Journalism of Courage
More than 16 years after being declared a protected monument by the Punjab government, the ‘Jahaz Haveli’, believed to be a 17th century structure resembling a sea ship, is now a skeleton of the architectural marvel that it was.
Its intricate layers of Nanakshahi bricks exposed to vagaries of nature, the heritage structure at village Harnam Nagar of Sirhind in Fatehgarh Sahib district, is believed to have been the residence of Diwan Todar Mal. A Hindu trader, Todar Mal had defied Mughals to cremate Zorawar Singh (8) and Fateh Singh (6), the two youngest sons of tenth Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh.
Chhote Saahibzaade, as the two young martyrs are known, were bricked alive on the orders of then Mughal faujdar of Sirhind Wazir Khan on December 12, 1705, after they refused to renounce their faith. Their grandmother Mata Gujri also died of shock. After none in Sirhind town agreed to spare land for their cremations, Todar Mal purchased a small piece of land by covering it with 7,800 gold coins. On this land he performed the cremation after getting the bodies of the two children released from Mughals. Gurdwara Jyoti Sarup (Fatehgarh Sahib) stand on that land now.
The privately owned property (on 2 canals and 17 marlas land) was declared a protected monument in 2003. The Jahaz Haveli, however, was never really ‘protected’ and an investigation by The Indian Express reveals that the two stakeholders — Punjab’s Department of Cultural Affairs, Archives, Archaeology & Museums and the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee (SGPC) — even failed to conserve whatever little was left, leave alone restoration of original structure.
A portion in middle of the structure that once joined two arches making it a ship-like structure, is completely missing. No one knows since when.
Gurmeet Sangha Rai, director, Cultural Resource Conservation Initiative (CRCI) and an internationally renowned conservation expert, says, “Havelis of this period were multiple courtyard structures and looking at remains of Jahaz Haveli, there is a strong possibility that both remaining structures were once connected and middle portion has eroded with time. A proper excavation can reveal more clues.”
Even after it was declared a protected monument, private parties continued to buy and sell the haveli, including the trust owned by one Punjab Civil Services (PCS) officer, who later transferred it to the SGPC (in name of main Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib where the children were bricked alive) in 2008. All this while, the Punjab’s Department of Archaeology, neither acquired the monument, nor intervened or took any step to save its original architecture.
It was only in July 2019 that the Department of Archaeology department suddenly woke up and sent a notice to SGPC to stop “illegal construction” at the site because it was a “protected monument”. Meanwhile SGPC, the largest gurdwara managing body in Punjab ruled by Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD), started tampering and altering the heritage building, with proposed construction of new guest rooms, langar hall, deori (gate) etc. The work was stopped only after receiving the notice.
However, the biggest shocker came in January 2020. The SGPC, in its defense for starting illegal construction at the site, has claimed that it “wasn’t even aware that Jahaz Haveli was a state protected monument” and has blamed Department of Archaeology for “failing to inform them.”
The matter now has also reached Punjab and Haryana High Court.
As per the notification (copy with The Indian Express) issued by Department of Archaeology, Jahaz Haveli was declared a protected monument on June 17, 2003 under the Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1964. It was then owned by two brothers — Balraj Singh and Shivraj Singh from Mohali — said to be from the extended royal family of Patiala.
As per the land ownership record available with the revenue department of Fatehgarh Sahib, less than a month later, PCS officer Navjot Pal Singh Randhawa along with his Ludhiana-based business partner Jatinder Singh Panesar created ‘Punjab Virasat Charitable Trust’, registered at Mohali and purchased the haveli from Balraj Singh on July 14, 2003. Randhawa, around same time, was posted as General Assistant (GA) to then Fatehgarh Sahib Deputy Commissioner SK Ahluwalia.
