Amritsar at 450: The eternal city

Somewhere nearby, a ladle struck the rim of a large iron kadhai with a ringing clang. The air carried the scent of hot jalebis twisting in bubbling sugar syrup, and the comforting warmth of kadah prashad.

A restless bheed surged past me at what would anywhere else be a deserted, unwise hour to wander out. Around the Harmandir Sahib area — what the Golden Temple is formally called — even at 4 am, there is frantic urgency, as if the city had forgotten how to slow down. High above, shabads (prayer ballads) from the gurbani echoed around slivers of an overcast sky.

As I caught my first glimpse of the gurudwara’s facade, the alleyways rang with a shabad around the promenade: “Amrit vela sach nao, vadiae veechar.” When the world is quiet and your mind is open, remember the truth that endured — let reflection of the divine show you the way.

Just as night slowly surrendered to light, there may perhaps be no greater way to gauge Amritsar’s story, than this epiphany.

The fifth century

Founded in 1577 by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru as Chakk Ram Das or Ramdaspura, Amritsar, named after the amrit sarovar (the holy pond) (Photo: Express Archive)

Next year, Amritsar, named after the amrit sarovar (the holy pond), turns 450 but celebrations have already begun. Founded in 1577 by Guru Ram Das, the fourth Sikh Guru as Chakk Ram Das or Ramdaspura, it is one of the few Indian cities whose birth was rooted not in conquest, commerce or colonial ambition but in ideals of equality, community and service.

“Amritsar was envisioned as a sanctuary that embraced all, indifferent to gender, faith, or caste,” says Tarundeep Singh Ghuman, a local storyteller and an expert in the city’s history. “It was a city crafted specifically to welcome those who found no refuge anywhere else. They recognised only human merit, kindness and grace,” he says.

Over the years, Amritsar evolved as a place of commerce, an area of interest for the royals, and even one of historical importance during Partition. Amritsar, in the 19th century, was the summer capital of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. A century prior, the city was plundered and ransacked by an Afghan invasion — and was gradually rebuilt by devotees who survived the invasion.

Today, the ethos of the city’s origins combine all of this history. Remnants of each of these are then found in the way the city sleeps, remembers and celebrates. Around the Golden Temple, walk up at any hour of the night and on any day of any year, strangers find themselves a quiet corner to lie down for a few hours. Divides, even today, disappear both inside the city’s epicentre and outside — inside the gurdwara’s langar (community meal) kitchen, men and women from all walks of life devote themselves to public service or seva. In Amritsar, this is no narrative or occasion — it is a way of life.

Remembrance in rebuild

The goal, as it stands true even today, was not to showcase the gurdwara as an elusive sight — but as one where pilgrims and residents alike came by, in happiness and melancholy. (Photo by Vernika Awal)

Photographs still accessible in the open, most of all in the Partition Museum that’s within the vicinity, show how until even as recently as the previous century, homes of families opened right at the edge of the pond surrounding the Golden Temple. The goal, as it stands true even today, was not to showcase the gurdwara as an elusive sight — but as one where pilgrims and residents alike came by, in happiness and melancholy.

Manjit Singh, a retired professor of planning and architecture from Guru Ramdas School of Planning at Guru Nanak Dev University, said that a key facet of Amritsar was that it was rebuilt across eras, as it withstood invasions over time — from Shah Jahan in the Mughal era, to the tragedy of Jallianwala Bagh massacre by Reginald Dyer during the British colonial brutality. “While most cities naturally grow, decline and die like living organisms, certain cities endure permanently due to their profound contributions to human thought,” says Singh. “Despite being destroyed multiple times, Amritsar has earned its status as an immortal city.”

One of the most recent examples of this rebuild is as recently as October 2016, when the government of Punjab built the area around the Golden Temple as ‘Heritage Street’, with the goal of organised shops, better cleanliness, less chaotic driveways and a multi-level parking tower for cars.

