History
[edit]
Historical affiliations
Taank Kingdom 550–950 Hindu Shahis 1001–1020 Ghaznavids Empire 1020–1186 Ghurid Empire 1186–1206 Delhi Sultanate 1206–1214Multan State 1214–1217 Delhi Sultanate 1217–1223Khwarazmian Empire 1223–1228 Delhi Sultanate 1228–1241 Mongol Empire 1241– 1266 Delhi Sultanate 1266–1287 Chagatai Khanate 1287–1305 Delhi Sultanate 1305–1329 Chagatai Khanate 1329 Delhi Sultanate 1329–1342 Khokhar Confederacy 1342 Delhi Sultanate 1342–1394 Khokhar Confederacy 1394–1398 Timurid Empire 1398–1414 Delhi Sultanate 1414–1431 Khokhar Confederacy 1431–1432 Delhi Sultanate 1432–1524 Mughal Empire 1524–1540 Sur Empire 1540–1555 Mughal Empire 1555–1739 Afsharid Empire 1739 Mughal Empire 1739–1748 Durrani Empire 1748–1758 Maratha Empire 1758–1759 Durrani Empire 1759–1765 Bhangi Misl and Kanhaiya Misl 1765–1799 Sikh Empire 1799–1849 British East India Company 1849–1858 British Raj / British Empire 1858–1947 Pakistan 1947–present
Main article: History of Lahore
For a chronological guide, see Timeline of Lahore.
Origins[edit]
No definitive record of Lahore's early history exists, and its ambiguous historical background has given rise to various theories about its establishment and history.
Alexander the Great's historians make no mention of any city near Lahore's location during his invasion in 326 BCE, suggesting the city had not been founded by that point or was not noteworthy. Ptolemy mentions in his Geography a city called Labokla situated near the Chenab and Ravi rivers which may have been in reference to ancient Lahore, or an abandoned predecessor of the city. Chinese pilgrim Xuanzang gave a vivid description of a large and prosperous unnamed city that may have been Lahore when he visited the region in 630 CE during his tour of India.
The first document that mentions Lahore by name is the Hudud al-'Alam ("The Regions of the World"), written in 982 CE, in which Lahore is mentioned as a town which had "impressive temples, large markets and huge orchards".
Few other references to Lahore remain from before its capture by the Ghaznavid Sultan Mahmud in the 11th century. During this time, Lahore appears to have served as the capital of Punjab under Raja Anandapala of the Üdi Shahi empire, who moved his capital there from Waihind.
Mediaeval era[edit]
Main article: Early Muslim period in Lahore
Ghaznavid[edit]
The Data Darbar shrine was built to commemorate saint Ali Hujwiri, who lived in the city during 11th century.
Sultan Mahmud conquered Lahore between 1020 and 1027, making it part of Ghaznavid Empire. He appointed Malik Ayaz as its governor in 1021. During the reign of Sultan Ibrahim Malik Ayaz rebuilt and repopulated the city, which had been devastated after the Ghaznavid invasion. He also erected city walls and a masonry fort in 1037–1040 on the ruins of a previous one. During his tenure a confederation of Hindu princes unsuccessfully laid siege to Lahore in 1043–44.
Lahore was formally made the eastern capital of Ghaznavid Empire during the reign of Khusrau Shah in 1152. After the fall of Ghazni in 1163, It became the sole capital. Under their patronage, poets and scholars from other cities of Ghaznavid Empire congregated in Lahore. The city became a cultural and academic centre, renowned for poetry. The entire city of Lahore during the Ghaznavid era was probably located west of the modern Shah Alami Bazaar and north of the Bhatti Gate.
