What are the consequences of #Partition you wonder? #Lucknow has been throwing up the most incredible, heart-wrenching surprises and #stories. A continuous tale of grandeur being relegated to a fading memory. And long, solitary jogs (which turned out to be a 5-hr. #adventure today) have made me fall absolutely in #love with a completely forgotten civilization.
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A grand palace which lends its name to an upscale neighborhood, Butler Palace today reminds one of the dilapidated shell of a ghost town in Chernobyl. Butler Palace was built in 1915 by the Raja of Mehmoodabad as the official residence of the Deputy Commisioner, Sir Spencer Harcourt Butler (a strange legacy of regal buildings built for the personal use of government servants, which I daresay continues to this day. No wonder, UPSC is such a ‘thing’!). The tragedy starts when, post independence in 1947, the Raja (a close friend of Jinnah) wishes to accede to #Pakistan and hence the property is declared to be ‘Enemy Property’ in 1965. Then it changed hands and went from being the UP Government Sales Tax Office, Indian Council of Philosophical Research (1981), a library with 32k volumes, a guest house for politicians, seminar and exhibition hall.
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Legal battles ensued a tragic change of hands, yet again. The Supreme Court handed the property back to the then Raja, Mohammad Amir Mohammad Khan (who fought for possession from 1973-2005), only to be seized on the President’s orders in 2010. Declared ‘Enemy Property’, not inheritable and hence the palace has been sealed by the District Magistrate ever since.
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One is just left to wonder, is this a little piece of Pakistan right in the middle of Lucknow? Will we ever see it restored to its original glory? Or will it remain a curiosity, a ‘bhoot bangla’ (haunted home) for inquisitive teenagers and the occasional flâneur?
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Information credits: @lucknowobserver
bongfrombombay 