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Shared by Rohit Mattoo from personal collection of his ‘in-laws’.

All India Kashmiri Pandit Mushaira

Held at Ratan Bagh, Lahore, on the occasion of the Golden Jubilee Celebration of the K.P.A. Lahore.

29.12.40

Standing:- Pt. Dina Nath Raina [Grandfather of Rohit Mattoo’s wife]

Sitting:- Pt. Ratan Mohan Nath Zutshi “Khar”, Pt. Rajindra Prashad Atal “Shaiq” Pt. Tribhuwan Nath Zutshi “Zar”, Dewan Pt. Radha Nath Kaul “Gulshan”, Raja Sir Daya Kishen Kaul (President), Raja Narindra Nath Raina, Pt. Amar Nath Madan “Sahir”, Pt. Sarup Narain Raina “Aiman”, Pt. Brijmohan Nath Wanchoo “Razwan”.

J.S. PUN & BROS,

Chowk Market, The Mall, Lahore

[Stories of quite a few of these Pandits of Lahore is given in ‘The Kashmiri Pandits: a study of cultural choice in North India’ (1988), check page 202]

A community photograph of the members of the Biradari assembled at Rattan Bagh, Lahore to celebrate the Nauroz and the Jubilee of Raja and Rani Narendra Nath Sahib’s wedding, 14th April, 1940.

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Notes:

Diwan Narendra Nath Raina, son of Ajodhia Prasad, son of Ganga Ram(1800-70), son of Kishen Das, “who walked down from Srinagar to Banaras following the establishment of Afghan regime in Kashmir”.

Kashmiri Pandit community formed in Lahore primarily because of Ganga Ram who in Ranjit Singh’s court, “As custodian of the official records[…] practically controlled the whole administrative machinery.”

Compared to the other Kashmirs Pandit circles, biradiris, that came up in other parts of India, the Lahoris seemed to be more on the progressive side:

“The rationality of the Lahore Pandits seemed to be further confirmed by the lack of controversy when Prithvi Nath Razdan set out from Lahore to pursue his studies in England. The community did bot oppose it and in fact encouraged it.'”

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“The Punjab was annexed April 2nd, 1849. The boy King, Rajah Dhulip Singh, was deposed and given an annual al- lowance of 50,000 pounds. He retired as a gentleman to Norfolk, England.

During these months of turmoil and anxiety, the missionary work continued as usual. Soon after the annexation of the Punjab, a letter was received by the missionaries at Lodiana, sent by Dr. Baddely, a Christian surgeon at Lahore, urging them to move on to the capital without delay, assuring them that every encouragement might be expected from the Lawrences and Mr. Montgomery and others. Accordingly the Rev. John Newton and the Rev. Charles W. Forman were appointed by the mission to take up the work of establishing the mission in Lahore. Accompanied by Mrs. Newton, they arrived in Lahore on the 21st of November, 1849.

As the Christian community had urged the establishment of the mission, an appeal was made for financial aid, with the approval of the Board of Administration and the Governor General. In response thereto, the sum of Rs. 4,238 were contributed. A suitable house was secured in the city as a temporary residence. In this house an English school was begun on the 19th of December. It began with three pupils, all being Hindu Kashmiris, two of them having been formerly students in the mission school at Lodiana. The number gradually increased until it became necessary to find more capacious quarters. Happily a soldiers’ chapel built by an English gentleman at his own expense had been placed at the disposal of the mission, and being well adapted to the uses of a school the classes were transferred to it. The number of pupils rapidly increased until, at the end of the year, the attendance amounted to eighty. Of these fifty-five were Hindus and twenty-two Muslims, and three Sikhs. Racially the eighty ranked as Punjabis thirty-eight, Kashmiris three, Bengalis seven, Hindustanis twenty-eight, Afghans three and one Baluch.”

~ ‘Our Missions In India: 1834-1824’ (1926) by E. M. Wherry.

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Kashmiri Pandits of Lahore, 1940

and in 1849 the first students at Mission School Lahore were of course…