Mamluk[edit]
Following the siege of Lahore in 1186, the Ghurid ruler Muhammad captured the city and imprisoned Khusrau Malik, thus ending Ghaznavid rule over Lahore. Lahore was the first capital of the Mamluk dynasty of what would later come to be known as the Delhi Sultanate following the assassination of Muhammad of Ghor in 1206. Under the reign of Mamluk sultan Qutb-ud-Din Aibak, Lahore attracted poets and scholars from medieval Muslim World. Lahore at this time had more poets writing in Persian than any other city. Following the death of Aibak, Lahore first came under the control of the governor of Multan, Nasir ad-Din Qabacha, and then was briefly captured in 1217 by the sultan in Delhi, Iltutmish.
In an alliance with local Khokhars in 1223, the Khwarazmian sultan Jalal al-Din Mangburni captured Lahore after fleeing from Genghis Khan's invasion of his realm. Mangburni then fled from Lahore to the city of Uch Sharif after Iltutmish's army re-captured Lahore in 1228.
Tomb of Qutb-ud-Din Aybak in Anarkali Bazaar, Lahore
The threat of Mongol invasions and political instability in Lahore caused future sultans to regard Delhi as a safer capital for the sultanate, even though Delhi was considered a forward base while Lahore was widely considered as the centre of Islamic culture in northeastern Punjab.
Lahore came under progressively weaker central rule under Iltutmish's descendants in Delhi, to the point that governors in the city acted with great autonomy. Actual Sultanate rule on Lahore lasted only a few decades until the locals reclaimed their autonomy. Lahore was sacked and ruined by the Mongol army in 1241, with the Mongols holding the city for a few years under the rule of the Mongol chief Toghrul.
In 1266, sultan Balban reconquered Lahore, but in 1287 under the Mongol ruler Temür Khan, the Mongols again overran northern Punjab. Because of Mongol invasions, Lahore region became a city on a frontier, with the region's administrative centre shifted south to Dipalpur. The Mongols again invaded northern Punjab in 1298, though their advance was eventually stopped by Ulugh Khan, brother of Sultan Alauddin Khalji of Delhi. The Mongols again attacked Lahore in 1305.
Tughluq[edit]
Lahore briefly flourished again under the reign of Ghiyath al-Din Tughlaq (Ghazi Malik) of the Tughluq dynasty between 1320 and 1325, though the city was again sacked in 1329 by Tarmashirin of the Central Asian Chagatai Khanate, and then again by the Mongol chief Hülechü. Khokhars seized Lahore in 1342, but the city was retaken by Ghazi Malik's son, Muhammad bin Tughluq. The weakened city then fell into obscurity and was captured once more by the Khokhar chief Shaikha in 1394. By the time the Mongol conqueror Timur captured the city in 1398 from Shaikha, he did not loot it because it was no longer wealthy.
Late Sultanates[edit]
Timur gave control of the Lahore region to Khizr Khan, governor of Multan, who later established the Sayyid dynasty in 1414 – the fourth dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate. The city was twice besieged by Jasrat, the ruler of Sialkot, during the reign of Mubarak Shah, the longest of which being in 1431–32. To combat Jasrat, the city was granted by the Sayyid dynasty to Bahlul Lodi in 1441, though Lodi would then displace the Sayyids in 1451 by establishing himself upon the throne of Delhi.
Bahlul Lodi installed his cousin, Tatar Khan, to be governor of the city, though Tatar Khan died in battle with Sikandar Lodi in 1485. Governorship of Lahore was transferred by Sikandar Lodi to Umar Khan Sarwani, who quickly left the management of this city to his son Said Khan Sarwani. Said Khan was removed from power in 1500 by Sikandar Lodi, and Lahore came under the governorship of Daulat Khan Lodi, son of Tatar Khan and former employer of Guru Nanak, the founder of Sikhism.
Mughals[edit]
Main articles: Subah of Lahore and Mughal period in Lahore
Early Mughal[edit]
Babur, the founder of the Mughal Empire, captured and sacked Lahore and Dipalpur, although he retreated after the Lodi nobles backed away from assisting him. The city became a refuge to Humayun and his cousin Kamran Mirza when Sher Shah Suri rose in power in the Gangetic plains, displacing Mughals. Sher Shah Suri seized Lahore in 1540, though Humayun reconquered Lahore in February 1555. The establishment of Mughal rule eventually led to the most prosperous era of Lahore's history. Lahore's prosperity and central position has yielded more Mughal-era monuments in Lahore than either Delhi or Agra.
