Amritsar’s Ram Bagh Gate restored to old glory; to open on October 12
AMRITSAR: Heritage restoration need not mean displacement or alienation of people, it can be done right in their midst with their involvement. This has been proved with the restoration of Ram Bagh Gate constructed on the route from Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s summer palace at the Ram Bagh garden to Harmandar Sahib with which the ruler of Punjab had motional a deep emotional connect. In fact, he was the one to have the dome of the temple first covered in engraved gold giving the highest temporal seat of the Sikhs the name of Golden Temple.
This has been made possible under the “Hriday” (heart) Project of the National Institute of Urban Affairs of the Union ministry of urban development and the Amritsar municipal corporation. The anchor of the Amritsar project is well-known conservation architect Gurmeet Rai who designed the Amritsar heritage sites rejuvenation as an inclusive people’s collective. The grand arched ground-floor interiors will have the story of Amritsar beamed on its walls.
“Rejuvenation of heritage sites in a city where the lives of the citizens are inseparable from the relics of monuments is an insightful task,” says Gurmeet, adding, “Commodification, skindeep beautification and alienation of people in the vicinity is not the aim of conservation. Conservation and rejuvenation is an all-inclusive process touching people’s lives. This is what we have achieved in the most challenging task of working on the Ram Bagh Gate”.
After the annexation of Punjab in 1849, a colonial police station was set up there with a view to crush any coming together of Sikh soldiers the British had faced in two wars. The police station continued there even after Independence and people of the city recall it as an interrogation centre during the days of militancy in Punjab. The police station moved to a building across the street, but the ground floor interior was used as a store for dumping excess goods of the municipal corporation.
Surrounding the gate was a bazaar street with encroachments aplenty. The bazaar came up post-Partition with many of the refugees setting up small shops of daily needs. The adjoining bazaar has also been included in the facelift and has been painted to merge it with the colours of the gate and the city. Messy flex boards have been replaced with aesthetic handpainted shop signs. None of the vendors have been displaced and the renovation of the gate has been done using old materials of bricks and lime. Gurmeet says with pride that there is not a touch of cement in the restoration of the old buildings.
Municipal commissioner Sonali Giri says: “We are happy that the Ram Bagh Gate, along with the press and a primary government school on the first floor, wear a new look. This restoration is not just a work of art, it has taken care of needs of the people.”
Feverish activity is on at the site as the gate is to be inaugurated on Friday, October 12. Many project hands and volunteers are busy getting ready for the opening. Musiologist Maushumi Chatterjee and Purvai are busy brushing away the dust from the nooks and crevices. The colonial furniture at the press and the school is being redesigned. The school where children from classes 1 to 5 huddled in two rooms has five rooms and an office now with neat play area and a library for which books are being sent by the Amritsar literati. “The old printing machines have been cleaned and repaired,” says a smiling Baldev Raj Singh, press supervisor.
The other heritage sites in the city under the Hriday project include Golbagh Garden, Chali Khooh (40 wells) a colonial period water works project, old DC’s office which was burnt down, Ramdaspur Heritage zone, Char Bagh of Ram Bagh and UBDC Canal and power house. (NEXT: Old DC building, to be museum to famed architect Bhai Ram Singh)