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Ganga Ram: Who was the 'Father of Lahore' and why did his city forget

Bambi

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The mob turned and landed on the idol of Sir Ganga Ram. Sticks were rained down, bricks and stones were thrown. One found tar in his mouth. The other collected a lot of old shoes and proceeded to make a necklace and put it around the idol's neck. But the police came and started firing. The man wearing the shoe necklace was injured, so he was sent to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital for dressing.

What would be a reader of Urdu who has not read this short, simple and concise story of Saadat Hassan Manto and who does not have the imprint of this story on his chest. Manto really used a pen as a dagger. I remember very well that when I first read this story as a child, I was also curious as to who Sir Ganga Ram was.

Someone said that he had built the largest hospital in Lahore. Well, this introduction was also present in the story, the curiosity still remained.

He started reading books written about Lahore, most of which were written after the partition. Surprisingly, there was no mention of Sir Ganga Ram in them. Even the Lahore issue of Urdu magazine Naqsh, the largest document on the subject of Lahore, seemed devoid of mention of Sir Ganga Ram.

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That would be 1980. One day I was walking in the old book market of Anarkali Lahore when suddenly BPL Bedi's book 'Harvest from the Desert: The Life and Work of Sir Ganga Ram' (Harvest From The Desert: The Life) was written in English. and Work of Sir Ganga Ram) appeared. With the help of this book published in 1940, the stage of introduction of Sarganga Ram came to an end. (Now the Urdu translation of this book has been published under the title Sir Ganga Ram: The Crop of the Desert.)

The book reveals that most of the buildings on the Mall Road in Lahore were constructed by Sir Ganga Ram, Lahore High Court, GPO, Museum, National College of Arts, Cathedral School, Aitchison College, Dayal Singh Mansion and Ganga Ram Trust Building. Are

Apart from them, Government College Lahore's Chemistry Laboratory, Mayo Hospital's Albert Victor Ward, Lady McLaughlin High School, Lady Maynard School of Industrial Training, Ravi Road's Vidya Ashram and a few other buildings are also under his charge. He planned Model Town Lahore in the 1920s and he cooled the Mall Road with trees, which is why the old Lahore Mall Road is still called the Cool Road.

Lahore Museum
, IMAGE SOURCEGETTY IMAGES
, Photo caption
An outline of the Lahore Museum

Sir Ganga Ram's ancestors were from Muzaffarnagar district of Uttar Pradesh, but around the fourth decade of the nineteenth century they crossed the Sutlej and settled in the Punjab province where the Sikhs ruled. But very soon the increasing steps of the British reached this province and this province also came under the control of the British.

Daulat Ram, a member of the family, decided to try his luck in the new environment and, thanks to his distinguished personality and education, became a junior inspector in the police department. Daulat Ram got married and settled in Mangtanwala. It was an important place and the deployment here was considered a stepping stone to success.

Meanwhile, Daulat Ram met a sadhu. Daulat Ram saw a great attraction in his personality and Sadhu prayed to him that Wah Guru would give you a son and he would do the same thing in his time as Vikrama Dita did in his time.

The year was 1851 and the date was April 13, when a child was born in her house. On this day, the festival of crutches was being celebrated among the Sikhs. Daulat Ram named his son Ganga Ram. Some time later, in a police encounter, Daulat Ram arrested some dacoits. The accomplices of the robbers threatened Daulat Ram that if he did not release the detainees, they would kill him along with his wife and children. Daulat Ram decided that he should leave Mangtanwala now, so he reached Amritsar overnight with his wife and child.

Daulat Ram got another job in Amritsar. Ganga Ram was admitted to the school where he studied till matriculation. Daulat Ram decided to send Ganga Ram to Lahore for higher studies where the newly established Government College was gaining fame in the field of education. In 1869, Ganga Ram became a student of Government College, Lahore.

Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore
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Modern building of Ganga Ram Hospital, Lahore

At the same time, there were some incidents which played an important role in changing the thinking of Ganga Ram.

An incident is narrated that he fell into a well one day, by chance someone saw him falling into the well and thus he was saved. Ganga Ram interpreted this accident as an inspirational sign and instilled in his mind the idea that he had been saved for a special purpose and that he had some important work to do in the world.