Five years later, in April 2008, after facing flak for failing to acquire the structure, the SGPC succeeded in getting the haveli transferred in the name of Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib as ‘gift deed’ from Randhawa’s trust. As per the deed dated April 29, 2008 available in the records of SGPC (copy with The Indian Express), undersigned by Randhawa as witness and Panesar as vice-president of the trust: “Punjab Virasat Charitable Trust is gifting its property measuring 2 canals 17 marlas at Harnam Nagar… having the market value of Rs 51,00,000. We are donating it in the name of Baba Zorawar Singh, Baba Fateh Singh and Mata Gujri Kaur”.
Talking to the Indian Express, Jaspreet Singh, additional deputy commissioner, Fatehgarh Sahib, said, “As per the jamabandi for 2000-01, the ownership of land was in name of Balraj Singh who sold it to Punjab Virasat Trust on July, 14, 2003. Then via a gift deed, the trust gifted the land to Baba Zorawar Singh, Baba Fateh Singh and Mata Gujri Kaur Shaheedi Ashthaan Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib, in 2008”.
Contacted for comments, Panesar said, “We had purchased it (the haveli) in 2002 because of its fascinating architecture. We were unaware of it being a protected monument. Randhawa is my friend and we had together created the trust”.
Randhawa, however, contradicts Panesar saying that they purchased the haveli in 2003 with a “motive to restore and conserve it” and were “aware of it being a protected monument”.
Now promoted as IAS and posted as chief executive, Punjab Energy Development Authority (PEDA), Randhawa, talking to The Indian Express, said, “We had purchased the haveli in 2003 when I was posted as GA to DC Fatehgarh Sahib. We had got it for some Rs 5 to 6 lakh from Balraj Singh. We were in process of preparing Detailed Project Reports (DPRs) for its restoration and conservation. However, we were not aware of its connection with Diwan Todar Mal. The structure had beautiful ship like unique architecture and frescos in interiors. Our only motive was to restore it for which we created the trust.”
Randhawa even questions that if structure was at all related to Todar Mal. “According to my research, there was no written or any other proof of haveli belonging to Todar Mal. There still isn’t any proof but when SGPC intervened and claimed that it is of immense importance to Sikh religious history, we agreed to gift it to them without any money,” he added.
Randhawa was earlier under Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) scanner for allegedly smuggling antique artefacts abroad worth crores and misusing his post as director museums Punjab. Then cultural affairs minister Navjot Singh Sidhu had also recommended a CBI probe against him in 2017.
Even after the haveli was ‘gifted’ to the SGPC, the Punjab Department of Archaeology never made any moves to save the crumbling structure despite the rules specifying that they had to conserve a protected monument even it was ‘privately owned’.
SGPC claims that it had hired “conservation experts” and spent over Rs 1.10 crore to save the structure before a notice from Department of Archaeology stopped the work. It claims that before issuing the notice in July 2019, the department never informed them that haveli was a protected monument.
Natha Singh, manager, Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib, showed a copy of notice sent by Department of Archaeology to The Indian Express. “We received this on July 20, 2019. They have sent us a notification copy now, which states that Jahaz Haveli is a protected monument. We were never told about this before. Now they are blaming us for illegal construction but it is the department, which failed to inform us for all these years. We even hired conservation experts and work was allotted to Delhi-based company — Heritage Conservation and Design Centre (HCDC) — on July 15, 2008. We have spent lakhs on chemicals to preserve whatever was left. Laborers came from Rajasthan. We have spent nearly Rs 1.10 crore on haveli since we got it. No one from Department of Archaeology contacted us. We never received any oral or written communication, before July 2019, telling us that it was a protected monument”.
At the site, SGPC has already constructed two new rooms, right at the entrance of the plot. SGPC member from Fatehgarh Sahib, Karnail Singh Panjoli, however, admits that they shouldn’t have gone ahead with new construction. “It was wrong on our part to get rooms constructed. We even got maps prepared proposing construction of new darhsan deori (gate), langar hall, guest rooms, and parks. We should have instead focused on preserving original structure. However, it is true that we were never informed about haveli being declared a protected monument,” says Panjoli.
