At Lahore’s ‘Eton’, Pakistani alum pays tribute to Indian dost | India Information
NEW DELHI: Practically eight many years after Partition, a classroom at Lahore’s Aitchison Faculty has turn out to be an unlikely bridge between India and Pakistan. On June 10, ‘Classroom No. 108’ on the 140-year-old establishment was devoted to Harcharan Singh Brar, a pre-Partition scholar who later grew to become CM of Punjab (1995-96). The plaque, bearing the phrases ‘God is One’ in English, Urdu and Gurmukhi (‘Ik Onkar’), was unveiled by Brar’s daughter Babli Brar.The tribute was funded by Brar’s schoolmate and lifelong good friend, Syed Babar Ali, 100 now, believed to be Aitchison’s oldest residing alumnus, a outstanding industrialist, former finance minister and the longest-serving member of its Board of Governors. Their friendship, cast in undivided Punjab, survived Partition, wars and many years of hostility till Brar’s demise in 2009.Based in 1886 and referred to as Pakistan’s ‘Eton’, Aitchison has educated generations of leaders, together with former PMs Imran Khan, Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Feroz Khan Midday.Brar joined Aitchison in 1937, excelling as a scholar, prefect and sportsman. Throughout his final go to to Lahore in 1989, he inaugurated a library at Aitchison and devoted it to Ali. Greater than three many years later, Ali has returned the gesture.The Brar plaque is a part of a wider remembrance challenge by means of which Ali has funded lecture rooms and plaques honouring classmates and lecturers from 1934-43, together with Pandit Hetwa Nand Kashyap, Ram Rakha Mal, Sardar Harbaksh Singh, Sardar Harnam Singh Bal, Lala Dhani Ram, Lala Shanti Lal Sehgal and the sons of Patiala Maharaja Bhupinder Singh-together recalling an undivided Punjab earlier than historical past scattered its individuals throughout borders.Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, a fourth-generation Aitchisonian, former senator and Punjab minister whose household consists of former president Farooq Leghari, stated the honour mirrored the varsity’s custom of dedicating rooms and amenities to distinguished alumni. “Sons of rajas, maharajas, nawabs and tribal chiefs studied right here. It was about grooming management.”The commemorations coincide with a wider effort in Lahore to revisit elements of its pre-Partition previous. Historic names resembling Krishan Nagar from Islampura, Ram Gali from Rahman Gali, and Sant Nagar from Sunnat Nagar have been restored, whereas discussions on memorialising Bhagat Singh proceed. The development gained momentum after the Lahore Heritage Space Revival challenge launched in 2025.For descendants of former college students, Aitchison’s story stays inseparable from Partition. “Hindu, Muslim and Sikh boys studied collectively right here. After Partition they misplaced contact, however we have now tried to protect their tales,” stated Dr Tarunjit Singh Butalia, the school’s honorary envoy. Of Aitchison’s roughly 245 college students in 1947, about 160 have been Hindu and Sikh boys, lots of whom left for summer time holidays and by no means returned.Butalia recalled one scholar who had simply dropped off his bicycle for repairs when a military truck arrived at college. A soldier informed him his father had despatched for him and gave him minutes to assemble his belongings. “He requested if he may meet his buddies earlier than leaving,” Butalia stated. “He was informed no.” Inside hours, the boy was on his technique to India.In the present day, solely a handful of pre-Partition Aitchisonians are believed to be alive in India, however many whose names now line Aitchison’s red-brick corridors left Lahore in 1947 and by no means returned-until now.
