Have no illusions about the old walled city of Lahore – and I say this because it no longer has any walls left. It could well rate as the only historic walled city of the world that was destroyed from within.

As I researched old walled cities of the world, I was amazed just how precious people consider this unique and ancient way of living. As a young boy every week as I walked through the narrow lane of old Lahore, my father used to keep repeating: “Sonny, this is the world’s largest living museum”. He seemed to know every street, mohallah, gali, katra and kucha, and he could relate to incidents and people connected to them.

He also narrated stories of other walled cities of Europe damaged by war, which had been reconstructed after WW2 keeping in mind the highest conservation standards. Last year I happened to be on holiday in Spain’s old city of Seville, through the narrow lanes of the old city I walked, and walk I did mostly feeling sorry for my city. We were lodged in an amazing hotel which resembled a ‘haveli’ of Lahore.

Throughout this city every street and lane has exquisite old houses now converted into hotels. Just this one city of Spain earns more money from tourism than the whole of Pakistan. And here we have an ancient city whose walls have been stolen, and stolen recently by people with political backing.

So this column is about the story of the missing walls of old Lahore. Over the ages foreign invaders, all of them ‘pious’ followers of our faith, ravaged it seven times. From Turks to Mongols to Afghans, to Mughals. They raised it to the ground and made the local population slaves, to be sold in the Central Asian and Turkish slave markets. There are narrations of them ending up on ships and settling in European ports. Each invasion is a tale of horror, which given time our upcoming historians will surely narrate.

The last of the Mughals to knock down Lahore was the first Mughal emperor Babar. He had his own grudges and when in 1524 he first approached Lahore, the forces of Ibrahim Lodi crushed his army. He withdrew and reorganised and attacked, and out of sheer spite burned down every structure in Lahore for two days. That was the last time in Mughal days the walls of Lahore, then mostly made of mud, were flattened.

In the years that followed we see his grandson Akbar, born in Umerkot, Sindh, rebuilding the walls of the fort and the old city in bricks. Even this was an effort brought about by a famine in which over 25,000 starving people were provided a meal a day to work free. But all said it was a great undertaking that saw Lahore expanding to accommodate the increasing number of forces joining his huge army.

The oblong ancient city – Bhati Bazaar to the west and Shahalami Bazaar to the east – was made a somewhat circular city, like most walled cities of the world are like. The Bhat Rajput army was accommodated inside Bhati Gate, while the Caucasian cavalry, mostly Qizilbash, were given the areas inside Mochi Gate. This was the new Mughal Lahore with 12 gates, plus a royal entrance of Roshnai Gate, instead of five gates plus Roshnai Gate.

The collapse of the Mughals saw turmoil and finally came the Sikhs, all local inhabitants. It was Maharajah Ranjit Singh who raised the wall heights, reinforced them, and built a defensive moat around the city walls. Beyond the moat was a raised hillock to restrict invaders to a limited battleground. The fort and the city was now a protected and well-maintained construction.

Then came the British in 1849 and by 1857 the Great Uprising had taken place. Given the siege of Delhi they decided to knock down the southern portion of the walls of the fort and the city, plus a major dent to the city’s Taxali Gate walls. As far as the existing walled city area is concerned, the British were the first to badly damage the rebuilt old walled city. They provided the ‘ever-green’ excuse of a defence requirement. They also badly damaged historic monuments in Shahdara for their railway project.

Then came the horrors of 1947 and the final blow to the walls started. The first damage was to the magnificent Shahalami Gateway, a victim to communal violence. Soon the walls to the south began to disappear. As a new trader class took over houses to build largely illegal markets, they needed bricks, then in short supply. The pillage began and then the walls to the east also started disappearing as new wholesale markets sprung up.

This pillage served two purposes. Firstly, they managed to get free bricks, and increasingly important, mobility to and from the markets improved. Gateways provided a bottleneck and probably a taxation possibility. So these were demolished. You will notice that only those remain today where the local inhabitants outnumber the traders.

The northern gateways proved difficult to demolish, so the walls started disappearing. It was an effort in which officials closed their eyes. To the south as the Shahalami area grew in commercial importance, we saw traders push through and create a new 14th gateway. This is between Shahalami and Lohari. As new commercial areas opened up, all of them officially illegal, the entire southern wall disappeared.

The massive and straight western wall was from Taxali to Bhati Gate. In our schooldays this was very much in place. Then suddenly a major hole in the middle appeared. This was supplemented by official construction inside the garden area, all legally challengeable. This encouraged traders to actually build new houses on where the demolished wall once stood. To the north such house extensions followed.

Come the year 2020 and the entire wall has been consumed. To my way of thinking this is Lahore’s most important and colossal heritage loss, and one we are least concerned about. It is like collective historic suicide. Attempts to get these walls rebuilt have met with stiff resistance from trader associations and their political/bureaucratic backers. Even the concerned heritage gurus seem rather disinterested.

To my way of thinking the very first step towards saving old Lahore is to rebuild the walls, step by step, piece by piece. Divide the effort into say 20 portions, and raise money for each from the people and from heritage organisations one step at a time. Block off, immediately, the horrible 14th gateway. Let the Aga Khan Trust handle this sacred mission. Keep officialdom away as far as possible.

What will rebuilding the walls of Lahore result in? The entire way of life of old Lahore will be considerably conserved. The effort to turn it into the ‘world’s largest living museum’ must be taken in hand. Historians, archaeologists and architects should start planning these 20 portions with a rare dedication.

My suggestion is that big business should be provided tax-free donations. Let them make money by giving back to the city in which they prosper. All donations should be voluntary. Heritage is a pastime of love not of violent extraction. In a way it is everyone’s sacred duty, be he young or old, to save a city we all love.

Published in Dawn, August 23rd, 2020