The second incident was that he went to his office one day to visit a relative. These relatives were employed in the office of the Executive Engineer, Lahore. Ganga Ram sat on the floor for a while waiting for his relative, then tightened the floor and sat on the chair of the executive engineer. When Ganga Ram's relatives entered the office, they saw Ganga Ram sitting on his chair and became very angry with him and ordered him to vacate the chair.

Ganga Ram made a vow and addressing the Guru said, "Why are you so worried about this chair? One day I will take over this chair and prove my right to this chair." It is not known at what time of acceptance it was that Ganga Ram later sat on this chair continuously for 12 years.

After entering Government College, Ganga Ram moved to Roorkee where he got admission in the first Engineering College of India with a monthly stipend of Rs. 50.

Aitchison College, Lahore
, IMAGE SOURCEFLICKR / ALIFFC3
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Aitchison College building

The principal of this college described Ganga Ram as an exceptionally gifted student and always encouraged him. In 1873, Ganga Ram passed the engineering examination with a gold medal and moved to Lahore as an assistant engineer. Now his salary was one hundred and fifty rupees a month. He was posted in different cities of Punjab. These cities include Gordaspur, Amritsar and Dera Ghazi Khan. In Dera Ghazi Khan, Ganga Ram met Sir Robert Sandman, the Deputy Commissioner of the district, who soon became acquainted with Ganga Ram's abilities.

Sir Robert Sandman found Ganga Ram suitable for services other than engineering and sent him to England for training in water works and drainage.

On his return, the Government of India entrusted Ganga Ram with the responsibility of water supply and drainage projects in Peshawar. Later, he was given the opportunity to complete similar projects in Anbala, Karnal and Gujranwala. Two years later, he was promoted to executive engineer in Lahore. It was the same position in which a relative had insulted him while sitting in his chair. Now a new era of Ganga Ram's life began.

Under the patronage of the Punjab government, Sir Ganga Ram on the one hand introduced Lahore with modern colonial architecture and filled the entire Mall Road with magnificent buildings, the details of which have already been described. Later, he devised several schemes to irrigate the land across the Punjab and thousands of acres of dry land began to spit out gold.

For the first time, they used electric motors to lift the canal water. Thanks to this Ganga Ram project, 90,000 acres of land was irrigated, which was the largest agricultural land in India at that time.

Sir Ganga Ram
The Government of India exalted Ganga Ram with the title of Rai Bahadur. His career continued, but in 1903 he retired from government service. He remained an employee of the Patiala government for a few years where he completed several welfare projects but he wanted to dedicate his life entirely to the welfare of the people so he returned to Lahore a few years later. Now his son Sewak Ram was also able to accompany him.

To realize his dreams, Gangaram bought 500 acres of land in Lyallpur District (Faisalabad) and settled a village called Gangapur. Thousands of trees were planted in Gangapur, with special attention paid to the quality of local and foreign seeds according to the climate for the production of crops, vegetables and fodder.

He visited several agricultural countries and experimented with cultivating English, French and Canadian wheat together. The transplantation of vegetable and fruit seeds also increased their cultivation and introduced some new varieties of fruits.

The laboratory also found very useful results in the field of animal husbandry. Gangapur was the first farm in India to use agricultural machinery, from sowing to land preparation and harvesting, and equipment was developed using modern horticultural methods. It was two miles from the nearest railway station.

Sir Ganga Ram laid a two-foot-wide track to connect it to the railway station, on which four trolleys were tied together and pulled by medium-sized horses. Interestingly, a hundred years later, this horse train is still in use today.

Sir Ganga Ram was convinced of the need for remarriage of widows. At that time there were more than two and a half crore widows in India. He registered a charitable trust for this purpose and first named it Punjab Voodoo Remarriage Association which soon spread across India and was renamed as All India Voodoo Remarriage Association instead of Punjab. ۔

Through this association, thousands of widows got married in a few years and they started living again. For the welfare of widows who did not get married, Ganga Ram introduced the Voodoo Home Scheme where they were trained to be able to stand on their own two feet.

In this connection, he also set up an industrial school in Lahore and arranged for the products manufactured under this industrial school to be sold through an industrial shop run by the Ganga Ram Trust. This was the time when Khawaja Hassan Nizami said that if it were possible for a man to give his life to someone else, I would be the first person to give the precious year of his life to Sir Ganga Ram so that he would live a long life. Stay alive and continue to serve the welfare of India's compelled women.