By the time of the rule of the Mughal empire's greatest emperors, a majority of Lahore's residents did not live within the walled city itself but instead lived in suburbs that had spread outside the city's walls. Only 9 of the 36 urban quarters around Lahore, known as guzars, were located within the city walls during the Akbar period. During this period, Lahore was closely tied to smaller market towns known as qasbahs, such as Kasur and Eminabad, as well as Amritsar and Batala in modern-day India, which in turn, linked to supply chains in villages surrounding each qasbah.
Akbar[edit]
Beginning in 1584, Lahore became the Mughal capital when Akbar began re-fortifying the city's ruined citadel, laying the foundations for the revival of the Lahore Fort. Akbar made Lahore one of his original twelve subah provinces, and in 1585–86, relegated governorship of the city and subah to Bhagwant Das, brother of Mariam-uz-Zamani, who was commonly known as "Jodhabhai".
The Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore Fort
Akbar also rebuilt the city's walls and extended their perimeter east of the Shah Alami bazaar to encompass the sparsely populated area of Rarra Maidan. The Akbari Mandi grain market was set up during this era, which continues to function to the present-day. Akbar also established the Dharampura neighbourhood in the early 1580s, which survives today. The earliest of Lahore's many havelis date from the Akbari era.
Jahangir[edit]
The mausoleum of Jahangir in Shahdara Bagh
During the reign of Emperor Jahangir in the early 17th century, Lahore's bazaars were noted to be vibrant, frequented by foreigners, and stocked with a wide array of goods. In 1606, Jahangir's rebel son Khusrau Mirza laid siege to Lahore after obtaining the blessings of the Sikh Guru Arjan Dev. Jahangir quickly defeated his son at Bhairowal, and the roots of Mughal–Sikh animosity grew. Sikh Guru Arjan Dev was executed in Lahore in 1606 for his involvement in the rebellion. Emperor Jahangir chose to be buried in Lahore, and his tomb was built in Lahore's Shahdara Bagh suburb in 1637 by his wife Nur Jahan, whose tomb is also nearby.
Shah Jahan[edit]
Wazir Khan Mosque painting by William Carpenter (1866)
Jahangir's son, Shah Jahan (reigned 1628–1658), was born in Lahore in 1592. He renovated large portions of the Lahore Fort with luxurious white marble and erected the iconic Naulakha Pavilion in 1633. Shah Jahan lavished Lahore with some of its most celebrated and iconic monuments, such as the Shalamar Gardens in 1641. His Punjabi viceroy and royal physician Wazir Khan also built a number of monuments in the city, including the extravagantly decorated Wazir Khan Mosque, the Wazir Khan Baradari, and the Shahi Hammam, during his tenure. The population of pre-modern Lahore probably reached its zenith during his reign, with suburban districts home to perhaps 6 times as many compared to within the Walled City.
Aurangzeb[edit]
Aerial view of Badshahi Mosque
Shah Jahan's son, Aurangzeb, last of the great Mughal Emperors, further contributed to the development of Lahore. Aurangzeb built the Alamgiri Bund embankment along the Ravi river in 1662 to prevent its shifting course from threatening the city's walls. The area near the embankment grew into a fashionable locality, with several nearby pleasure gardens laid by Lahore's gentry. The largest of Lahore's Mughal monuments, the Badshahi Mosque, was raised during Aurangzeb's reign in 1673, as well as the iconic Alamgiri Gate of the Lahore fort in 1674.
Late Mughal[edit]
The Sunehri Mosque was built in the walled city in the early 18th century, when the Mughal Empire was in decline.
Civil wars regarding succession to the Mughal throne following Aurangzeb's death in 1707 led to weakening control over Lahore from Delhi, and a prolonged period of decline in Lahore. Mughal preoccupation with the Marathas in the Deccan Plateau eventually resulted in Lahore being governed by a series of governors who pledged nominal allegiance to the ever-weaker Mughal emperors in Delhi.
