Lahore From Crest to Calamity- A Study on the Interplay of Religious Demography and Politics, 1881-2011

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Lahore as the introduction to this interesting volume puts it, was the 'centre of titanic political, cultural and social activities'. With a population of 671,659 (1941) the thriving city was only slightly smaller in demographic terms than Delhi, which in 1941 accounted for about 7,00,000 inhabitants. Born in a village of Kurukshetra District (Eastern Punjab), I had grown up hearing stories of Lahore's grand buildings, its cultural vibrancy and particularly its importance as an educational centre. A visit to the city it was said was a must, a dream of sorts. Having studied colonial Punjab for over 45 years particularly the last decades, Lahore has always fascinated me. Therefore, when Saradindu Mukherji asked me to do the foreword for this volume I was naturally happy to do so.

Lahore has over the past few centuries been a city of great character with several varying dimensions and faces. Sadly, this of course may no longer be the case. Multi-religious, multicultural, greatly diverse and at the same time all accommodating. It was witness to the Mughals at the height of their power and thereafter to being the capital of the great Maharaja the one and only Ranjit Singh. As the British completed the long and taxing process of annexing the Punjab, Lahore was like the crown jewel, a trophy that resulted from the Anglo-Sikh wars. It was, therefore, natural for the British to take a fascination for it. They valued Lahore, as it provided them an opportunity to become a part of the historical chain of events and the legacy not only of the Punjab, but also of the great city. Some of the most able civil servants were deputed to administer the Punjab. Their major brief was to make Lahore into a role model for the rest of the Punjab. An example of the 'good' that was expected to come with colonial rule. One result of the close association of the colonial civil service with the Punjab was that we have a large expanse of writings in the form of diaries, letters, monographs, detailing not just the Punjab but also the city and its life.

This project takes up the story of the city of Lahore from 1881 T to the Indian independence and its partition in 1947, thereafter stretching it further into the second decade of the 21" century. A propitious area of British Punjab and the capital city of Maharaja Ranjit Singh's majestic Sikh empire, Lahore was a centre of titanic political, cultural, social and religious activities in the period under study. From the site of one of Swami Vivekananda's most memorable lectures to being the hallowed cornerstone of Swami Dayanand Saraswati and the Arya Samaj Movement, the city stood witness to a roaring agitation of the Rowlatt Satyagraha, the indomitable valour of Lala Lajpat Rai against the all-white Simon Commission and his untimely demise, the unparalleled resilience of revolutionary Jatin Das, dying in prison following a fast unto death for 64 days, the still-revered patriotism and consequent hanging of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru, the historic occasion of the hoisting of the national Flag for the very first time by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1929 as well as the monumental inkling of the first demand for Pakistan by the Muslim League a decade later in 1940. Given this background, it is pertinent to explore the factors that led to the severe socio-political transformation of Lahore from colonial times to the present day. In so doing, Lahore offers a serious exclamation point in discerning a. how religious compositions affect and legitimize political configurations of the city and b. what role has the changing demographic profile played in this transitive process from the colonial to the postcolonial.