Bamba Collection: Sikh Gallery Thefts Remain Untraced
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Last-modified: 1997/10/04
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Bamba Collection: Sikh Gallery Thefts Remain Untraced
by Mahmood Zaman
LAHORE: (Sept 26, '97): The multi-million-dollar thefts of Sikh relics
from the Lahore Fort remain untraced. The police have made no extra
effort to look into the case, and Islamabad remains insensitive to
this loss of cultural treasures.
The thefts had come to light about a year ago when the Lahore Fort's
Sikh Gallery was broken into. The Tibbi police station has filed
away the case.
The federal government's Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism
has not even bothered to fix responsibility for the theft and
seems to have accepted the incident as a fair accompli. It has
also taken no steps to improve security arrangments at the Fort or
other monuments and museums elsewhere in the country.
The only action taken by the department was termination of the service
of two watchmen, Abdul Saeed Khan and Muhammad Ramzan, who were on
duty between 12 midnight and 8am on that day. They, along with two
more watchmen, were taken into custody by the Tibbi City police and
given a good thrashing during the course of interrogation.
According to a description in the department's catalogue of 1961, the
horse trappings of Maharaja Ranjit Singh were in several pieces. These
were a "Sar Band (decorative head covers) comprising 77 small and six
medium size flowers in gold plate with eight petals, each of them
studded with turquoise, a 'teeka' weighing 10 tolas of gold with 10
pendants of 100t; one 'qalghi' (forehead ornament) and two solid
gold buckles. Both the 'teeka' and 'qalghi' were studded with
diamonds.
The "Seena Bund (chest cover)" is 4'-11" long with 35 small and two
medium size flowers of plate gold weighing 20 tolas. Each flower
has eight petals studded with 14 turquoise and a diamond, a
medallion of 10 tolas of gold set with large piece of turquoise and
other small beads of stones.
The "Dum Gaz (tail-piece)" is 5'-6" long with small flowers of gold
weighing 32 tolas of gold, two medium size buckles and one big buckle
of solid gold weighing two tolas and 10 tolas, respectively, studded
with jewels and precious and semi-precious stons".
But the FIR (No 800/96) got registered by curator Irshad Husain under
Section 457 PPC (lurking house trespass or house breaking by night
in order to commit offense punishable with imprisonment for five to
14 years with fine) and 380 PPC (theft in dwellings/houses etc.,
punishable with seven years of imprisonment and fine), simply mentions
that the trappings consisted of "gold plated" material.
In the first instance no detaisl of the theft were given and the
complaint said the "main portion of the horse trappings and umbrella
of Ranjit Singh are missing".
The Sikh Gallery was established in 1961 and antiquities displayed
there belonged to the collection of Princess Bamba, daughter of
Maharaja Duleep Singh and Ranjit's Singh's grand-daughter. Duleep
Singh had married the princesses' mother, Bamba Muller in England
after his father's dynasty came ot an end in 1849, and had another
daughter and three sons from her.
Princess Bamba married an English baron and later came to live in
the Punjab. She died in Lahore, issuless, in 1957 at the age of 86.
All the years she was in Lahore, she kept her collection, inherited
from her fatehr Duleep Singh, which also included paintings,
photographs and metallic objects and articles, under the management of
Pir Karam Bakhsh Sipra to whom she bequeathed the inheritance before
she died.
Mr Sipra later sold this to the Government of Pakistan though the
Indian government had also showed interest in purchasing it. The
collection was put on public display in a specially built Sikh Gallery
inaugurated in 1961.
Archaelogoy Department DG Niaz Rasool stated among other things in his
first report to teh ministry on Oct 20, 1996, that curator Irshad
Husain, complainant in the case, did not hold physical charge of the
Sikh Gallery. The responsibility rested with assistant curator Habib
Ghani who was granted two-day leave for Oct 13 and Oct 14, 1996 by the
director, north circle, himself, though sanctioning of such leave was
within the competence of the curator who was present in the office the
day the leave was approved.
In the second report on Feb 6, 1997, the Director General referred to
an investigation conducted by the director, north circle, and said the
director's report was not only silent on fixing of responsibility but
also had many lapses which suggested that the inquiry was not
conducted properly. The report neither offered a comment on the
incident nor mentioned anything about future steps for security. The
DG also reported that while lodging the FIR the curator had stated
that "gold-plated" objects were stolen whereas the horse trappings
were actually made of gold.
Whetever the measures the Lahore Fort management may take, the people
of the Punjab have lost a rich heritage whose value cannot be
estimated in terms of money.
Mo
Good of you Moin to highlight the failings of the Pakistan govt. in
protecting minority rights. Now why is Gurumukhi banned in Pakistan ?