Lahore’s unique cemetery where there are graves of Muslims, Christians and Balmiki Hindus

There is also a cemetery in Lahore where there are graves of Muslim, Christian and Hindu Balmik community, but its condition is very bad due to the neglect of the government, the only cemetery of the Hindu Balmik community in the city, however, Christians also buried their dead here. Buries.

This cemetery has been controversial for many years, but even today there is a grave of an elderly Haveli Shah, about whom Muslims, Christians and Balmiki Hindus claim that this elder was a follower of their religion.

Budhukava Cemetery is located along GT Road near Engineering University in Lahore. According to local Hindus, this graveyard has been here since 1830 and Hindu Schedule Castes bury their loved ones here.

Amarnath Randhawa, a Hindu leader from Lahore, while talking to The Express Tribune, said that generally the Hindu community cremates their loved ones, but the majority of Scheduled Caste Hindus now bury their dead. Balmak community has the largest population among the Scheduled Castes settled in Pakistan.

According to Amarnath Randhawa, the founder of Balmiki Samaj was Maharishi Swami Guru Balmek. Guru Balmek ji was against idol worship, so there are no idols of deities in Balmek temples. These people read the Vedas and recite the Ramayana and bury their dead unlike ordinary Hindus.

Amarnath Randhawa says that at the time of the creation of Pakistan, a large number of Balmiki Hindus remained in Pakistan. Apart from this, a large number of Bhils, Dalits and Meghwar Hindus also live here. There were four to five thousand Balmak Hindus in Lahore, but today their number is very less. A large number of Scheduled Caste Hindus have left their religion and accepted Christianity.

Photo: Express News/Asif Mahmood

Amarnath Randhawa said that this cemetery of Scheduled Caste Hindus existed since 1830 but was occupied by local people. His grandfather Chaudhry Tara Chand Randhawa was very active in the Pakistan Movement, his grave is located here. Apart from this, the graves of many members of the Balmak community are still present here, while most of the graves have been destroyed. The local people had occupied it and built a workshop and a shoe factory here, but in August 1992, a two-judge bench of the Supreme Court ordered that the graveyard be handed over to the Hindu community after disposing of its possession. Now this cemetery belongs to his community. After his father Hiralal Randhawa, Bhagat Ashiq Ram, he has fought a long legal battle to regain possession of the graveyard.

Many Christians are also buried in this cemetery, while the gorgon present here is also a Christian. The investigation revealed that there are graves of Christians who themselves or their ancestors left Hinduism and became Christians. These people now claim that there are graves of their ancestors and that the cemetery belongs to the Christian community.

The cemetery has been controversial for many years, with one grave being the main cause of the dispute. About the grave of the saint named Haveli Shah, Muslims and Christians claim that this grave belongs to their saint, while Hindus say that the saint belonged to their religion.

Amarnath Randhawa says that Hindus also have royal families, Haveli Shah was also a Hindu, but some elements present here put inscriptions on the tombs on which the Muslim kalma and other holy words are written and claimed that these noble Muslims. were

When The Express Tribune tried to find out the details from a few local Muslims in this regard, no one knows about the genealogy of these saints, but it is definitely claimed that these Sufi saints are from the Nowshahi, Qadri lineage. The date of his death is also recorded on the inscription which is 1968.

Local citizen Pervez Masihani says that the claim of Muslims regarding this grave is not correct, these elders were Christians but they belonged to the Balmak Hindu family who had left their religion and accepted Christianity, so the Christian community would have made this claim. It is said that it belongs to the elder of the tombs. According to Gurgan Shaukat, a Christian from the cemetery, he had seen Haveli Shah himself, who was doing hard labor and making firecrackers.

Amarnath Randhawa said that on the order of the Supreme Court, the possession of this cemetery has been given to the Hindu community, but its condition is very bad, bushes have grown inside, there was a shoe factory here, the ruins of which are inside the cemetery. Even today, if you dig for a grave, plastic and shoes come out. Therefore, we appealed to the government to release funds for the rehabilitation of the cemetery.

He said that the Tehreek-e-Insaf government had allocated funds of Rs. 20 lakhs but it did not work and those funds were returned. After that, when the Orange Line train was planned, the area of ​​3 kanals and 14 marlas from the front of this cemetery was included in the plan. Here a wall has been built and a gate has been installed at the front but no further development has been done. Now Rs 10 lakh has been allocated again but despite repeated requests, the Tehreek-e-Insaf government has not released these funds and neither is the current government releasing the funds. We request our government to improve the condition of the cemetery.

Amarnath Randhawa said that of course this is the cemetery of Balmak Samaj but we have no objection if any Christians and Scheduled Caste Hindus also want to bury their dead here.