Surprise, surprise! The government of Pakistan, in hopes of normalizing its ties with India, has decided to spend a whooping Rs 80 million on the restoration of Bhagat Singh’s ancestral house, school as well as his entire village in Punjab. Now, I don’t know about you, but as far as I am concerned, I couldn’t care less about Bhagat Singh, his house and village per se.
Before you feel the need to pounce on me or publically lynch me for speaking my mind, let me also just say that this entire project can wait and should not be our priority at a time like this. Pakistan might be known for a number of things, ranging from the all sorts of bad ones to a select few good ones but of all these things, that form our introduction, Bhagat Singh’s residence is probably the least important.
There are other, much more important bits and pieces of our heritage that we need to preserve.
Like Interior Lahore!
Our crumbling heritage has been screaming for attention – not for days or months but for years and years and it has all fallen on deaf ears. Interior Lahore, a mega tourist attraction despite its shaky walls and ceilings that threaten to fall at any time, presents the soulful side of the city. With its decaying balconies, intricate fungi-stained artwork, extraordinary architecture, much like every other important thing in the country, Androon Shehr too has fallen victim to the government’s apathy. Forget Bhagat Singh’s home and save this, I say.
Muhammad bin Qasim Masjid or whatever’s left of it
Oh yes, we do pride ourselves in being the Bab-ul-Islam don’t we? But how many of you know about the decaying structure at the border of Sukkur, Sindh that was once a mosque built by none other than Muhammad bin Qasim himself?
Lo and behold. These walls once held the honour of being one of the first mosques of the sub-continent. Now although, a lucky few still get to offer their prayers within these walls yet the place itself is not in a state to even offer proper shelter to those who bow their heads before God.
Is this not worthy of attention for the government? I don’t know about you but from what I can see, we have some real messed up priorities.
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I totally agree with you, there is a dire need to keep our heritage intact, especially for the people of Pakistan and not for anyone else.
Lets hope these efforts of yours can put some sense in the minds of the decision makers.
Please correct your history knowledge
Cheraman Juma Masjid is a mosque in Methala, Kodungallur Taluk in the Indian state of Kerala. The Cheraman Masjid is said to be the very first mosque in India, built in 629 AD by Malik lbn Dinar. It is believed that this mosque was first renovated and reconstructed in the 11th century AD. Many non-Muslims conduct initiation ceremonies to the world of letters of their children here.
Thank you for sharing the information. Please also note that the masjid was referred to as ‘one of the first mosques in the sub-continent’ and not as the first one. Anyway, thanks for the info.
Mahmood Akhtar – the author only said the Muhammed bin Qasim mosque was one of the first in the sub-continent, not the first.
On the broader issue it is amazing how even our governments generally behaves in an anti-state matter. What a ridiculous set of priorities. Seems the Sharif government is intent on bending over backwards to appease the Indians.
I appreciated your efforts and courage to bring this idea in public and to the government of Pakistan, in fact the survey must be done on each and every mile to find our heritage and re construct those to the beautiful memories for our coming generation forgetting the bars of religion and partcian of land.
I wish you a good luck and pray that success will be on your way soon.
Warm regards
Tahir.
Excellent article. I hope this could turn out to be an eye opener for our policy makers.
Salam,
Jis qoum kay baray ALLAH k ghar ko importance dainay ki bajaey kisi singh k ghar ko ahmiyat daitay hain unn ki bay basi aur zillat ka aalam wohi hota hay jo ham daikhh rahay hain , bohat afsos ki baat hay,
JazakAllah for bringing this up.I wish I could get this mosque built myself.Forget about who built it or whats the history,main emphasis should be on that a place where Allahs name be taken is in such a condition.The contrast clearly shows :as Iqbal said:
Yay aik sajda jisay tu giran samjhta hay
Hazaar sajdon say dayta hay admi ko nijat
What do we know about Bhagat Singh? Are we all making an informed comment, or being critical just because the name sound Hindu or Sikh. I know little. That Bhagat Singh was a son of soil, an inspiring freedom fighter, and most importantly, a fearless person in true sense of the word. Characteristics we don’t care much about. We care about mosques. There are so few of them.
