Lahore Sangat installed plaques at the residences, workplaces and places associated with notables and famous personalities of Lahore at Mall Road and Anarkali to pay tribute to our legends on Monday. The name, time-period, profession and contribution of every notable were written on a blue plaque to pay tribute to the iconic personalities.
A blue plaque was installed at Dhani Ram Street in Anarkali at the residence of famous Punjabi poet and novelist Amrita Pritam (1919-2005). She lived in the building from 1935 to 1947. Another plaque was installed at Dehli Muslim Hotel Anarkali where famous teacher and Kathak dancer Maharaj Ghulam Hussain Kathak (1905-2001) lived from 1960’s to 2001.
The plaque of famous designer and master craftsman Bhai Ram Singh (1858-1916) was installed at the boundary wall of Lahore Museum and National College of Arts. He was a renowned architect who designed numerous buildings including Mayo School of Atrs, Lahore Museum and Punjab University from 1883 to 1905. The plaque of famous painter Anna Molka Ahmad (1917-1995) was installed in the Punjab University Old Campus outside the College of Art and Design. She was the founder of Fine Arts Department of Punjab University and worked here from 1940 to 1978. The plaque of freedom fighter Lala Lajpat Rai (1865-1938) was installed at the Gate of Gol Bagh (Nasir Bagh). He was the freedom fighter against the British and got martyred here.
Lahore Sangat is an informal association of Lahoris that works to remember and pay tribute to the extraordinary women and men not always sufficiently acknowledged, by mapping where they lived and worked by installing distinctive blue enamel plaques in their memory. The Lahore Sangat has already installed plaques in the memory of legends including Nobel laureate Prof Abdul Salam, A.S.Patras Bukhari, Saadat Hasan Manto, Sir Ganga Ram, Rustam Gama Pehalwan, Faiz Ahmed Faiz and Maulana Zafar Ali Khan at the places where these personalities used to live in Lahore.
Lahore Sangat has currently prepared a preliminary list of over 140 icons of which over 20 plaques have already been installed. As many as 11 plaques were installed within the walled city of Lahore earlier this year in March but the process came to a halt due to the COVID-19 lockdown. Lahore Sangat also acknowledges the support of the Commissioner Lahore, Municipal Corporation Lahore, Walled City Authority Lahore and Lahore Biennale Foundation. It also looks forward to putting up one hundred more plaques in the city within this year.
“We’ll install 120 plaques in next few months at the places where these exceptional individuals used to live in Lahore ranging from the Model Town to Walled City,” said Prof Fauzia Husain Qureshi, the face behind Lahore Sangat. Qureshi, an architect, who retired as Principal National College of Arts, told Daily Times that the objective of the plaques is not only to honour the personalities but also to generate awareness and instill a sense of pride amongst the people who live in the vicinity of the significance of their locality and neighbourhood. “The people living here will take pride and they will also keep the vicinity clean to pay homage to the legends,” said Qureshi, who has a vast experience in preserving the cultural heritage and she is also president of ICOMOS Pakistan. The purpose of installing the plaques is also to aware the young generation regarding these personalities as most of them don’t know about them unfortunately, she added. The plaques will be installed in honour of exceptional individuals who were painters, writers, poets, actors, scholars, singers, dancers, composers, saints, mystics, journalists and publishers.
Nighat Khan from ASR, Ghazala Rehman, Shehnaz Malhi, Fiza Zaman from Lahore Biennale Foundation, Faisal Sajjad from Punjab University Architect Department and renowned painter Dr Ijaz Anwar were also present on the occasion. In March this year, the plaques were also installed at the buildings where Allama Iqbal, Ustad Daman, Nur Jahan and Muhammad Rafi used to live in Lahore. A plaque was installed at the building where our national poet Allama Iqbal lived from 1901 to 1905 inside Bhati Gate. Another plaque was installed at the building where famous Punjabi poet Ustad Daman lived from 1950 to 1984 at Heera Mandi Taxali Gate. The plaque of Nur Jahan was installed at Taxali Gate where the queen of melody lived from 1938 to 1942. Another plaque was installed at the building where famous singer Muhammad Rafi lived from 1935 to 1944 at Noor Mohalla Taxali Gate.