Allama Iqbal’s first residence in Lahore identified

Govt College University VC Hassan Amir Shah, Allama Iqbal’s grandson, Muneeb Iqbal, announce ‘discovery’

LAHORE: Government College University (GCU) Vice Chancellor Prof Dr Hassan Amir Shah announced on Saturday the discovery of a boarding room used by poet philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal during his student life.

Allama Iqbal’s grandson, Muneeb Iqbal, was also present.

A committee, comprising distinguished professors and experts, had earlier been constituted to determine in which room Iqbal had stayed on arriving from Sialkot to Lahore in 1895. He had spent five years here.



The cubicle, located at the then Boarding House (now Allama Iqbal Hostel) of the GCU, Lahore is in its original condition.

The committee comprised Prof Dr Khursheed Rizvi, Prof Dr Zaheer Ahmed Siddique and Iqbal Hostel Superintendent Dr Khalid Mahmood Sanjarani, who has a PhD on Iqbal from Germany. The committee searched and reviewed all available literary and historical references to identify the room where Iqbal had lived.

The committee members said that the most authentic evidence which helped them trace the room was an article by Iqbal’s contemporary at GCU and close friend, Ghulam Bhik Nairang (September 26, 1876 - October 16, 1952).

Addressing the ceremony, Muneeb Iqbal said that it was one of the last wishes of his father (late Justice Javeed Iqbal) that the room be identified and preserved. “This room became Allama Iqbal’s first residence in Lahore. It was here that his journey to becoming the Poet of the East started,” he said.



Muneeb said no other residence of Iqbal from that time period was in such good condition. “It has been well preserved. Not a single brick has been replaced,” he said. He expressed the desire to spend sometime in the room. Dr Shah said that it was an obligation on the part of the university administration to discover and preserve the national heritage site. The committee has recommended that instead of converting the room into a museum, it should be maintained in its original condition and that top students be given the opportunity to stay here for short periods. A list of poems written by Allama Iqbal during his stay at the GCU was placed in the room along with some manuscripts of his poetry. Excerpts from the Ghulam Bhik Nairang article are also exhibited in the room. According to the committee, the wooden chair and table placed in the room is also from the hostel’s furniture stock of 1890s. Sanjarani said it had always been evident from college records that Allama Iqbal had stayed at the GC Boarding House. “However, nobody knew about the exact room. Earlier, the whole hostel was declared a National Heritage Site by the Pakistan Archeology Department,” he said. Prof Rizvi said Nairang had given a “crystal-clear” location of Iqbal’s room. “Without his article, it would have been impossible to locate the national heritage,” he said. Later, Shah and Iqbal inaugurated the 125-year celebrations of the Boarding House which was established in 1891 and named after Allama Iqbal in 1967.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 10^th, 2016.