If you have read Rudyard Kipling’s famous novel ‘Kim’, which is based in Lahore, the very first chapter mentions the “big blue and white Jaddo Ghar – House of Magic”, which was located where now stands the Lady MacLagan Government High School, which both my grandmother and wife attended.

What is the history of the alleged ‘Jaddo Ghar’ of Lahore? For starters the very concept of a ‘house of magic’ is a misnomer on which our pious leaders have managed to spread ‘conspiracy hatred’. Even our allegedly secular leaders pandered to such hate for purely political gains. But then what gain does ‘nationalising’ a private building provide if in the end you are hanged? Was it the curse of a place ‘wronged’. This is the common theory that people devoid of factual content spread. But the wrong done to the original owners of the building does not seem to be reversed anytime in the near future, even though a legal status quo exists and the government has kept matters in a limbo.

The story of the Jaddo Ghar of Lahore has a long history. But before we delve into it let us, briefly, talk about what the Freemasons, or Masonic, Lodge, and its related movement, is all about.

The movement started off at the end of the 14th century when Europe was in the middle of a huge building revolution. In this era the stonemasons started to become very rich, just as our brick kiln owners have become. In order to protect their economic status they formed a sort of club, or guilds as they still call them, and named them Freemasons. The three levels of guilds, all with their own lodges – or club houses - were Apprentice, Fellow Craftsmen and Master Masons.

The Master Masons of an area built their own small lodges, and a collective of three such lodges was a Grand Lodge of Freemasons. As their economic strength grew, an element of exclusiveness came about, and given the anti-Catholic drive that was under way a few acquired a slight religious touch. But much to their credit in the end they decided that all Freemasons should have a belief in the existence of an Almighty.

Religion was secondary, belief in the Almighty was essential. Hence they introduced an element in which all ‘believers’, irrespective of their religious bend, could be members. That is why in 1947 Lahore’s Masonic Lodge had members of every religion, and all were highly respectable members of the city’s gentry.

Now a bit about how it spread. As the movement was about craftsmen, soon people of every craft joined the lodge, which had become a sort of ‘super exclusive’ club. The rumour by non-members that they practiced magic proved at every step to be incorrect. When the Freemasons Hall was taken over by ZA Bhutto in 1972, among the first persons to enter the premises was yours truly, who as a young newspaper reporter was on his job.

Much to our delight we found it had the finest library in Lahore. In the mad rush to destroy this place, all those fantastic and rare books were not sold, but were physically removed by Lahore’s wastepaper merchants, or onlookers with a literary taste. Interestingly, the symbols on the walls inside the building, and at different places were representations of stonemason’s instruments, like a measuring compass, or masonry squares. Amazingly, what we were to learn much later was that among the rituals for membership, the use of stonemason’s equipment was an essential skill needed.

Within a few hours of the takeover, it was clear that this was an exclusive club and not a ‘Jaddo Ghar’. All the crazy stories in the local Press about skeletons and magic sticks proved to be false. So that was all there was to this Jaddo Ghar of Lahore. But let us move on and relate the brief history of the Freemasons of Lahore. The very first Masonic Lodge, incorrectly called ‘temples’, was actually titled ‘Lodge of Hope and Perseverance No 782’ and was built in 1859 at Old Anarkali’s edge, a location that was named Lodge Road. This road was renamed MacLagan Road because once the lodge moved away in 1914, the entire ‘white and blue Jaddo Ghar’ as called by Kipling, surely titled to add mystery to Kim’s character, was demolished.

Why was the building called Number 782 was another mystery question that added to the ‘magic’ mystique. The answer is simple. It was the 782nd lodge attached to the English tradition that had opened in the world headquartered in the United Kingdom. This can easily be checked from masonic manuscripts if you happen to visit London, which itself has over 43 lodges. In those days the original stone mason’s movement, which had over 500 years acquired an exclusiveness to it, was spreading like wildfire as the new colonial countries rushed to join this exclusive club.

In 1914 a new Masonic Lodge was built on The Mall, Lahore, and was named the Prince Albert Victor Lodge Number 2370, with the address being Charing Cross, 90 The Mall, Lahore. The question is why was it named Prince Albert Victor? In 1914 the king-to-be prince was sent on a tour of Lahore, and in his honour the new building was named Prince Albert Victor Lodge.

The new Masonic Hall, or Lodge, was designed by the Punjab Government’s ‘consulting’ architect, even though he was a serving government official, by the name of Basil M. Sullivan, who also designed five major buildings on The Mall, including the Cathedral Church and other major structures. The idea was for this Freemasons Hall to be a replica of the Shah Din’s Building opposite it, as much later the Punjab Assembly architectural style was to be somewhat similar.

Matters seemed to be very much fine that is till Mr. Z.A. Bhutto decided to hold the Islamic Summit Conference in Lahore in 1974. The planning for this started two years in advance, and based on information collected as a ‘communal’ journalist then it seems the religious elements in his Cabinet warned him that opposite the Punjab Assembly is the “Den of Jews”. Imagine, this is how the then leader described it. Any risk to his attempt to be the ‘leader of the Muslim world’ had to be effectively quashed. It is in that context that the government banned ‘freemasonry’ as a threat to the country. Imagine if they said the same about any other club!

But then after repairs and new furniture to replace ‘stolen’ ones, the Punjab Chief Minister’s new office was officially located there. Mind you the Punjab CM already had, and still has, two other offices, and till date the Freemason’s Lodge is sparingly used. If any building has proved to be a ‘total’ waste of public resources it is this graceful building at 90 The Mall, Lahore.

What is the building’s future? It could be very bright if the amazing Punjab Archives, now lying in a horse stable with the nearby lavatory’s leaking water mixed with human waste running over some of the world’s rarest documents and manuscripts, is shifted to this magnificent building. But then, it seems, our bureaucrats and politicians do not like to present before the world our finest. All they do is present excuses.

Imagine if the sign ‘The Punjab Archives’ is seen on this building with world renowned researchers working inside, what sort of image will Lahore, and the country, have. That is where the real magic lies, or should lie. Being allegedly educated does not mean Punjab’s bureaucrats will resort to any enlightened way out, especially not if an even more ‘enlightened’ Chief Minister is not willing to return to his two other offices. He is, after all, such a busy man.

Published in Dawn, December 8th, 2019