Mughal Emperor Bahadur Shah I died enroute to Lahore as part of a campaign in 1711 to subdue Sikh rebels under the leadership of Banda Singh Bahadur. His sons fought a battle outside Lahore in 1712 for succession to the Mughal crown, with Jahandar winning the throne. Sikh rebels were defeated during the reign of Farrukhsiyar when Abd as-Samad and Zakariyya Khan suppressed them.
Nader Shah's brief invasion of the Mughal Empire in early 1739 wrested control away from Zakariya Khan Bahadur. Though Khan was able to win back control after the Persian armies had left, the trade routes had shifted away from Lahore, and south towards Kandahar instead. Indus ports near the Arabian Sea that served Lahore also silted up during this time, reducing the city's importance even further.
Struggles between Zakariyya Khan's sons following his death in 1745 further weakened Muslim control over Lahore, thus leaving the city in a power vacuum, and vulnerable to foreign marauders.
Durrani invasions[edit]
The Durrani ruler Ahmad Shah occupied Lahore in 1748. Following Ahmed Shah Durrani's quick retreat, the Mughals entrusted Lahore to Mu’īn al-Mulk Mir Mannu. Ahmad Shah again invaded in 1751, forcing Mir Mannu into signing a treaty that nominally subjected Lahore to Durrani rule. Lahore was third time conquered by Ahmad Shah in 1752. The Mughal Grand Vizier Ghazi-Din Imad al-Mulk seized Lahore in 1756, provoking Ahmad Shah to invade for fourth time in 1757, after which he placed the city under the rule of his son, Timur Shah.
Durrani rule was interrupted when Lahore was conquered by Adina Beg Arain with the assistance of Marathas in 1758 during their campaigns against Afghans. After Adina Beg's untimely death in 1758, however, Marathas temporarily occupied the city. The following year, the Durranis again marched into Lahore and conquered it. After the Durranis withdrew from the city in 1765, Sikh forces quickly occupied it. By this time, the city had been ravaged several time and had lost all of its former grandeur. The Durranis invaded two more times — in 1797 and 1798 — under Shah Zaman, but the Sikhs re-occupied the city after both invasions as the Durranis were forced to attend to other problems on their western borders.
Sikh[edit]
Main article: Sikh period in Lahore
Gurdwara Janam Asthan Guru Ram Das
Gurdwara Dera Sahib
Early[edit]
Expanding Sikh Misls secured control over Lahore in 1767, when the Bhangi Misl state captured the city. In 1780, the city was divided among three rulers: Gujjar Singh, Lahna Singh, and Sobha Singh. Instability resulting from this arrangement allowed nearby Amritsar to establish itself as the area's primary commercial centre in place of Lahore.
Ahmad Shah Durrani's grandson, Zaman Shah, captured Lahore in 1796, and again in 1798–99. Ranjit Singh negotiated with the Afghans for the post of subahdar to control Lahore following the second invasion.
By the end of the 18th century, the city's population drastically declined, with its remaining residents living within the city walls, while the extramural suburbs lay abandoned, forcing travellers to pass through abandoned and ruined suburbs for a few miles before reaching the city's gates.
Sikh Empire[edit]
The Lahore Darbar by Ágoston Schoefft (1842)
In the aftermath of Zaman Shah's 1799 invasion of Punjab, Ranjit Singh, of nearby Gujranwala, began to consolidate his position. Singh was able to seize control of the region after a series of battles with the Bhangi chiefs who had seized Lahore in 1780. His army marched to Anarkali, where according to tradition, the gatekeeper of the Lohari Gate, Mukham Din Chaudhry, opened the gates allowing Ranjit Singh's army to enter Lahore. After capturing Lahore, Sikh soldiers immediately began plundering Muslim areas of the city until their actions were reined in by Ranjit Singh.
