They kill horses too, don`t they?

In my college days I trekked to Czechoslovakia to attend a Youth Festival. Prague is an exquisite Gothic-Baroque beauty, and in my view, after Firenze in Italy, it is the place to visit. But then, naturally, Lahore comes first. In Prague I remember how they honour the horses who took part in various battles. Today I am very sad, and sad because in Lahore the last memory of the famous `Nakkas Khana` â€" horse market â€" outside Delhi Gate was bulldozed last week by goons of Shahbaz Sharif to clear, imagine, an "encroachment". Faiz was so correct when he said: "everything that exists, on the ground, and in our minds, is our culture". Mr Sharif and culture are surely two different worlds. Back to Prague then I walked through Vitkov Hill, named after Vitek of Hora, the famous vineyards owner. At this place came up the statue of Jan Zizka, a charismatic freedom fighter during the Hussite Wars (1420-1436), waged between the Bohemians, representing peasants, and the invading House of Luxembourg, representing the priestly classes. On this very hill on July 14, 1420, the Hussite peasant forces, led by the one-eyed Zizka on his equally famous horse, defeated a superior Catholic force ordered by Rome to crush the Protestant `heretics` of Bohemia. Their rulers, like ours today, backed the priests and the people, mercifully, defeated them. Today at that very place in Prague stands one of the world`s largest monuments to a brave man and his horse, even though this statue was beaten in 2009 by a 40-metre high equestrian statue of Genghis Khan (1162-1227) outside Ulan Bator in Mongolia. But Lahore has an even greater equestrian history, and that can be captured in the history of its famous "Nakkas Khana", which our diminutive Mr Sharif has managed to destroy. Let me remind our readers of the history of Lahore, its horses and the "nakkas khanas". The word `nakka` used today has its origin in the word `nakkas`. The original "nakkas khana" â€" horse market â€" was situated outside the Lahore Fort to the north near the original bend of the Ravi as it curled towards the walled city. We know it today as the "Buddha Ravi". Even today one portion of that area is called "nakkas khana". After Akbar expanded the walled city outwards at the eastern and western portions, enclosing it within a burnt brick wall, the area that is today known as "inside Delhi Gate" was then called the "raarah maidan" — barren grounds â€" and on these barren grounds was built the mosque of Wazir Khan â€" which today, thanks to the policies of our rulers, is in a state of utter disrepair with its minarets almost poised to fall. For security reasons the "nakkas khana" was relocated just outside the mosque`s square. The one near the "Buddha Ravi" remained functioning, though only partially as it still is. Once the reign of Shah Jehan came, the "nakkas khana" was shifted outside Delhi Gate, and right up to Yakki Gate ran a huge horse market. Its location was dictated by the fact that the horse was the main mode of mobility till the coming of the internal combustion engine, and traffic from Delhi first came to this place. Much later when the British built the railway station, the "ekka stand" moved nearer the station. But the "nakkas khana" remained where it was outside Delhi Gate. Here some very old water troughs stood, and an entire business of horse-shoe shodding and leather reins and saddles developed. Those still exist for it feeds the horse-driven carriages outside the walled city and the rural areas around Lahore. There is just so much tradition and history that is attached to the "nakkas khana". Let me remind our readers that it was at the "nakkas khana" in the days of Aurangzeb that nearly 10,000 Sikhs were killed by the butchers who lived in the Mohallah Kasaban inside Delhi Gate. The entire terrible episode, which ran over one week, took place in the "nakkas khana". Should we forget about that terrible event? When the three Sikh chieftains took over Lahore before Maharajah Ranjit Singh came to power, it was at this place that the noses and ears of these butchers were cut. Should we forget that event too? In the days of the British Raj, many a freedom fighter was strung up there, especially in 1857. Should we forget all those brave men? The bloody events of 1947 saw this "nakkas khana" play a huge part in saving the lives of thousands of Muslims and non-Muslims, not to speak of the crimes that took place then at this place. Should we forget that bloody carnage? The history of this place just cannot be rubbed away by a set of rulers who refuse to recognise our history. This small space, barely 5,000 square feet in all, has been demolished and a wall built around it as workers collect some very old masonry and broken bits of old water troughs. It is, in my view, a criminal move to erase the culture and history of a city already gutted by the trading classes that the current rulers seek political and monetary support from. You might as well ask what ought to be done at this place, where if one rumour is to be believed, a fire brigade station and some shops (imagine!) are being planned as part of the restoration of the "Circular Garden". Let me suggest a better use of this small barely one-kanal space which stands on the outer edges of the garden near the road, and a space the British planned, after consulting the population. Such consultation now does not exist. It makes sense that this space be made part of the old Circular Garden, but that a few small monuments in the shape of plagues and small exhibits be erected, tastefully and after consultation, to remind our children that this space holds a "hallowed history". We need to remember the horse in the shape of, if possible, a statue of Esp-i-Laila, the legendary horse that Maharajah Ranjit Singh acquired after losing 12,000 Punjabi soldiers to an Afghan campaign to bring the horse to Lahore. We can also keep models of the various types of horse-driven carriages used over the centuries in Lahore. We can also erect a plaque to remember the 10,000 Sikhs slaughtered at this place. We can also remember the poor butchers killed in revenge over that slaughter. There is no need to build buildings or a museum, but simple little reminders of the history of the horse and the "nakkas khana" that served them. We have a very rich equestrian history and the horse has served us well for thousands of years. If Prague remembers their horses, and at Ulan Bator the warrior Genghis Khan and his horse are remembered, why should Lahore forget the horses that served them so well? Let not our historic "nakkas khana" die out; let it acquire a new and better shape as part of a larger green garden.