Preserving history: Tweaking Lahore’s Haveli heritage

The Walled City of Lahore Authority aims to re-establish the haveli as a space for social interaction

LAHORE:

The red bricks may appear chipped and the intricate wall patterns may be slowly fading away but the elegance of the structure is hard to ignore even from a distance.

This haveli, dating back to the period of Maharajah Ranjit Singh in the early 19th century, echoes with stories from the past, which must be preserved for the future.

The good news is that the Walled City of Lahore Authority (WCLA) is planning to preserve and restore Haveli Dina Nath, which is located inside Delhi Gate, at an estimated cost of Rs48.30 million. The authority aims to complete the project by December 2015, The Express Tribune has learnt.

Haveli Dina Nath is located in a street previously known as Koocha Baij Nath, and now called Phullan Wali Gali. Dina Nath, who belonged to a Kashmiri Pandit family, moved from Delhi to Lahore in 1815 and joined Ranjeet Singh’s Darbar. In 1826, he was elevated to the post of Diwan by Ranjeet Singh. When the British annexed Punjab, he was made Raja of Kalanour by the British. He died in 1857. First his son Diwan Amar Nath, and then his grandson Ram Nath inherited the haveli. After independence the haveli was allotted to locals.

The structure is one of the few remaining old havelis which still retain most of their original form and layout. The ground floor consists of 10 rooms on the east side, four rooms on the south side, and two rooms each on north and west sides. On the second floor there is a small place for worship.

The walls of the haveli are finished with glazed lime plaster embellished with fresco paintings. Some of the roofs have wooden ceilings decorated with the tarsembandi design. Columns with ornamental bases and cusped arches, and a large arch constructed with the help of bamboo stirrups, all add to the beauty. There are remains of a fountain and a water cascade in red sandstone in the courtyard.

Threats to the Haveli

Culture and heritage expert Talib Hussain attributed the decaying state of the haveli to a lack of proper maintenance. Its condition has worsened under a host of multiple owners, some of whom did not have sufficient resources to look after the building. Feuds amongst occupants arising from multiple ownership issues have hardly helped. Part of the roof has collapsed during recent rains. At present, the haveli is being shared by five families.

Hussain added that the possible change of use from residential to commercial, even for a small portion of this haveli, also poses a potential threat to the disfigurement of the structure.

Hussain added that if not properly repaired in time, it will collapse and this would be an irreparable loss to the heritage of the walled city. He said that a particular problem faced by any conservation activity is a highly dense urban environment.

Conservation plans

WCLA director general, Kamran Lashari, told The Express Tribune that “preserving history through restoring the heritage is our aim at WCLA. We have proposed the restoration of masterpieces like this haveli to the Punjab government.”

Three distinct stages of restoration work have been outlined. And this is to take a total of 15 months. The first stage is expected to take five months and will involve project documentation and analysis involving extensive investigations. The subsequent stage of preparation of project proposals and field testing of proposed interventions would take another five months. The third stage of carrying out implementation of proposals would span over a period of ten months.

However, activities of the second stage overlap with the other two stages, thus bringing the time period for its completion to a total of fifteen months, explained Lashari.

Lashari said that they aim to re-establish the haveli for adaptive use and as a space for social interaction, adding that after restoration, the haveli needs to be put to suitable use. It could be turned into a cultural or art centre, art café, restaurant or even a guest house. A market study will be carried out to ascertain the feasibility and sustainability of the purposed use.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 14^th, 2014.