The marble Hazuri Bagh Baradari was built in 1818 to celebrate Ranjit Singh's acquisition of the Koh-i-Noor diamond.
Ranjit Singh's rule restored some of Lahore's lost grandeur, but at the expense of destroying the remaining Mughal architecture for building materials. He established a mint in the city in 1800, and moved into the Mughal palace at the Lahore fort after repurposing it for his own use in governing the Sikh Empire. In 1801, he established a Gurdwara Ram Das to mark the site where Guru Ram Das was born in 1534.
Lahore became the empire's administrative capital, though the nearby economic centre of Amritsar had also been established as the empire's spiritual capital by 1802. By 1812, Singh had mostly refurbished the city's defences by adding a second circuit of outer walls surrounding Akbar's original walls, with the two separated by a moat. Singh also partially restored Shah Jahan's decaying Shalimar Gardens and built the Hazuri Bagh Baradari in 1818 to celebrate his capture of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from Shuja Shah Durrani in 1813. He erected the Gurdwara Dera Sahib to mark the site of Guru Arjan Dev's death (1606). The Sikh royal court also endowed religious architecture in the city, including a number of Sikh gurdwaras, Hindu temples, and havelis.
The Tomb of Asif Khan was one of several monuments plundered for its precious building materials during the Sikh period.
Under Ranjit Singh's rule, Mughal monuments suffered during the Sikh period as his armies plundered most of Lahore's most precious Mughal monuments, and stripped the white marble from several monuments to send to different parts of the Sikh Empire during his reign. Monuments plundered for decorative materials include the Tomb of Asif Khan, the Tomb of Nur Jahan, and the Shalimar Gardens. Ranjit Singh's army also desecrated the Badshahi Mosque by converting it into an ammunition depot and a stable for horses. The Sunehri Mosque in the Walled City was also converted to a gurdwara, while the Mariyam Zamani Mosque was repurposed into a gunpowder factory.
Samadhi of Ranjit Singh
Late[edit]
The Lahore Durbar underwent a quick succession of rulers after the death of Ranjit Singh. His son Kharak Singh died on 6 November 1840, soon after taking the throne. On that same day, the next appointed successor to the throne, Nau Nihal Singh, died in an accident at the gardens of Hazuri Bagh. Maharaja Sher Singh was then selected as Maharajah, though his claim to the throne was quickly challenged by Chand Kaur, widow of Kharak Singh and mother of Nau Nihal Singh, who quickly seized the throne. Sher Singh raised an army that attacked Chand Kaur's forces in Lahore on 14 January 1841. His soldiers mounted weaponry on the minarets of the Badshahi Mosque to target Chand Kaur's forces in the Lahore fort, destroying the fort's historic Diwan-e-Aam. Kaur quickly ceded the throne, but Sher Sing was then assassinated in 1843 in Lahore's Chah Miran neighbourhood along with his wazir Dhiyan Singh. Dhyan Singh's son, Hira Singh, sought to avenge his father's death by laying siege to Lahore to capture his father's assassins. The siege resulted in the capture of his father's murderer, Ajit Singh.
Maharaja Sher Singh attended by his council in Lahore Fort
Duleep Singh was then crowned Maharajah, with Hira Singh as his wazir, but his power would be weakened by the continued infighting among Sikh nobles, as well as confrontations against the British during the two Anglo-Sikh wars.
After the conclusion of the two Anglo-Sikh wars, the Sikh Empire fell into disarray, resulting in the fall of the Lahore Durbar, and commencement of British rule after they captured Lahore and the wider Punjab region.
British colonial period[edit]
University of the Punjab
Government College University
Lahore Museum
Lahore High Court
King Edward Medical University
Map of the Old City and environs.
The Shah Alami area of Lahore's Walled City in 1890
The British East India Company seized control of Lahore in February 1846 from the collapsing Sikh state and occupied the rest of Punjab in 1848. Following the defeat of the Sikhs at the Battle of Gujrat, British troops formally deposed Maharaja Duleep Singh in Lahore that same year. Punjab was then annexed to the British Indian Empire in 1849.