It shows the priority of TAKHT-I-LAHORE.
People are dying without food and medicines and Shahbaz Sharif is busy in constructing bridges, roads and restoration of Bhagat Singh’s house. I think, he should be THAIK-E-DAR not CM.
Lol Majid sahab. if you are so devoted then please don’t use those things your thaik-e-dar construct and of which you repeatedly complain. It will only show how firm words you keep.
Allaha said love all including ur enemy.
You should be proud Bhaght Singh has a house in Pakistan.
There is history, cluture, and love in Pakistan.
Its a amazing thing our government is trying to bring our cluture and history back.
Instead of being proud here you are complaining and spreading hate because government did not restore the mosque.
I think they will get there to be patient as Islam says Allaha loves those who have patience.
So love the change now one at a time, be proud of our cultural history.
Im just saying change your typicall thought and embrace what is to come.
Can you show me from the Holy Quran, that ALLAH said “love all including ur enemy”.
Hi/AOA Shaista,
Thanks for sharing this with us, Appreciated and keep it up. You are very right.
When Lashkar-e-Tayyaba starts to shout on naming Shadman Chok as Bhagat Singh because these parasites feed on anti India hate. But finding such article on Zameen is strange.
Let me tell correct your few suppositions:
Bhagat Singh has nothing to do with India. He was born in Lyallpur (Now Faisalabad) and studied in NCA Lahore. He was hanged in 1931 long before India existed in Shadman Jail, Lahore. His whole struggle was in Lahore and for Independence of Subcontinent, including current Pakistan.
He is by all means our National Hero of freedom movement.
you mean long before Pakistan existed! I mean India was there all along you know. The entire south Asian peninsula was originally called India and it was a place ruled by Muslims and then British.
Ikram sahab lets put you and your family in Indian occupied Kashmir and lets see how you rant about pro Indian love!
A good bold article. Let’s hope the policy makers and those who matter in the management notice what has been identified here.
Good wishes.
When rulers are thieves and keep eating taxpayers public money without burp and gulp, this has to happen and ancient buildings have got to fall as seen everywhere in Pakistan. PPP Bilawal Zardari spent billions of rupees from taxpayer’s money on Sindh Festival just for fun for social media for his Brirish girl and boy friends but he didn’t have chance to allocate any money for saving Moenjo Daro remains which are falling and fading quickly despite UN warning. In fact our Pak nation has corruption from top to bottom so the mega chor ruler like zardari and Nawaz sh has been imposed on them…
I agree with you and I appreciated your efforts and courage to bring this Idea in public and government of Pakistan.its good to hear that our government trying to bring our Culture back.
We must not give our history a religious view. Bhagat Singh was a freedom fighter who wanted to take revenge of the killings of Jalianwala Bagh genocide by General Dire. Mind You there were many muslims killed in the genocide too. Bhagat Singh went to England to take revenge for all of them. He is our past and part our history.
I absolutly with Feroze.He was a freedom fighter from our part ,which was then India now Pakistan and we should be proud of it
Other hertage must be protected but this is our recent history of a son of our soil
They all are bloody idiots, and a whole selfish nation looking and waiting for some miracle.
AOA Shaista,
Thanks for sharing this with us, Appreciated and keep it up. You are very right.
Kind Regards,
Nauman Kayani
Salam all,
I live in London and keep up with the current affairs back home, I find it very disheartening, things seems to be going bad to worse for Pakistan, we expected so much from our leaders but they have all let us down. This article is just one example out of so many where priority is given to wrong things, Pakistan is like a broken dream. I along with others here prey to Allah for better days for our brothers and sisters back home. Amin
Kia ye hamary history ke ik Sikh k lie itne paisay kharab kie jaye.
Apparently, you are right. But 8 crores is not a big deal. We should restore the Ibne Qasim’s mosque and the old buildings of Lahore and also other such archaeological assets while at the same time, should not leave Bhagat Singh’s house behind. Restoration of old Lahore is quite a big project but the restoration of Ibne Qasim’s mosque would not be that expensive. The private sector should also come forward and each of the billionaires in Pakistan should own at least own one of such sites. Spending a few crores would be least difficult for big tycoons.