Ganga Ram
, IMAGE SOURCEINDIAN POSTS AND TELEGRAPH DEPARTMENT
In 1922, Ganga Ram was given the title of Sir. The following year, he set up a trust in his own name, which he donated large sums of money to run and control, and handed over many of his personal high-rise buildings and property to the trust, from whose income the trust continued to operate.

In 1921, Sir Ganga Ram bought a plot of land in central Lahore where he set up a charitable dispensary. When the Ganga Ram Trust was established, it gave the dispensary the status of a hospital, which became the largest charitable hospital in the province. It is still considered to be the largest hospital in Lahore after Mayo Hospital. A medical college for girls was also established under this hospital which was transformed into Fatima Jinnah Medical College after the establishment of Pakistan.

Sir Ganga Ram considered trade very important for the youth. To this end, he proposed a Commerce College. When the plan reached the government, it tried to save its life by saying that the plan was very good but we did not have the land and the building for it. Ganga Ram was waiting for the same answer, he immediately offered a house for the purpose where Haley College of Commerce is today.

In 1925, Sir Ganga Ram, with the help of Diwan Khim Chand, laid the foundation of the Model Town Lahore Housing Scheme, which is still considered the best residential colony in Lahore. In the same year, he was appointed Governor of the Imperial Bank of India.

In 1927, Sir Ganga Ram Rai went to England as a member of the Agricultural Commission, where his health was severely affected by working day and night, and finally he died on 10 July 1927 in London. His last rites were performed in London.

Ganga Ram's ashes were brought to India where half of the ashes were dumped into the Ganges and the other half was buried in a field between ashrams for disabled men and elderly women on Ravi Road in Lahore, where a marble Samadhi was built. This samadhi still exists today and reminds the people of Lahore of Ganga Ram.

Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi
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Delhi's Ganga Ram Hospital is still one of the most dynamic hospitals in the Indian capital

In 1951, a hospital in memory of Sir Ganga Ram was established in New Delhi, the capital of India, the foundation stone of which was laid by Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. The hospital was set up at the behest of Dharmaveer, son-in-law of Sir Ganga Ram, who was the Cabinet Secretary to Jawaharlal Nehru. The hospital was inaugurated on April 13, 1954 by Dharmaveer. Dharmavir later held the governorships of Punjab, Haryana, West Bengal and Karnataka.

In 1970, the hospital came close to closure due to non-availability of funds.

Prominent Urdu writer Mustansir Hussain Tarar has written a detailed chapter about Ganga Ram in his book 'Lahore Awaragi' under the name 'Father of Lahore' He writes that 'Today's Lahore came into being through the incredible efforts of this one man. Ganga Ram seems to be a legendary character in terms of his deeds and worldly goodness. 'Paying homage to his death, the Governor of Punjab had said,' He always conquered everything like a brave hero and a cent. Or like a Sufi, he used to distribute his wealth among the people.

Samadhi of Sir Ganga Ram
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Samadhi of Ganga Ram

Today, Ganga Ram's great-grandson, Dr. Ashon Ram, is a professor at a college in Georgia, and his great-granddaughter Sheila teaches in Baroness, UK, and is active in politics. The samadhi of Sir Ganga Ram, the greatest benefactor of Lahore, was also destroyed. His great-granddaughter Sheila came to Lahore and rebuilt it and also donated a huge amount of money for Ganga Ram Hospital. On another cold morning in Lahore, we were standing in the precincts of Ganga Ram's Samadhi, remembering his deeds. The Samadhi building has a very simple and domed structure. Siddique Shehzad helped identify it. It is hidden among the dense streets near Azadi Chowk on Ravi Road. Now it is being properly maintained. The doors of Samadhi were closed. When we peeked inside, there was a platform with a veil of flax hanging on it and on it was a terrifying picture of Gangaram. Apparently his ashes were buried inside the platform. In the dim yellow light of dawn, the samadhi resembled a Mughal tomb. Ganga Ram made this city unparalleled and worked for the welfare of its creatures more than the kings. I began to remember the children's poem that ... There are good people in the world. The work of others comes. More than kings, he worked for the welfare of his creatures. I began to remember the children's poem that ... There are good people in the world. The work of others comes. More than kings, he worked for the welfare of his creatures. I began to remember the children's poem that ... There are good people in the world. T



@Baibars_1260
 
Lahore is indebted to Great Ganga Ram. The son of soil remains a towering figure for generations to come. Too bad some of my compatriot have forgotten him.
 
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