At the commencement of British rule, Lahore was estimated to have a population of 120,000. Prior to annexation by the British, Lahore's environs consisted mostly of the Walled City surrounded by plains interrupted by settlements to the south and east, such as Mozang and Qila Gujar Singh, which have since been engulfed by modern Lahore. The plains between the settlements also contained the remains of Mughal gardens, tombs, and Sikh-era military structures.
The British viewed Lahore's Walled City as a bed of potential social discontent and disease epidemics, and so largely left the inner city alone, while focusing development efforts in Lahore's suburban areas and Punjab's fertile countryside. The British instead laid out their capital city in an area south of the Walled City that would first come to be known as "Donald's Town" before being renamed "Civil Station".
Under early British rule, formerly prominent Mughal-era monuments that were scattered throughout Civil Station were also re-purposed and sometimes desecrated – including the Tomb of Anarkali, which the British had initially converted to clerical offices before re-purposing it as an Anglican church in 1851. The 17th-century Dai Anga Mosque was converted into railway administration offices during this time, the tomb of Nawab Bahadur Khan was converted into a storehouse, and the tomb of Mir Mannu was used as a wine shop. The British also used older structures to house municipal offices, such as the Civil Secretariat, Public Works Department, and Accountant General's Office.
Constructed in the aftermath of the 1857 Sepoy Mutiny, the design of the Lahore Railway Station was highly militarised to defend the structure from further uprisings against British rule.
The British built the Lahore Railway Station just outside the Walled City shortly after the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857; the station was therefore styled as a mediaeval castle to ward off any potential future uprisings, with thick walls, turrets, and holes to direct gun and cannon fire for the defence of the structure. Lahore's most prominent government institutions and commercial enterprises came to be concentrated in Civil Station in a half-mile wide area flanking The Mall, where unlike in Lahore's military zone, the British and locals were allowed to mix. The Mall continues to serve as the epicentre of Lahore's civil administration, as well as one of its most fashionable commercial areas. The British also laid the spacious Lahore Cantonment to the southeast of the Walled City at the former village of Mian Mir, where unlike around The Mall, laws did exist against the mixing of different races.
Lahore was visited on 9 February 1870 by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh – a visit in which he received delegations from the Dogras of Jammu, Maharajas of Patiala, the Nawab of Bahawalpur, and other rulers from various Punjabi states. During the visit, he visited several of Lahore's major sights. British authorities built several important structures around the time of the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria (1887) in the distinctive Indo-Saracenic style, including the Lahore Museum and Mayo School of Industrial Arts.
The British carried out a census of Lahore in 1901, and counted 20,691 houses in the Walled City. An estimated 200,000 people lived in Lahore at this time. Lahore's posh Model Town was established as a "garden town" suburb in 1921, while Krishan Nagar locality was laid in the 1930s near The Mall and Walled City.
The Mall, Lahore's pre-independence commercial core, features many examples of colonial architecture.
Lahore played an important role in the independence movements of both India and Pakistan. The Declaration of the Independence of India was moved by Jawaharlal Nehru and passed unanimously at midnight on 31 December 1929 at Lahore's Bradlaugh Hall. The Indian Swaraj flag was adopted this time as well. Lahore's jail was used by the British to imprison independence activists such as Jatin Das, and was also where Bhagat Singh was hanged in 1931. Under the leadership of Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the All India Muslim League passed the Lahore Resolution in 1940, demanding the creation of Pakistan as a separate homeland for the Muslims of India.
Partition[edit]
The future of the city of Lahore was fiercely contested during partition. According to the 1941 census, the city of Lahore had a population of 671,659, of which was 64.5% Muslim, with the remainder 35% being Hindu and Sikh, alongside a small Christian community. This population figure was disputed by Hindus and Sikhs before the Boundary Commission that would draw the Radcliffe Line to demarcate the border of the two new states based on religious demography, who argued that the city was only 54% Muslim based on 1945 ration card figures, and that Hindu and Sikh domination of the city's economy and educational institutions should trump Muslim demography. Two-thirds of shops, and 80% of Lahore's factories belonged to the Hindu and Sikh community. Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar claimed that Cyril Radcliffe had told him in 1971 that he originally had planned to give Lahore to the new Dominion of India, but decided to place it within the Dominion of Pakistan, which he saw as lacking a major city as he had already awarded Calcutta to India.
