Marble and memory

About 10 kms from Kiratpur, on land bought from the Dowager Rani Champa ofBilaspur State in 1665, Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru and youngest son of Hargobind, founded the settlement of Anandpur. Ground for its construction was broken on the high promontory of Makhowal on June 19, 1665.

Over the years, Anandpur Sahib, then known as Chak Nanaki, grew into a formidable stronghold as the combative Sikhs built fortifications and military outposts to guard the approaches to the place the gurus of the faith had chosen as their new citadel. Amongst the many historic landmarks in this setting which should have formed a part of the Sikhs8217; spiritual heritage but which no longer exist was Bhora Sahib where Guru Tegh Bahadur lived. Mercifully what still exists is the Akal Bunga from where his nine-year-old son Gobind delivered the oration after cremating his father8217;s head on November 16, 1675, following his beheading on the orders of the Mughal ruler Aurangzeb on November 11, 1675.

Guru Gobind Singh, who was born in Patna and came to Anandpur at the age of eight, spent about 25 years of hislife there. He built Anandgarh on a hilltop to house his family, at the foot of which is Shaheedi Bagh where many of his men died defending the garh, or fort, in times of war. On another hill facing Anandgarh is Keshgarh, a place of sacred memories for Sikhs because this is where Guru Gobind Singh created the Khalsa on Baisakhi Day in 1699. Next year will be the 300th anniversary of this event.

When on March 30, 1699, Guru Gobind Singh ceremonially initiated five Sikhs from different social backgrounds to form the brotherhood of the Khalsa, or pure ones8217;, and in turn asked them to initiate him he reiterated the Sikh belief in and insistence on absolute equality amongst all Sikhs. The Khalsa8217;s creation, a significant milestone, marked the pivotal turning point in the shaping, honing and welding together of the new faith through shared convictions and a unique cultural distinctiveness which included the addition of Singh after the name of each Sikh.

The other sites connected with the lives, achievementsand campaigns of the tenth Guru are Lohgarh, Holgarh, Taragarh and Fatehgarh. They are no more than sites8217; now since most old structures have vanished. True, some remnants of the past have survived and parts of buildings, walls, gateways, wells and baolis mutely testify to the habitations that once housed the towering men and women who gave form, substance and confidence to their followers. But, ironically, most physical evidence of the past has been either bulldozed out of existence or changed beyond recognition by well-intentional though ill-informed keepers of these historic sites.

This confounding insensitivity is not confined to Anandpur Sahib. It is evident elsewhere as well. In Sultanpur Lodhi where Nanak spent 14 years; Goindwal, built near the River Beas on the suggestion of the second Guru Angad but developed by the third Guru Amar Das; the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar developed by the fourth and fifth Gurus Ram Das and Arjan Dev 8230; The list is long but what they share is vandalism from within, atthe hands of their own custodians.

In Anandpur Sahib the few remaining structures have been willfully defaced by covering centuries-old brick buil-dings with white marble. Even Anandgarh is not spared this crude ostentation with its extravagant emphasis on cosmetic treatment: an insult to the memory of the gurus who were exemplars of spartan lifestyles and personal restraint.

The past has to be conserved not reinvented. It cannot be deconstructed to reflect today8217;s insensitive attitudes. Every old remnant of the past has to be preserved to reflect the mood, materials, construction techniques, forms and functions of those times. To rebuild them in inappropriate and bizarre materials like marble, or to obliterate them altogether, is to slam the door in the face of our history and heritage.

The town and topography of Anandpur have complemented each other from the earliest times. But a wide road was slashed through the terrain between Anandgarh and Keshgarh. The construction of an 80-feet wide road betweenKeshgarh and Bhora Sahib will bulldoze its way through some of the residential quarters of the old town of Anandpur.

Aside from such vandalism, the roads will destroy the serene ambience of this site which attracted the gurus to it. This predatory attitude has not even spared buildings with sacred associations. Not only have Guru Tegh Bahadur8217;s original home and the place where he meditated been destroyed but many other buildings, gateways and walls of forts have been demolished. More are slated for demolition.

Does any imaginatively prepared Master Plan exist for Anandpur Sahib? A plan which leaves no scope for laissez faire development? And which can keep out land speculators and developers? If there is no plan then the responsibility for the devastation of this landscape of magnificence and historic importance rests squarely on the Punjab government and the Sikh Gurdwara Parband-hak Committee. The priorities of the men who control these two institutions obviously have little to do with conservation,and even less with celebrating 300 years of the khalsa8217;s birth in an appropriate manner.

If the entire idea of a celebration is to bring an architect from North America to design a museum, and Lata Mangeshkar to sing a shabad or two and a filmmaker from Bombay to do a film, and take out processions with borrowed elephants and horses, then the entire exercise is a farce, a theatre of the absurd.