lion hearted at all times. Even helmets had lions on them. It is no surprise that in diggings, bones of lions come up all the time. The historian Baiqui talks of lions roaming freely in the Jungle of what is now Sheikhupura or Shahdara. Incense burners with lion shapes all the time. Nowadays the legacy can be seen on truck walls in a similar way. Fine Arts became Folk Arts with time.

EVEN BLEAK TIMES IN LAHORE 1796 AD, YET PAINTERS THERE
SHAHBAZ BILGRAMI LAHORI MAKING ON DEMAND PORTRAITS

A rare portrait of Sardar Ilm Khan Wazir of Taimur Durrani

We do not know the present location of this work, but it is a rarest kind of work. This is before Ranjit Singh captured Lahore. It is signed as Amal Shahbaz Bilgrami and it is a portrait of a Wazeer of Viceroy of Lahore Taimur Khan Durrani, descendant of Ahmad Shah Abdalli. Of course it is a reflection of those times that the portrait is plain as well as the illumination. But in those bleak times, the presence of painters in Lahore makes some sense of our assertion of Lahore being obsessed with its pictorial legacy. Even the farman of that period addressed to Qazi Muhammed Siddique of Lahore represents the bleak times in the city.

There were great artists even in those times. Two brothers who used to live in the Chowk of Nawab Wazeer Khan, namely Elia (Ali) Naqash and Nabia (Nabi) Baksh, for lack of patronage, decided to migrate to Jammu and Kashmeer. We have in our archives some paintings on Hindu themes by Elia Naqash, but that is a different story.

DIFFERENT DYNASTIES DIFFERENT CROWNS AND HATS

NO ONE BOTHERED WITH RESEARCH ON OUR PAST

The Origin of Lahore is a myth. The more we try to uncover the past, the more puzzling it really becomes. Of course people write, but people write with mere spurious references. No one goes to the origin of the truth.  In this race for uncovering the past, one comes across strange figurines, which normally are in no ones record. Preconceived debunking old Muslim Civilization is always there, for no one believes in the sophistication of past Muslim dynasties. The truth becomes self evident with proof from the past.

A trove of research material is with us but except for us ourselves, no foreign scholars to the scene to dig up our past. To prove that Sultan Mahmud Ghaznavi’s Court life was full of splendour, would be against the hype about his alleged ruthlessness. One of the greatest Universities of the World was in Ghazni and people from all over the world came to research on its library. One of the most magnificent mosques in the World was in Ghazni, and so big, that it was meant to house the entire population of Ghazni in it. Reduced in height stands two of its minarets to remind us of the vision of the Sultan. The greatest research and poetry was written in those times. Sultan Muhammed Ghori’s tower as well as Qutbuddin Aibak’s tower n Delhi tells us of the aesthetic choices of those dynasties. In this way a study of Lahori figurines lead us directly into the past splendour.

Discovered with deposits of Ghaznavid coins, of Sultan Ibraheem’s  (grandson of Sultan Mahmud) dynasty are some heads with crown in shape that look like the Jesters Hats of the Western world. Really how? It came to my mind that the Western world was fond of ridiculing its opponents, and may have developed the Ghaznavid Crown, as a Jester Hat for their Court. Who knows? In fact there is more of Seljuk and Chinese influence in it. Even Chinese faces come up in Lahore’s past, of ordinary people as well as leaders in their own rights. Our guess would be Mongolian influence, the forefathers of Mughals, and probably linked to Changez Khan as well as Timruid influence on Lahore. It may very well be the truth. For little is known about those periods of Lahore. We may know more. Till then just enjoy Prince and Princesses, Kings and Queens of the past, and damn everything else to hell! Live a life of pride in our past aesthetics.