THE ROLE OF MONUMENTS

https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2020/07/19/the-role-of-monuments/

Roads named after prominent persons, mausoleums, structures, artifacts, columns, tombs, war memorials - monuments all of them, their purpose to commemorate history. You find them in Pakistan and all over the world.

Zamzana, the copper and brass cannon also known as ‘Kim’s Gun’ still remains on the Mall in Lahore in front of the Lahore Museum. And many tombs survive in Pakistan. But statues have been less fortunate.

Lahore was once home to several statues. Almost all of them were damaged or destroyed in riots, and removed.  A prominent daily lists them as those of Lala Lajpat Rai, Sir Ganga Ram, Sir John Lawrence, Queen Victoria, King Edward VII, and Dyal Singh. Some of them are now stuck in storage, and a couple taken back to Britain. The statue of Queen Victoria is now in the British High Commission in Islamabad. A statue of Gandhi that was damaged and removed during riots in the 1950s is now with the Indian High Commission in Islamabad. So no, we don’t like statues in this country, in part due to the widespread belief that art should not depict human forms, and for the rest because they are easy, visible targets.

Roads have fared even worse. There seems to be a campaign all over the country to rename roads. Two examples are The Grand Trunk Road, a name that resonates with history but which has been renamed after the founder of Pakistan, a bit like changing the name of the Taj Mahal. And Elphinstone Street in Karachi which is now Zaibunissa Street. It is hard to understand why that name was not maintained when the Honorable Mounstuart Elphinstone, a Scottish statesman and historian, was credited with setting up several educations institutions that were accessible to Indians.

In the current atmosphere of Black Lives Matter, monuments, particular statues are being targeted in the USA. Is it right to do this?

Monuments represent a value, or a fragment of history. A time may come when values change or are allowed to be expressed, when heroes are no longer heroes, and then– because monuments occupy a public spot they are targeted.

In the USA these days, in the current atmosphere of Black Lives Matter, statues of Confederate soldiers and generals, colonists and slave traders are being destroyed or taken down, and it is hard to condemn it. A public spot on a public street or on public land, unlike the inside of a museum, is a space that is visible and therefore it is meant for what commands respect. A guillotine that was used during the French Revolution in France for example would not be a popular sight on the streets. However, you can view one at the Police Museum in Paris and see for yourself what a dreadful thing it was, how terrifying and cruel.

Now that people seem to feel free to express their dislike of the roles played by these historical figures, the best place for the statues of Stonewall Jackson, John C Calhoun and Robert E Lee would be a museum, where placards under each of them would talk about their achievements as well as their less admirable actions, how they upheld slavery and severe racial discrimination.

It is important to ensure however that these figures remain where their lives can be examined. Their actions must not be obliterated from scrutiny, as the separation of East Pakistan from the West has been obliterated in Pakistani schools and textbooks. The wrongs committed by these people or during these events if obliterated stand in danger of being repeated, and they must not be.

Reference to Robert E Lee will not be banned in the USA. Books about his life will still be read to see why he was a hero to some and an exponent of slavery to others, and how a person can be a bit of both.

The Smithsonian magazine writes about Lee that: “His own hand probably never drew human blood nor fired a shot in anger, and his only Civil War wound was a faint scratch on the cheek from a sharpshooter’s bullet, but many thousands of men died quite horribly in battles where he was the dominant spirit, and most of the casualties were on the other side.”

Lee’s statues may have been taken down but you will still be able to see them and read about him to understand where he went wrong.

Life is not black and white. The conviction that all is white on the ‘good side’ is the extremists’ point of view, the view prevalent in Pakistan. If we are to combat this mindset we have to accept that it is history can best teach us how to live in the present and prepare for the future. And monuments, because they commemorate history are important – but they are best in the right place.