Harbanspura Lahore
Established by Raja Harbans Singh
Research and Writing:
Syed Faizan Abbas Naqvi
All Rights Reserved
Lahore is such a city where many illustrious people have
lived, who improved Lahore and made buildings here according to their taste,
they had a key role in developing Lahore. Rulers, presidents, royals and government officials have
constructed great, unmatchable buildings here.Man has preferred to live in
groups since time immemorial where he has lived with people of similar race,
religion and thought. The initial population of Lahore was inhabited within a
walled boundary but during the time of Akbar a lot of societies and neighborhoods
were formed. Muhalla Khairpur, Mughalpura, Dharampura, Telpura etc. were some
of these. All of these were ancient neighborhoods which have now morphed into
congested, populated areas. Harbanspura was one of these which was populated by
Raja Harbans Singh located some 9km southeast of Lahore. This place is not so
ancient, but with its 150-year-old antiquity, it surely is an additional
chapter in the history of Lahore.
Harbanspura is located east of Lahore next to the river, approximately 9km
from the railway station which was populated by Raja Harbans Singh nearly 150
years ago.
Raja
Harbans Singh was the father of Raja Fatah Singh and the younger brother of
Raja Teja Singh. Raja Harbans Singh was born in 1846 in Sheikhupura. His
father’s name was Misr Nadha, who was from a Hindu Brahmin family. Raja Harbans
Singh and Teja Singh were the sons of the same father but had different
mothers. Raja Harbans’ father was from a Hindu family but after become the
courtier of Maharaja Ranjit Singh he converted to the Sikh religion. Teja Singh
was 46 years older than Harbans Singh, Raja Harbans Singh was the last child of
his father. Raja Teja Singh had no children himself, so he adopted his younger
brother and began to bring him up. His uncle Khushal Singh was a key part of
Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s court. Maharaja Ranjit Singh used to seek his advice in
different matters. Raja Teja Singh served in Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s from 1812
until 1816 as a horse rider, his name was Tej Ram at that time. On the order of
the Maharaja when he took up the Sikh religion he changed his name from Tej Ram
to Tej Singh. From 1831 till 1839 he was the commander of the 22nd
Battalion of the Sikh army and played a key role in the battles of Attock,
Peshawar and other places. Teja Singh was the commander of all the Sikh army in
1845. After the end of Sikh rule, he was offered by Lord Harding to give 25
lakh rupees in lieu of which he would be made the ruler of a sovereign state
like Raja Gulab Singh and Raja Kashmir. He did not accept this offer and was
then made the President of the Council of Regency. He was later made the ruler
of Sialkot in 1847.
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| Harbans pura railyway station Lahore |
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| Indication Board of Harbans pura railway Station Lahore |
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Trafic Indication board to
Harbanspura near Mughal pura Lahore.
During the war of
independence in 1857 he gave benefitting advice to the British and advised Sikh
soldiers to cooperate with the British Army. Due to this, after the war his
property was increased and he was also made the ruler of Batala as well as
Sialkot. Raja Teja Singh died in Lahore on the 4th of December,
1862. His memorial place was built in his garden in Bairoon Masti Darwaza. Raja
Tej Singh had a son born to him in 1859 whose name was Raja Narinder Singh. Due
to there being no will regarding the property of Raja Tej Singh, Raja Harbans
Singh and Raja Tej Singh’s son Narinder Singh had a dispute regarding the
inheritance.He had a lot of property, some in Gujranwala and others in
Sheikhupura. Raja Harbans Singh gave Narinder Singh a reasonable share from
this property. Raja Harbans Singh got a portion from this property in 1867 and
he became the head of the family after his brother. All of them were alive in
the time of Molvi Noor Ahmad Chishti, he writes that Raja Harbans Singh was of
good character and just in his affairs whilst Teja Singh’s son Narinder Singh
was gluttonous. He spent all of the inherited property of his father in luxury.
Sardar Narinder Singh died in 1904. He had only one son whose name was Sardar
Bikram Singh, who lived in Amritsar, he became the inheritor of his father’s
property. Later on he was posted as the Honorary Magistrate and Sole Judge
First Class. Raja Harbans Singh was called the chief of Sheikhupura, where his
property lied, but his mansion was joined with Khushal Singh.
In 1886 Raja Harbans Singh
populated a village east of the city, which became known as Harbanspura. This
village was composed of farms with greenery and a great number of fruit trees.
The settlement next to these farms was the
place known as Harbanspura where mostly cultivators, farmers, and harvestors
lived; a majority of whom were Muslims. Their descendants are still settled in
Harbanspura. There is a railway station constructed by the British still
present in Harbanspura which points to the importance of this area. This
station in present on the Amritsar Line, the year of its construction is not
known until today even after countless research but we can assume it to be
built around 1890. The main reason for the construction of this railway was
that there were workshops and depots of the British Airforce located here,
where the army frequented constantly.
Due to army transportation a
railway station was necessary over here, this was part of the Army camp in a
way as well. This stations comes after the Mughalpura Station, coming from the
Lahore City Station, but when coming from Wahga Station it comes in the middle
of Jallu Station. The importance of this station increased when in 1930 pumps
were installed to provide water for the Railway’s steam engines. Engines were
filled with water with these pumps and engines coming from Amritsar were cooled. For this there were 3
main platforms and 16 other lines out of which only two are in operation today.
