“Harvest from the Desert"- The life and Work of Sir Ganga Ram –

[Degas]

I have just compled reading a book that is a must read “Harvest from the Desert- The life and Work of Sir Ganga Ram “– by Baba Pyere Lal Bedi, Reprint historical series by NCA that made happy and sad at the same time.. happy that such a great person was living in Punjab and sad that his legacy today to most people is limited to his Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore. This effort is but a fraction of what he was and his vast … its just mind boggling how a single person can live such a width of life. Personally, I was just amazed how I could not escape his influence living in Lahore.. I am a civil engineer, I live in Model Town (he had a great part to play in it development), my school, NCA where I frequently go, and Ganga Ram Hospital where my mother served as doctor, and all the Mall building etc

An amazing civil engineer raised from humble background to one f the top engineers, served in top positions in India. But his influence on Lahore is amazing. Most of the buildings on Mall and beyond are testament to his skill and vision. He supervised – and in most cases was behind the buildings such as Aitchison College, NCA, Lahore High Court, Lady Maclagan School, Dial Singh Mansion, Hailey College of Commerce etc. He planned first sanitation system and water works, the Lahore Catheredal, Chemistry Department, Govt Collge Lahore, Albert Victor Wing of Mayo Hospital etc etc.

One of the interesting information in the book is his dialogues with Gandhi and his views about economic betterment of India. He rebutted Gandhi about his hand-spinning “Charkha” Movement with remark that it was fit only for fire-wood. Ganga Ram’s vision was far ahead of any contemporary.. He wanted to take India as a fore front of scientific development. His researches in the field of modern agriculture are amazing. He went to England several times just to stuy and see latest research, equipment that could be used in India. His inventions of lift irrigations were so successful that they laid the foundation for cultivating vast stretches of barren lands in Punjab

He got leased stretches of lands near Faisalabad and founded a Ganga Pur town.. an amazing enterprise that were visited by Governors at that time.. he developed a new brand of Citrus “Santra”in India.. He got another lease near Renala Khurd , near Okara, Punjabon very difficult terms of 40,000 acres and developed with lift and hydroelectric irrigation and gave back to Government after 3 years

As a philanthropist he formed Ganga Ram Hospital, Ravi Road House of Disabled , Hindu and Sikh Widows’s Home etc. His very important contribution was his movement of re-marriage of hindu widows – a topic that was so difficult at that time.., he made arrangement that thousands of young widows got married and started their lives again..

In the introduction of the book there are remarks how we in our blatant ignorance belittle great like these .. the introduction has these quotes from Saadat Haan Manto’s book Black Margins p. 296.. about removal of Sir Ganga Ram’s statue from Mall Road, Lahore in 1951

The mob turned to its next target – Sir Ganga Ram’s Statue. They rained lathi blows on it, hurled bricks and stones. One of them disfigured the statue with coal tar, somebody else collected old shoes to make a garland out of them. He proceeded towards the statue.

The police appeared and opened fire

The man holding the garland of shoes was hit by a bullet. He was sent for first-aid to the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.”

[Code_Red]

Re: “Harvest from the Desert"- The life and Work of Sir Ganga Ram –

He was indeed a great son of this soil. Too bad that we know too little about him.

**

@Degas

I have just compled reading a book that is a must read “Harvest from the Desert- The life and Work of Sir Ganga Ram “– by Baba Pyere Lal Bedi, Reprint historical series by NCA that made happy and sad at the same time.. happy that such a great person was living in Punjab and sad that his legacy today to most people is limited to his Ganga Ram Hospital in Lahore. This effort is but a fraction of what he was and his vast … its just mind boggling how a single person can live such a width of life. Personally, I was just amazed how I could not escape his influence living in Lahore.. I am a civil engineer, I live in Model Town (he had a great part to play in it development), my school, NCA where I frequently go, and Ganga Ram Hospital where my mother served as doctor, and all the Mall building etc

**

He had immense impact on the architecture of modern Lahore. It is very unfortunate fact that people of Lahore dont know about this great Lahori, a great visionary, a philanthropist and master of his domain.

In 1873, after a brief Service in Punjab P.W.D devoted himself to practical farming. He obtained on lease from Government 50,000 acres (200 km²) of barren, unirrigated land in Montgomery District, and within three years converted that vast desert into smiling fields, irrigated by water lifted by a hydroelectric plant and running through a thousand miles of irrigation channels, all constructed at his own cost. This was the biggest private enterprise of the kind, unknown and unthought-of in the country before. Sir Ganga Ram earned millions most of which he gave to charity.

In the words of Sir Malcolm Hailey, the Governor of Punjab, "he won like a hero and gave like a Saint". He was a great engineer and a great philanthropist.

Irony Unlimited !

A statue of Sir Ganga Ram once stood on Mall Road in Lahore. Saadat Hasan Manto, the famous Urdu writer, in one of his stories on the frenzy of religious riots of 1947writes that an inflamed mob in Lahore, after attacking a Hindu residential area, ‘turned to attacking the statue of Sir Ganga Ram, the Hindu philanthropist. They first pelted the statue with stones; then smothered its face with coal tar. Then a man made a garland of old shoes climbed up to put it round the neck of the statue. The police arrived and opened fire. Among the injured were the fellow with the garland of old shoes. As he fell, the mob shouted: “Let us rush him to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.”

[Wiseman]

I was born in the hospital which has his name. All my life I thought why I was born in a hospital with a hindu name, but considering that he was a great Lahori means much to me and others who were born there. :)

Where is degas? And what your mother's name?