Ancient Cemetery of Lahore – Express Urdu

There is also an ancient cemetery in the heart of Pakistan’s city of Lahore, where Muslim, Christian and Hindu Valmiki (or Balmiki, both names are used) communities are buried, but due to lack of attention from the government, its condition is very bad today.

The cemetery has been controversial for many years, but even today there is a tomb of an elderly Haveli Shah, who Muslims, Christians and Valmiki Hindus claim were followers of their religion.

This is the only cemetery of the Valmiki Hindu community living in Lahore, opposite the University of Engineering and Technology on Lahore GT Road and south of the Metro Orange Line train station.

The entrance to this cemetery was on GT Road, but when the Orange Line metro train station was constructed, the front wall of the cemetery was moved back a few feet and an iron gate was installed. This cemetery is not very big and there are barely around a dozen graves. While on one side, there is a one-room residence of the caretaker of the cemetery.

In more than half of the cemetery these days, several feet high grass has grown, the wall on the eastern side is also in danger of collapsing. Inside the cemetery there is an ancient and large banyan tree, while on one side there is also a solemn funeral hall for performing religious rituals. Stones and pieces of plastic are seen in the soil of the cemetery premises.

The ground is so hard that digging a grave here seems like a laborious task. All the graves built here are the same, but two graves are firm, one of which is that of Saint Baba Soudagarram and the other is that of Baba Haveli Shah. All the graves have earthen mounds at the top, but these mounds may never have been burned.

This cemetery is currently completely owned by the Hindu Valmiki community, however, there are some old graves in the cemetery, in which there was a dispute between the Muslims and the Valmiki community regarding one of the graves of Baba Haweli Shah, and finally the court gave a decision in favor of the Valmiki community.

A few furlongs from the Valmiki cemetery is the oldest Muslim Budhoka Ava cemetery, while a few furlongs away is a large cemetery of the Christian community.

Part of the Walimaki cemetery has been given to the Christian community where their graves are located. The condition of the only cemetery of Valmiki community in Lahore is quite bad, the soil of the premises is mixed with stones and plastic pieces, due to which it is quite difficult to dig the grave, while due to rains, water would have accumulated in some parts of the cemetery. Yes, the eastern wall is also about to collapse due to some old trees.

There is water connection here but no taps have been installed, due to which the Hindu community coming here has to face difficulties.

Talking about this cemetery, Amarnath Randhawa, a local leader of the Valmiki Hindu community, says that he has requested several times to the Deputy Commissioner, Lahore, to fill the cemetery with soil, make some repairs and install taps. Nothing made. According to local Hindus, this graveyard has been here since 1830 and the Hindu Scheduled Castes bury their loved ones here.

Amarnath Randhawa, a Hindu leader from Lahore, says that usually the Hindu community cremates the pyres of 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 the Valmiki Samaj was Maharishi Swami Guru Balmek.

Guru Valmikiji was against idol worship, so there are no idols of deities in Valmiki 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 Hinduabad in Lahore, but today their number is very less. A large number of Scheduled Caste Hindus have left their religion and accepted Christianity. Amarnath Randhawa said that this cemetery of Scheduled Caste Hindus has existed since 1830.

However, the local people had captured it. His grandfather Chaudhry Tara Chand Randhawa was very active in Pakistan Movement, his grave is there. Apart from this, the graves of many members of Balmak society are still present here, while most of the graves have been removed.

The local people had occupied it and built a workshop and a shoe factory, but in August 1992, a two-member 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 Heera Lal 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.

After the establishment of Pakistan, the lower caste Hindus did not get a job in any government institution and they did not have the facility to receive treatment and education, while on the contrary, these facilities were available to the Christian community, due to which the Valmiki Hindus adopted the Christian religion. did it. The graves of those elders who died in the earlier Valmiki religion are also here and when these people became Christians, then their graves also started being built here.

These people now claim that there are graves of their ancestors and that the cemetery belongs to the Christian community. This cemetery has been controversial for many years. A grave here is the main cause of this 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 an inscription on the grave on which the Muslim kalma and other holy words are written and claimed that this saint They were Muslims.

When “Express” tried to find out the details from some local Muslims in this regard, none of them had any information about the genealogy of these elders, but it is definitely claimed that these Sufi elders are from Naushahi, Qadri lineage. The date of his death is also recorded, which is 1968. Local citizen Parvez 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 left their religion and accepted Christianity, so the Christian community claims this. That it belongs to the elder of the tombs.

According to Gurgan Shaukat, a Christian from the cemetery, he himself saw Haveli Shah, who used to do hard labor and prepare fireworks.

Amarnath Randhawan 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 manufacturing factory, the ruins of which are still inside the cemetery today. Even if digging for a grave, pieces of plastic and broken shoes come out. That is why we appealed to the government to release funds for the rehabilitation of the cemetery.

The government elected in the last general election allocated funds of 2 million rupees for this cemetery, but it did not work and those funds were returned.

After that, when the Orange Line train was planned, an area of ​​3 kanals and 14 marlas in front of this cemetery was included in the plan. Here a wall has been built and a door has been installed at the front but no further development has been done.

Now 10 lakh rupees have been allocated again, but despite repeated requests, the previous government did not release these funds, nor is the current government releasing the funds. We request our government to improve the condition of the cemetery. He said, “Of course, this is the cemetery of the Balmac community, but if any Christians and Scheduled Caste Hindus also want to bury their dead there, we have no objection.”