here’s a saying about a Lahori who went on a pilgrimage. After he had performed all the rituals with religious fervour, he addressed the Almighty and said, “Lord, this is indeed wonderful, and I am very grateful for it, but Lahore Lahore aye.”

These words express in simple words that for a Punjabi devotees of the city, Lahore remains the centre of their cultural world.

The city was dubbed as Paris of the East during the colonial period. It went through many ups and downs through history, yet retained its unique ambience and the intensity of its inhabitants’ attachment which is available to none other.

The prolific Roman historian Livy (d. 17AD) wrote his famous history of Rome (the city was founded in 753 BC) which is considered to be the first of its kind. The writing of a city’s history gradually became a popular trend. Today it may not be hard to find a history of an important city. There are a few important histories of Lahore, chiefly, Ahmad Saeed’s Lahore: Ek Shehr-i-Bemisal (2022); Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran’s Lahore in the Time of the Raj (2016); Pran Nevile’s Lahore: A Sentimental Journey (2016); and Anna Suvorova’s Lahore: Topophilia of Space and Place (2011). A common thread in all these treatises is that these have been written, with love and affection, by devotees of Lahore. Their emotions are discernible in their writings.

Situated on the banks of River Ravi, Lahore was founded, according to popular tradition, by Lava or Loh, one of the twin sons of Lord Rama, the epic hero of the Ramayana, the king of Ayodhya. Lahore apparently meant ‘Loh’s fort’. The first historical reference to the city is found in the writings of the famous Chinese traveller and pilgrim Hiuen Tsang circa 630AD. It remained part of the Chauhan dynasty until it was captured by Mahmood of Ghazna. Later, it became part of the empire of Sultans of Delhi and the Mughals.

It was in Lahore that Humayun, while fleeing the victorious army of Sher Shah, met and married Hamida Begum who later gave birth to Akbar, the greatest of Mughals.

The Mughals endowed the city with many historical buildings and gardens, the Shalimar Gardens being the most magnificent. In the heyday of its imperial glory, during the Mughal period, it was said that Isfahan and Shiraz together would not equal half of Lahore.

Ranjit Singh made Lahore the capital of his empire in 1799. During the four decades of his rule, the city peaked eminence. The British replaced the Sikhs in Lahore in 1846 and annexed the Punjab in 1849. Lahore became the capital of the province, during the British Raj, and an important centre of modern system of administration. It also became a substantial railway junction and a cantonment city of the British Indian Empire to defend it from any onslaught of the Russian Empire from the Afghan territory. However, it was during the British period that Lahore expanded unprecedentedly, and many new areas were added to the city making it outward-looking from across the Walled City.

Lahore was recognized as the cultural capital of the Punjab and of the entire North India. It became an educational centre, unrivalled by quality and number of educational institutions. The earliest colleges of Lahore were Forman Christian College, run by Presbyterian Church; and Government College, run by the Punjab government. Both were established in 1864 and affiliated with Calcutta University before the establishment of the University of the Punjab in 1882.

Outside the Lahori Gate, the Anarkali Bazaar had become the most fashionable shopping centre in the entire North India. Its leading merchants were Dunichand & Sons,Raja Brothers, Mohanlal & Sons, and Beliram & Sons. These traders dealt in goods imported from Germany,England, Switzerland and Japan.

Aitchison College was established in 1886 to educate and ‘enlighten’ the scions of princely houses and Punjab chiefs. However, with the emergence of denominational schools and colleges, the city became the most sought after for its educational institutions.

The city also gave birth to the rise of Muslim, Hindu and Sikh religious societies and reform movements when the religious disputations were actively fought around conversion activities.

The tourism attraction that Lahore appeared to be during the colonial period was yet another mark of the city. Faletti’s Hotel, located adjacent to the Provincial Assembly building, is the oldest colonial-era abode of tourists. It was opened in 1880 by an Italian, Giovanni Faletti. It was a favourite place of Mohammad Ali Jinnah who he stayed in its Room 18 on July 14, 1929, while appearing in a case in the Lahore High Court.

The famous Thomas Cook & Co operated in Lahore as a tour operator and European tourists abounded in the city. Talbot and Kamran opine that Lahore’s “antiquity, the monuments of the Mughal era and the romanticism of its history increasingly drew visitors to the city as the railways and steamships extended the opportunities for tourist travel.”

The socio-religious movements patronised by all major religious denominations (the Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs) of the Punjab played an important role in communal consciousness by dint of their active role in the public sphere of the city and beyond. These organisations drew strength from the educated middle class that rallied around their activities, and proselytisation.

Of course, Lahore will always be remembered for its martyrs and revolutionaries. Bhagat Singh (d. 1931), colonial India’s most celebrated revolutionary, and his fellows Shivram Rajguru and Sukhdev Thapar were sent to gallows here on March 23, 1931. While the railway, steamship and telegraph lines carried goods, people and ideas for the Raj, these means of transportation and communication also facilitated the people who were against the Raj.

The city served as a meeting point for many cultural, economic and trade networks between South Asia, Central Asia and Europe. Outside the Lahori Gate, the Anarkali Bazaar had become the most fashionable shopping centre in the entire North India. Its leading merchants were Dunichand & Sons, Raja Brothers, Mohanlal & Sons, Durgadas and Co, Girdharilal and Co, Uttar Chand Kapur & Sons, and Beliram & Sons. These traders dealt in goods imported from Germany, England, Switzerland and Japan.

The city also emerged as the most important centre of film industry and print capitalism. A large number of Urdu, English and Punjabi newspapers were printed and catered to the readers in the city and beyond. These newspapers were a conduit for forming opinions, creating communitarian identity consciousness and defining consumer preferences.

The writer has a PhD in history from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad. Currently, he is head of the History Department, University of Sargodha. He has previously worked as a research fellow at Royal Holloway College, University of London.

He can be reached at abrar.zahoor@hotmail.com. His X handle is @AbrarZahoor1