These same havelis must once have echoed with laughter that spilled into open courtyards. Women leaning over jharokhas to exchange gossip with neighbours across balconies; children racing through the lanes without a care. (Photo by Vernika Awal)

But, the city still remembers its past in ways that one least expects. For instance, in one of the walking alleyways in Katra Ahluwalia, I stumbled across a renovated haveli — just as its neighbour looked weathered and wary.
Beneath the present moment, another Amritsar breathed along, quietly. Standing in those lanes, it was impossible not to imagine a softer, sepia-toned past layered beneath the chaos. These same havelis must once have echoed with laughter that spilled into open courtyards. Women leaning over jharokhas to exchange gossip with neighbours across balconies; children racing through the lanes without a care.

Even though modernism has caught up in various ways, the old story of Amritsar has refused to fade. Ask any historian studying Partition, and they will tell you that Amritsar and Lahore are twin cities — reflections of one another separated by a border that arrived much later. Separated by only a few kilometres and a line that altered countless lives, the Amritsar today still makes its history felt beneath the everyday bustle. It’s as if the city itself remembers a time when the road ahead did not stop at the border.

“Despite all the invasions, rapid urbanisation and Partition, one can still read the layers of history in Amritsar. In fact, even Partition can be read — not just by what is present, but also by what is absent. For instance, during the riots in Amritsar’s walled city, large areas were burned, pulled down and redeveloped. When you see parts of the old town where redevelopment took place, you know that those structures belong to a later time,” says Gurmeet Sangha Rai, heritage conservationist and architect.

Beyond the architecture

Rai underlines how even today, the city continues to be home to houses from different times in history — starting with basic urban planning. “If you see the meandering roads, you know that in most of our historic cities, the plan or footprint is still historic. What is significantly altered in many cases is the vertical, third dimension. Only when you build large plazas do you bulldoze buildings and streets to consolidate, leading to a loss of the historic cityscape,” says Rai.

In one stretch, generational businesses sell kulche, and only a few feet away, lassi and jalebi take over the glass counters (Photo by Simranjit Rana)

The evolution of a cityscape, however, is inevitable. As population grows, Amritsar, too, is today home to high-rise five-star hotels, flyover bridges and glass-faced austere office buildings. While much of this evolution has continued to retain Amritsar’s spirit of nimrata (oneness), conservation of Amritsar’s rich, diverse past is today trying to save what’s left of the city to document. Ghuman, on this note, says that governmental interventions of conservation cannot preserve heritage by themselves. “A city’s true heritage lies in its stories, crafts, languages, music, food, relationships and festivals. If traditional artisans were to disappear tomorrow, only to be replaced by generic commercial outlets, there would no longer be much left for the youth of tomorrow to connect with their city’s values,” he says, “The heritage of a city survives not because its walls are preserved, but because its values continue to be lived. Intangible heritage like the gurbani kirtan, local crafts, literary history and food give meaning and experience to visitors, too.”

In Amritsar, food is not merely sustenance. The signs of faith adorn the walls of most places, who do not skimp in their generosity to feed whoever comes to seek a morsel. In one stretch, generational businesses sell kulche, and only a few feet away, lassi and jalebi take over the glass counters. At each of these stores, sellers smile with a faint familiarity — as if no one here is a stranger. Perhaps, that is why leaving Amritsar always carries a faint ache. The city continues to stand today not just as one of Punjab’s most important strategic and economic hubs, but in an underlying familiarity that beckons its people to return

Amritsar is today home to high-rise five-star hotels, flyover bridges and glass-faced austere office buildings, but continues to retain the city’s spirit of nimrata (oneness) (Photo by Simranjit Rana)

Efforts to conserve the city’s evolution and cultural significance has today led to socio-cultural festivals such as Agla Varka and Sacred Amritsar — places where literary history, music and local crafts are finding voices of revival to cling to. It’s a rare feat for a grand old city to be a crucial hub of commerce without losing its significance in history and culture. As Singh says, “Amritsar is a major hub for tourism yet it retains its immortal character.”

Vernika Awal is a Delhi-based food and lifestyle writer