Lahore In The Time Of The Raj by Tahir Kamran

by Tahir Kamran

Lahore during the Raj was a prosperous and cosmopolitan place, where many communities lived together and there was a constant flow of goods, people and ideas. In the Mughal era, the city’s strategic location at the junction of roads to Kabul, Multan, Kashmir and Delhi made it a seat of power and poets, artists and traders flocked there for patronage from the royal court. The city expanded under the Sikhs as well and with the annexation of Punjab by the British, Lahore entered a new phase. Lahore’s fabled Raj-era buildings—including the GPO, the High Court and the Museum—are widely acclaimed examples of colonial architecture. The British lived in Civil Lines, the Cantonment and the Mall; while in the 1920s, the prestigious Indian suburb of Model Town came up which, with its well-ordered streets, parks and bungalows, became a template for all subsequent residential colonies in the subcontinent. The 1930s and 1940s were a time of intense cultural and political creativity and writers and artists flourished; F.C. College and Government College were celebrated centers of learning and there was great engagement between Lahore and the nascent Bollywood film industry, which the traumas of Partition ended. Memories of that glittering city still linger on both sides of the border.

Genres: History, Pakistan, India, Nonfiction

250 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 2020

About the author

Tahir Kamran, (Urdu: طاھر کامران‎), is a notable Pakistani historian and former Iqbal fellow at the University of Cambridge,[1] as professor in the Centre of South Asian Studies. He has authored four books and has written several articles specifically on the history of the Punjab, sectarianism, democracy, and governance. He is the former head of the department of history at the Government College University in Lahore, Pakistan where he founded the biannual journal 'The Historian' [2]

He has been influential in the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and implemented methods to improve educational standards in Pakistan.

Kamran has been a visiting fellow at Southampton University, the SOAS and at the University of Cambridge .

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tahir_K...

Reviews

[Bilal · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lahore in the Time of the Raj is a well researched book that gives an authentic account of Lahore during the colonial era. This book depicts the city's culture, development, social life, it's inhabitants during the British rule. Lahore was a prosperous city during the Raj where many communities lived together.
It also tells about the development of the city and the construction of important buildings during that period. The Lahore Railway Station, Government College, Lahore High Court, GPO, Lahore Museum are important buildings that were established during this period that depicts the colonial architecture.
It tells the culture of city during this period. For example the Bhaati gate was the literary center in this period where many Mushairas were held and much work was done in Urdu prose and poetry and was also at the forefront of both film production and consumption. The Mochi gate was the political centre where many political gatherings and processions were held.
It also tells about the tourism in that era. Falettis and Nedous were the major hotels then. There was also development in sports such as wrestling and cricket which were popular sports back then. The shopping culture is also depicted and the use of local and foreign goods and the advertisement culture back then.
In the end it gives a detailed account of the political movements that started to overthrow the Raj. It also tells about the important people that were related to these movements.
In short this is a great book to learn about the history, culture, demographics, development of Lahore during the British rule. However, the language is a bit dry and difficult at various places which gives it hard to understand. But it is a well researched book and is especially for those who want to learn about Lahore history.

[Saadia · Rating 2 out of 5]

This has so much potential. It is a good bibliography for further research on Lahore's colonial past and read like a list of Lahore's famous and semi-famous dwellers. It can only be understood by someone who already knows the city and its landscape.
The list of personages associated with Lahore gets long and makes one lose interest in the story of the city (if there even is one). The book also had some other small problems in my opinion.
Firstly, it is baffling that in a book about a city, there is no map of the city.
One of the verses about Data Gunj Baksh is written with a dal mistaken for a rey, which really frustrated me and made me almost give up on the book.
A core arguement about orientalist stereotypes is important but doesn't get much space in the book. Nor does the discuss about space vs place- concepts taken from important sources but their application is quite shallow.
However, the chapter about the ghadr party is interesting and provides a new perspective into the revolutionary history of the city. It is probably the best section of the book.

[Diya Dutta · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked up the book at the airport just randomly but loved reading it. A tad heavy reading because the writing style is academic but what a fascinating narrative about Lahore that was a multicultural centre prior to independence. I am fascinated about Pakistan and its culture and this was my first book on the historicity of Lahore's cultural journey.

[Risha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very detailed but reads like a thesis sometimes

[Amogh Sinha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book read more like a thesis, and not a readable one at that. This book had so much potential. Instead of explaining the story and history of the city, it's mostly just a list of famous people and places who had some association with the city and it's boring. They barely spent a para or two on most people so you couldn't really care about the people as well.

While reading this book, all I could think about was the infinitely better stories that were waiting to be told had the authors narrowed their objective. The history of the walled cities, the works of the Ghadr party, the wrestling culture, and the connections Muslim revolutionaries made with 1920s Afghanistan and the Soviet Union were stories that in themselves would've been a great topic for a book. But all we got were snippets of each of them.

They also seem to use an admirable number of books as sources, as seen from its bibliography but at certain moments, it felt the authors picked the details of other books without the context so it felt a bit jarring, and while reading, I often thought how better it would've been to read one of the books mentioned in the bibliography.

That said, I did really like the history of the Ghadr party and it shines a new light on the freedom struggle from the POV of emigrants and also introduces absolutely eccentric but important and sadly forgotten freedom fighters. Also, this chapter was the least about Lahore so that may or may not be the reason behind my liking ;)

[Sanjay Banerjee · Rating 4 out of 5]

An account of colonial Lahore, essential for understanding the place of the city is South Asia’s past. The author shows the great diversity and complexity of the city and how it stood at the very heart of the imperial connections and networks across the empire.

[Saniya Asif · Rating 2 out of 5]

SO much wasted potential .. wish it didn’t read more like a thesis.

[Shaikha Makhdoom · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really informative book about lahore has covered vast range of history of lahore but some bits and pieces are left out other than that it's worth reading.

[Junaid Rana · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to grasp instead of writing history he just wrote names of personalities ....

[MasterSal]

Gifted to me for Xmas 2023

Thanks Dad

[Anem Syed · Rating 2 out of 5]

The academic, dry writing takes away from what could've been a rich, fascinating read.