Ganga Ram: The Father of Modern Lahore

The story of Ganga Ram is the story of Lahore. Lahore would not have been the city it became but for this man. His 12 years as the executive engineer of the city are called ‘The Ganga Ram Period of Architecture’. 

 Ganga Ram planned the construction of National College of Arts, Lahore's first Sanitation System and Water Works, the High Court, Lahore Cathedral, the General Post Office, the Aitchison College, Chemistry Department of Govt College and the Albert Victor Wing of Mayo Hospital.

He was also a philanthropist. He funded and built Sir Ganga Ram Free Hospital, the Hailey College of Commerce, Lady Maclagan Girls' High School, Ravi Road House of the Disabled, Sir Ganga Ram Trust Building on Mall, Hindu and Sikh Widows' Home and Hindu Students Career Society.

 Baroness Shreela Flather, who is Sir Ganga Ram's great grand-daughter, has revealed that Ganga Ram had also built the luxurious Model Town outside the city. In fact he helped Advocate Diwan Khem Chand in fulfilling his dream of establishing a corporate housing society.

Though Ganga Ram was an engineer, he also became one of the biggest agriculturists in British India. After his premature retirement in 1903, he was given 20 squares of land in recognition of his services in Faisalabad, only 2 miles from the railway station. During service, he had prepared the water supply and drainage system of Peshawar, which was later duplicated in Ambala, Karnal and Gujranwala. He converted 50000 acres of barren land into fertile land by designing an innovative lift irrigation system, constructing Hydel Power Station, and providing a unique horse train to this land known after him as "Gangapur". The new village that came up was complete with its central square and shops built with Ganga Ram's patented rivet-bricks. Gangapur still exists, with its railway track intact, in today's Faisalabad.

In 1917, The Journal of Indian Engineering took note of the Renala Hydro Electric Scheme set up by Ganga Ram on 40,000 acres leased to him by the government for seven years. The land was not irrigable by gravity. It had to be lifted eight feet and for that Ganga Ram installed small turbines on 6 feet of Bari Doab Canal. When the governor opened the project in 1920, five turbines of the power houses commanded 125 square miles, along with 75 miles of irrigating channels, 626 miles of water courses, 45 bridges, 640 culverts, and 565 miles of village roads.

The waste land of Montgomery (Sahiwal) was converted into a rich revenue land. Ganga Ram was knighted in 1922. His driving passion was charity for Hindu and Sikh widows who were not allowed to remarry. He failed to get child marriage (and thus child widowhood) banned but soon after his death in 1931, Jinnah ensured that the Sharda Bill (prohibiting child marriage) was passed. Ganga Ram used to chant Altaf Hussain Hali's Munajat e Bevgan (Prayer of the Widows) as his worship early in the morning. It was his aim to make 3 million rupees before his demise so that he could leave behind a large charity for the widows he had saved. He died in 1927 but in 1922, he had made the 3 million he wanted.

 He was good at statistics; in 1921, there were 15,000 Hindu and Sikh widows under the age of five; and between the age of ten and fifteen, there were 279,124. Ganga Ram was convinced that his success was owed to the prayers of these widows. In 1921, he offered Rs 250,000 to the govt if it would finance a Hindu Widows' Home. Sir Edward Maclagan readily accepted the offer. In time, Ganga Ram built a house and hostel along with the home. This was followed by a Secondary Girls High School named after the governor's wife, Lady Maclagan Girls High School, which still exists. In 1923, Sir Ganga Ram Free Hospital was constructed on land that was bought near Vachchowali (Queens Road). The Sir Ganga Ram Trust hospital contained a women's wing, a dispensary, complete with various departments, and a Girls Hostel. The Medical College that came up on the site was named after Ganga Ram's grandson, Aftab Rai. Today the college is called Fatima Jinnah Medical College.

After establishing the famous Banaras University for Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, he constructed a college in Lahore. When he offered it to the governor Sir Malcolm Hailey, he readily accepted it. Thus Lahore's first commerce college ‘Hailey College for Commerce’ came into being.

Ganga Ram is revered in the Sikh community as well. When the Akali movement was launched in the 1920s to regain control of Gurdwaras, he persuaded the govt to release 5000 Sikh prisoners. He also endowed Pukka Gurdwara at village Rampura on the Grand Trunk Road 12 miles from Lahore.

Maclagan has recorded that Ganga Ram also built the Jalalpur Canal scheme for Pind Dadan Khan and Khushab. At the age of 73, he was appointed a member of the Royal Agricultural Commission. In 1927, leaving for England to attend a meeting, he predicted that he would not return home alive.

Ganga Ram passed away in London on July 10, 1927. His body was cremated and the ashes were put in his Samadhi by Balak Ram on the bank of the river Ravi in Lahore where he had built the Home of the Disabled (Apahaj Ashram) as his last act of charity.

In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, Governor of Punjab (1924-1928):

“Ganga Ram won like a hero and gave like a saint”

 May his memories live forever. Saadat Hasan Manto has written a story ‘Garland’ based on a true event when a mob was trying to damage the statue of Sir Ganga Ram in Lahore. They first pelted the statue with stones; then smothered its face with coal tar. Then a man made a garland of old shoes and climbed up to put it around the neck of the statue. The police arrived and opened fire. Among the injured was the fellow with the garland of old shoes. As he fell, the mob shouted:

 “Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital”

Reference: 

1. “Pakistan: Behind the Ideological Mask : Facts about Great Men We Don't Want to Know” by Khaled Ahmed 2. “Sir Ganga Ram: Father of Modern Lahore” by Aashish Kochhar 3. “Imagining Lahore: The City that Is, the City that was” by Haroon Khalid