The building of this railway station was made
with small but strong bricks which had a room for the stations master, a ticket
shop and a food room where today the occupiers have tied their animals. Until
the creation of Pakistan this line had immense value, due to being the only
line joining Pakistan to India, Harbanspura Railway Station was used frequently
until 1947 but after the construction of the border close to it this line did
not remain as frequented. Thus in 1980 this station was closed temporarily and
in 1996 it was closed permanently. These days the Samjhota Express passes by 2
times a week as well as a few trucks with goods. There used to be engines
cooled here and filled with water long ago. Those pumps perished from the face
of the earth out of which only one pump from 1906 remains as a monument of
history.
The building of this station is
being used as a stable. Rooms next to this which included the Light Warehouse,
Oil warehouse, Booking Office and Staff rooms which were occupied by people and
lost their existence due to the incompetence of the Railway Department.
Raja Harbans Singh was known as
the chief of Shiekhupura. Other than this he was well known for his
philanthropist activities in Lahore. The white, beautiful fountain in the
garden opposite the Victoria Jubilee Hall (Jinnah Hall) was also contructed by
Raja Harbans Singh in 1893 which weighed 2500 kg. It was made out of pure
melted iron. Raja Habrans Singh gifted this to the Lahore Municipality after
the construction of the hall. At the time of installation this fountain had
three crowns which had beautiful idols at their corners, water flowed out of
their mouths. Only one crown remains today, the idols were removed after the
creation of Pakistan. This fountain was 13 feet above the ground in its real
size, but today it seems to be sunken into the ground. Rao Javaid Iqbal, the
famous historian of Lahore, has old pictures of this fountain in which all
three of the crowns and idols are visible. On the 14th of April
1967, the Hilal Pakistan event held in Lahore was held at this location.
Instead of the fountain the stage had to be made therefore the second crown of
this fountain was also removed. During the time of Mian Shuja-ur-Rehman this
fountain was repaired, during this the historical inscription made of marble
and bearing the name of Raja Harbans Singh and the history of the fountain was
removed and a new inscription bearing the name of Shuja-ur-Rehman was placed
there.The government should place the other crowns onto the fountain and render
it back into its actual condition.
During the time of Raja Harbans Singh in 1872
when Anjuman-i-Himayat-i-Islam restored the Badshahi Mosque with the permission
of the British government, the condition of the mosque, due to civil war during
Sikh rule, was fragmentary and in need of repairwhich required a lot of money.
Due to this the government officials and commoners of Lahore was appealed to
donate to this cause. At this, the Muslim as well as non-Muslim officials
donated for the construction of the mosque. Noor Ahmad Chishti writes in Tehqeeqat-e-Chishti
that out of the non-Muslim donors there was none who donated more than Raja
Harbans Singh. As an individual, Raja Harbans Singh was the single largest
donor, who donated lakhs in rupees in charity.
Rjaa
Harbans Singh died in 1900 in Lahore. It can be assumed that his memorial place
is next to the rest of his family in Bagh Khushal Singh, Bairoon Masti Darwaza,
where there used to be a warehouse for cannon-making was located and today the
Badami Bagh bus stand is present there. After the tragedy of Babri Masjid in
1992, along with other memorabilia, Raja Harbans Singh’s memorial place must
have also been erased from the face of the earth. After his untimely death his
elder son Karthi Singh became the lawful inheritor of his property but
coincidentally Raja Karthi Singh did not live too long, he died in 1906. He did
not have any children therefore his younger brother and the younger son of Raja
Harbans Singh, Fatah Singh, became the inheritor of his family’s property. His
property was in Sheikhupura and Gujranwala out of which he divided the
properties in Gujranwala to his brother Karthi Singh’s widow and his two
brothers. He himself began to live in Sheikhupura which is not far from Lahore.
During the partition of 1947 Raja Fatah Singh came to Harbanspura from where he
left his father’s populated village forever for India, with teary eyes, never
to return. This area was considered very isolated in the beginning but due to
the spread of population in Lahore this area became congested and populated. A
few years ago due to the passing of Lahore’s ring road from Harbanspura, its
importance increased. Due to the ring road connecting the city as well as the
construction of well-built roads, underpasses, flyovers and interchanges it
became easy to reach any place within the city. Harbanspura Interchange was
inaugurated on the 1st of March 2009 which was completed in a short
period of 10 months with 2.26 km of road length. On both sides of the underpass
and the flyover there is a 3 x 3 feet track which has a length of 65.50 m. This
was inaugurated by the Chief Minister of Punjab, Mian Shahbaz Sharif, on the 21st
of April 2010 and opened for the general public. Now from the city government this
has been named after the first non-Muslim Legislator of Pakistan, Jogendra Nath
Mandal. After the construction of this interchange the price of the land in
this area have doubled.
Outside the city life, there has been a increasing
trend of different educational institutes setting up regional camps here. Due
to this the local populace has gotten a chance of employment as well as getting
a good education near their homes. This place has a natural beauty to it since
it is located at the bank of the river but during the warm summer days the
number of people bathing in the river over here is enormous. Near Harbanspura
there are 4 main stops which includePhaton Wali Puli, Main Bazaar, Afzaal Puli
and underpass stop. The ugly tradition of changing names of buildings, roads,
highways and institutes that were named after non-Muslims started after the
creation of Pakistan but Harbanspura which was populated by Raja Harbans Singh
remains with its original name and is populated. It is
due to his good deeds that his name is alive even to this day.
Translation by : Syed Ali Asdaq Naqvi
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