Save this Cultural Heritage

Hira Mandi, a neighborhood in the inner city Lahore associated with music, dancing and sex trades has been around since the days of the earlier conquests into the Indian sub continent. The neighborhood is named after Hira Singh, a minister in charge of this district during the rule of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh (late 18th century). Prior to that, it was referred to as Shahi Mohalla (Royal Neighborhood) due to its proximity to the royal quarters of the Moghals. Even today, Shahi Mohalla and Hira Mandi are used interchangeably to refer to this neighborhood. Historians trace the origins of this neighborhood back to the time of Sultan Qutbuddin Aybak (early 13th century). Mistakenly, some think “Hira” Mandi as a Diamond Market, as they believe dancing girls to be the ‘diamonds’. Call it what you like.

First, a brief background of old Lahore (“Androon Shehr” or inner city). It is a fortified city, most of the old wall (30-foot high) is intact, however some parts are in pretty bad shape (but now restoration is being done, albeit at a very slow pace). The old city was surrounded by 13 gates built by the Moghals, and some of the gates, e.g., Lohari, are in fairly original shape, while some other, such as Akbari Gate or Yaki Gate no longer exist and no traces of the old footprints are to be found. Hira Mandi is located next to Roshnai Gate on the North adjacent to the Shahi Mosque and Lahore Fort, and an entrance from Bhati Gate to the South, a walking distance from the mausoleum of Data Ganj Baksh, the patron saint of Lahore. The neighborhood has a very jovial and lively feel to it, if you enter from Bhati side, the narrow lanes have offices of “music promoters” one after another. Currently they arrange for “Mujras” (dances) at client’s locations. In addition to local clientele, many specialize in sending dancing parties to the Arabian Gulf nations where the art of Mujra has gained popularity in the last decade. A little further in the neighborhood are the confectioners, tandoor restaurants, Hakeems (Desi Doctors), many musical instrument shops, street venders, shoemakers, and other shops on the street level floors of 3 to 4 story attached houses where multiple families live together.

Not much has been written about this jewel of the Indian sub-continent. Only a few books, mainly by sociologists studying this fascinating neighborhood, are available. One book (Taboo – The Hidden Culture of a Red Light Area) by a Pakistani sociologist, Fouzia Saeed, is a good introduction to this neighborhood.

Sadly, the neighborhood saw the beginning of its decline during Zulfikar Bhutto’s time (early 70’s) under pressure from the Islamists, as the business of prostitution and dancing is considered against the teachings of Islam. Later on, during the regime of the Islamic Dictator Zia-ul-Huq, a concerted effort was made to destroy the remaining traces of trades associated with this neighborhood. However, the dancing and the sex trades that openly and legally went on in the neighborhood, moved into affluent areas of the city, mainly Samnabaad, Iqbal Town, and Gulberg, and to some extent in other less affluent areas of the city, where the trade continued underground, and continues to day.

Many years ago, when I was a young college student in Lahore, I would regularly go for after-school stroll in Hira Mandi. With no money for sex or to see a Mujra, my main curiosity was to walk past the houses in narrow alleys and see the prostitutes standing in the doorways waiting for customers. I remember seeing neurotic look on their faces, a determined look to make a living, even if it meant selling one’s soul and not just her flesh, just to be able to feed her family. Once in a while, I would ask a prostitute “Baji Kinnay Paisay?” (sister, how much?) and I would be told to get lost, as most knew me by my face and knew that I was just a wanderer of these streets. However sad and helpless I would feel to see those faces, my biggest excitement will be to hear the music seeping from behind closed doors, with musicians practicing (Riyaz) for their late evening performances and dancing girls thumping their feet with bell anklets (ghungroos). I could sit in the street and listen to them practice for hours. I remember going and sitting in narrow lanes, with open drains and little kids taking dumps right in front of their houses. I remember sitting next to a “Kotha” – a business place, (I later learnt that Ustad Shoukat Hussain, a very prominent musician of the Punjab Gharana played Tabla at that “Baythak”, a living space where Mujra is performed, as well as a place where a Musician lives and offers lessons to his disciples). Usatad Ji died a few years ago. I had the honor of meeting Ustad Ji. Together with Ustad Shoukat, there were other Tabla players such as Baba Tufail and Talib Hussain. They are all dead now. Now the current generation of Tabla players from the Punjab Gharana are Ustad Tari, his brother Khari, Ghulam Abbas and Bashir Ahmad, all very well respected and masters of their craft. On the Indian Side, Ustad Zakir Hussain is the leading Tabla Player representing Punjab Gharana. All of them with roots in Hira Mandi. There are numerous other musicians of other instruments with ties to this great neighborhood.

There are two distinct communities living within Hira Mandi – Kanjars (dancers) and Mirasi (musicians).

Lahore is considered to be the cultural and intellectual capital of Pakistan, Hira Mandi is undoubtedly its heart and soul. Hira Mandi is to Lahore what Christiania is to Copenhagen and the East Village to New York City, except that Hira Mandi is older than the United States, and Christiania was an Army base only some 50 years ago. There is no place like it in the world. Pardon me; there WAS no place like it in the world. Even with a systematic and religiously influenced repression of this place, there sill is no other place like this anywhere.

I hope that the good people of Lahore show some concern in preserving and helping rejuvenate this cultural heritage and stand together with their brothers and sisters of Hira Mandi to have the neighborhood restored to its old glory. Let the comforting music seeping out of its Baythaks heal your wounded souls, and let the sex workers work in peace and dignity without fear of being persecuted and looked down upon. Please do not disparage these good people of Lahore. They are only trying to make a living. Like the rest of us.

I felt compelled to write this plea after my recent visit to Lahore, where I saw the construction of a new Hotel (apparently, an historical Kotha was sold to the people who own Pearl Continental Hotel in Lahore, to be demolished and built into a Hotel). Please do not let this neighborhood turn into a rich man’s pretentiousness on cost of displacing the natives.