Delhi-based conservation expert Shalini Dasgupta, the owner HCDC, says that her assignment as consultant with SGPC ended midway after the gurdwara body never followed or agreed to what they suggested to conserve the haveli. “No, we were never told that it was a protected monument. SGPC officials just told us that it was an important structure for Sikh history. We started work in 2008 and also prepared DPR to conserve it but nothing could happen on ground. SGPC wasn’t adhering to what we proposed. They would call sewadars every other day and ask for changes and alterations in our proposal. We told them that our work is to conserve and restore original structure but they wanted something else. The project just died and we left it within two years or so… Our dues are also pending with SGPC,” Dasgupta said.
In the notice that it sent to SGPC in July 2019, Department of Archaeology said that “the department intends to declare under Rule 29 (2), prohibited areas, 100 m from the protected limits and further beyond it, upto 200m near or adjoining to each protected monument… as regulated areas respectively, for the purpose of mining operation or construction or both”.
Roop Singh, chief secretary, SGPC, says, “The SGPC wasn’t aware that it was a protected monument. We had only tried to protect it on our own..”
Meanwhile, the Department of Archaeology now says that haveli was under their “constant surveillance”.
MS Jaggi, director, Department of Archaeology, said, “Since being declared a protected monument in 2003, Jahaz Haveli was under constant surveillance. It was only after we got to know via our team that illegal construction was being started, harming the structure that we shot off the notice to SGPC and work was stopped. We have now proposed to cover haveli under Swadesh Darshan scheme of central government demanding budget of Rs 80 lakh to develop it for tourism and another Rs 20 lakh for its restoration under new loan proposal from Asian Development Bank (ADB).”
Sources, however, said that in the official records of the department, the name of haveli owner was still written as Balraj Singh and it has failed to update its records in the last 16 years.
Now, on a civil writ petition filed by advocate HC Arora on January 31 seeking directions to preserve the haveli, the Punjab and Haryana High Court court has issued notice of motion to Punjab government and the SGPC and has also granted “status quo of the monument” till further orders, with next hearing on March 17, 2020.
For Privately owned Protected Monument, What the Punjab Ancient and Historical Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1964, say:
Section 5: (1) The Director may, with sanction of the government, purchase or take a lease of, or accept gift or bequest of, any protected monument.
Section 6: (1) The Director…shall propose to the owner of a protected monument to enter into an agreement with the government within a specified period for maintenance of the monument.
Section 10: (1) If the Director apprehends that the owner or occupier of a protected monument intends to destroy, remove, alter, deface, imperil, or misuse the monument or to build on or near the site…, the Director may….., make an order prohibiting any such contravention of the agreement…’
Section 13: If the Government apprehends that a protected monument is in danger of being destroyed, injured, misused or allowed to fall into decay, it may acquire the protected monument under the provisions of the Land Acquisition Act, 1894….’
June 17, 2003: Punjab government issues notification declaring Jahaz Haveli as ‘state protected monument’, then owned by two men from Mohali; but fails to acquire land or enter into an agreement with SGPC for its preservation
July 14, 2003: PCS officer NPS Randhawa and his partner Jatinder Singh Panesar of Ludhiana, buy haveli after forming ‘Punjab Virasat Charitable Trust’.
April 29, 2008: Trust transfers the haveli in the name of Gurdwara Sri Fatehgarh Sahib as ‘gift deed’ under guardianship of SGPC.
July 15, 2008: SGPC hires Delhi-based conservation experts HCDC as consultants but project ends midway; later SGPC on its own proposes new constructions at site.
July 20, 2019: SGPC receives notice from Punjab Department of Archaeology asking it to stop illegal construction at ‘protected monument’; SGPC claims it was never informed that haveli was declared a protected monument
January 31, 2020: High Court issues notice of motion to Punjab government and SGPC for March 17.