As tensions grew over the city's uncertain fate, Lahore experienced Partition's worst riots. Carnage ensued in which all three religious groups were both victims and perpetrators. Early riots in March and April 1947 destroyed 6,000 of Lahore's 82,000 homes. Violence continued to rise throughout the summer, despite the presence of armoured British personnel. Hindus and Sikhs began to leave the city en masse as their hopes that the Boundary Commission would award the city to India came to be regarded as increasingly unlikely. By late August 1947, 66% of Hindus and Sikhs had left the city. The Shah Alami Bazaar, once a largely Hindu quarter of the Walled City, was entirely burnt down during subsequent rioting.
When Pakistan's independence was declared on 14 August 1947, the Radcliffe Line had not yet been announced, and so cries of "Long live Pakistan" and "God is greatest" were heard intermittently with "Long live Hindustan" throughout the night. On 17 August 1947, Lahore was awarded to Pakistan on the basis of its Muslim majority in the 1941 census and was made capital of the Punjab province in the new state of Pakistan. The city's location near the Indian border meant that it received large numbers of refugees fleeing eastern Punjab and northern India, though it was able to accommodate them given the large stock of abandoned Hindu and Sikh properties that could be re-distributed to newly arrived refugees. In post-partition India, the loss of Lahore catalyzed the development of the new modernist capital city of Chandigarh.
Modern[edit]
Islamic Summit Minar
Minar-e-Pakistan
Grand Jamia Mosque
Provincial Assembly of the Punjab
WAPDA House
Arfa Karim tower in Lahore
First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy and President Ayub Khan travelled by car in Lahore, 1962
Partition left Lahore with a much-weakened economy, and a stymied social and cultural scene that had previously been invigorated by the city's Hindus and Sikhs. Industrial production dropped to one-third of pre-Partition level by the end of the 1940s, and only 27% of its manufacturing units were operating by 1950, and usually well-below capacity. Capital flight further weakened the city's economy while Karachi industrialised and became more prosperous. The city's weakened economy, and proximity to the Indian border, meant that the city was deemed unsuitable to be the Pakistani capital after independence. Karachi was therefore chosen to be the capital on account of its relative tranquility during the Partition period, stronger economy, and better infrastructure.
Sections of the Walled City of Lahore have been under restoration since 2012 in conjunction with the Agha Khan Trust for Culture.
After independence, Lahore slowly regained its significance as an economic and cultural centre of western Punjab. Reconstruction began in 1949 of the Shah Alami Bazaar, the former Hindu-dominated commercial heart of the Walled City prior to its destruction in the 1947 riots. The Tomb of Allama Iqbal was built in 1951 to honour the philosopher-poet who provided the spiritual inspiration for the Pakistan movement. In 1955, Lahore was selected to be the capital of all West Pakistan during the single-unit period that lasted until 1970. Shortly afterwards, Lahore's iconic Minar-e-Pakistan was completed in 1968 to mark the spot where the Pakistan Resolution was passed. With support from the United Nations, the government was able to rebuild Lahore, and most scars from the communal violence of Partition were ameliorated.
The second Islamic Summit Conference was held in the city in 1974. In retaliation for the destruction of the Babri Masjid in India, riots erupted in 1992 in which several non-Muslim monuments were targeted, including the tomb of Maharaja Sher Singh, and the former Jain temple near The Mall. In 1996, the International Cricket Council Cricket World Cup final match was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore.
The Walled City of Lahore restoration project began in 2009, when the Punjab government restored the Royal Trail from Akbari Gate to the Lahore Fort with money from the World Bank.
