Harvest from the Desert

A banker by profession, Salim Ansar has a passion for history and historic books. His personal library already boasts a treasure trove of over 7,000 rare and unique books.
Every week, we shall take a leaf from one such book and treat you to a little taste of history.
BOOK NAME: Harvest from the Desert
AUTHOR: B. P. L. Bedi
PUBLISHER: Sir Ganga Ram Trust Society - Lahore
DATE OF PUBLICATION: 1940
The following excerpt has been taken from Pages: 38 — 41
“Ganga Ram will go down to history as a great Indian. The story of his life is the story of a man who by birth was at the bottom of the ladder of success, and by his own patient and persistent effort his idealism and love of work, succeeded in reaching the very top. Engineering with him was a matter of feeling, not simply a matter of figures. It came to him with that instinctive spontaneity which comes from love and understanding. And agriculture to him was also a matter of feeling — and a matter of faith. His unshakeable belief in the possibilities of a farm, and the profits it could yield, urged him on to great and successful experiments on his own farm at Gangapur, and later on, this belief was his inspiration when developing the waste land of the Punjab and reaping a ‘harvest from the desert.’ He was a true son of the soil, and few have loved Mother Earth more than he did.
“He died in 1927, and it is well over a decade after his death that this biography appears.
MALL OF LAHORE
“The twelve years during which he held this office were years of responsibility and the worry attendant upon it, but Ganga Ram’s energy and grasp of his work never flagged, and these years created in Lahore almost a legendary name for the Executive Engineer in the world of architecture. To him goes the credit of designing and constructing the magnificent buildings of the Lahore Museum, the Mayo School of Arts, the General Post Office, the Albert Victor Wing of the Lahore Mayo Hospital, and

the Government College Chemical Laboratory. This we have on the authority of The Journal of Indian Engineering.
“From the leafy end of the Mall that begins with the Aitchison College, to the ‘University and down by the Museum it is the spirit and creative vision of Ganga Ram which pervades the air. The Indian arches, the love of Indian tradition mirror themselves in his buildings, and they look at home on Indian soil. But, in their construction, all the tricks and devices of the scientific West have been employed to improve them, to protect them from the heat and cold of the Punjab climate, to ensure that sanitation was efficient and unobtrusive. More modern styles have since invaded the Mall, and the future will show many others with more modern construction and technique, but the simple dignity of Ganga Ram’s buildings will bear comparison with the best that the future has to offer.
“Lahore was not the only sphere of his activity, and in many other growing towns of the province, his hand and ideas are visible notably in the Courts and Offices in Lyallpur, Sargodha and Sheikhupura.
“In recognition of his splendid work he received the title of Rai Bahadur. ‘His regime as an Executive Engineer was marked,’ writes Principal A. S. Hemmy of the Government College, Lahore, a versatile critic of Art and Architecture, ‘by the endeavour to ensure the maximum of result with the minimum of expenditure consistent with efficiency, which has led to a style of building, both public and private in Lahore which continued for many years, after he had left for other spheres of work. Indeed, one might almost speak of a Ganga Ram period of architecture of which the Government College Chemical Laboratory is an example............’
“The work was heavy and exacting, and Ganga Ram was always on the alert to save energy by new methods and devices. The old method of calculation was long-winded and tiring, and Ganga Ram’s efficient and inventive brain spurred him on to invent and patent his slide rule for calculating the dimension of beams and trusses, of retaining walls and of girders of all shapes and sizes. He also patented his designs for an anti-thermal flat roof for buildings, and for interlocking bricks for wells. These inventions have been acclaimed as of far reaching importance in the engineering world, and have been widely used.
“No account of his work in Lahore can be complete without mentioning the part he played in the remaking of the old town as an ex-officio Municipal Commissioner. ‘The present generation of Lahore, we are told by an old citizen,’ have no idea of the brick-laid streets, the narrow drains with dead end, and the horrible stench which they emitted resulting in disease, cholera, and malaria which played havoc all the year round........’
“‘The present narrow streets were narrower in those days, and through many of them a cart could not pass easily. The Bazaz Hatta was no better. In the present triangular space there was perched three-sided bazar, one side of which was occupied by the Patolis, who carried on a flourishing trade in making nalas, parandas, doris, and other silken articles which are almost given up.’
“The Water Works schemes in the city was started as late as 1875, and at that time they were still incomplete and there was no efficient drainage system. For that, the City of Lahore is indebted to Ganga Ram. It is to him that they owe metalled streets, paved lanes, and properly laid drains, which lessened the rigours of malaria and thus materially helped in raising the standard of health of the citizens.
“Thus Ganga Ram’s influence went much deeper than the spectacular outside buildings which every-one can see, and affected a much larger number of people than a cursory glance might estimate. If we add to these reforms of Lahore the tremendous and mainly unacknowledged influence that Ganga Ram and his ideas had on domestic architecture, the sum-total is tremendous. His new ideas on construction were admired and copied by a good many of the private contractors in Lahore, and the stamp of his particular mind on the general appearance of the residential quarters of Lahore is obvious to anyone who goes about with his eyes open.
“During the years when Ganga Ram was fulfilling his official duties in Lahore, he lived in Anarkali, which was then the centre of fashion and wealth. It was here that he celebrated the wedding of his eldest daughter, who later presented him a grandson in the person of Mr. Aftab Rai, who is to-day the Honorary Secretary of the great Trust which stands in his name.
“‘I still remember’ writes a friend reminiscently, ‘how we stood up in parallel rows to welcome the bridegroom, under the leadership of L. Daulat Ram.’”
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