Jalalabad (Afghanistan) | September 16, 2005 8:25:05 AM IST
From celebrations of Sikh festivals to plying of India-made trucks, the streets of this city founded by Mughal emperor Akbar are witness to historical connections with India.
“During the Baisakhi festival, planes used to shower flowers on the procession,” said Rawel Singh, president of the Gurdwara Guru Nanak Darbar in this capital of Nangarhar province.
That, however, was before the civil war of the 1980s that ravaged Afghanistan and forced a large number of Hindus and Sikhs to shift away.
“There was a mass exodus of Hindus and Sikhs during the civil war, reducing the local population of Hindus and Sikhs from over 18,000 to barely 600,” Singh said.
Singh, who runs a small chemist shop, said that Hindus and Sikhs here mostly deal in cloth and in allopathic and ayurvedic or traditional Indian medicines apart from general merchandise.
Singh and others have requested the Indian consulate here to issue visas, allowing them to travel by road to India via Pakistan. “Visas issued for air travel makes an India visit very expensive, because that requires one to first go to Kabul to catch the flights to Delhi,” Singh said.
While the number of people of Indian origin has dwindled in recent years, the other residents of the city hold India and Indians in high esteem and are appreciative of the developmental and humanitarian assistance from India.
“India has set up a TV station for Afghan TV in this city with modern studios and state-of-the-art facilities. It is connected to the national TV network via up-linking and down-linking arrangements made available through an INSAT satellite,” Indian Consul General A.K. Goswami told IANS.
An Indian mission is being set up here to provide medical aid to the population of Nangarhar province.
Trucks manufactured by Indian firms Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland and gifted by India have provided the much needed transport network in the valley. Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd (TCIL), a public sector firm, is setting up microwave links and the CDMA telephone network.
Indian connections, of course, are not new to the city. The city of Jalalabad (Abode of Splendour) on the bank of the Kabul river in Nangarhar bordering Pakistan was founded by Jalaluddin Mohammad Akbar, who went on to be known simply as emperor Akbar, in 1560.
As a further proof of the religious diversity found in this region overlooked by the Khyber Pass, the city has two large gurdwaras that are known locally as dharamsalas.
One of the main chowks in the city is named Dharamsala Chowk. The inscription on the gurdwara gate shows that Guru Nanak visited the place in 1520 (898 Hijri) and stayed here for 450 days while returning from Makkah via Baghdad and Kandahar.
The Guru Singh Sabha runs a Khalsa school for the children of Sikhs and Hindus and also provides shelter to the returning refugee families.
Thanks to many upheavals that the city has witnessed since, many of the palaces built by the successive Kabul rulers have been destroyed.
However, the ornate and graceful Bagh-e-Shahi or King’s Garden, constructed by King Amir Abdur Rehman (1880-91) on the Kabul river, has survived and now serves as the provincial governor’s residence. To its west is the Bagh-e-Kawakab or Star Garden that houses government offices.
The palace in the heart of the city, called Seraj-ul-Emarot or Building of Lights built by King Habibullah around 1910, is badly in need of restoration.
The only remaining Mughal garden in Afghanistan, at Nimla in the valley, was laid out by emperor Jehangir in 1610. Legend has it that Noor Jehan, the beautiful and ambitious queen of Jehangir, personally supervised the planting of each tree at Nimla.
The seven rest houses in the garden are reminiscent of the Anglo-Indian architectural style.
(IANS)
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