Sparking Life

Recently entire country celebrated birthday of renowned Urdu poet Mirza Ghalib. He was born in Agra. If no one in Agra can identify the house where, Mirza Ghalib, the doyen of Urdu poetry, was born, the fault lies with the Archaeological Survey of India which has not taken any interest in conserving this heritage site.

Local historians and old timers recall that there once used to be a big Haveli in the Kala Mahal area where Ghalib was born in December 1797, in a prosperous family during the reign of Shah Alam, Mirza Asadullah Khan, later known as Ghalib was the eldest son of Mirza Abdullah Baig Khan who served under the rulers of Lucknow and Hyderabad and later under the maharaja of Alwar. According to some people, Kala Mahal, Agra is the birth place of Mian Ghalib, but in the Kala Mahal area no one is sure whether Ghalib was really born there.

A building resembling an old photograph taken of Ghalib's home, is now under the occupation of Indra Bhan Girls Inter College. The rooms inside with arches and mehrabs suggest its links with the Mughals. In a personal letter to his friend Banshi Dhar's son munshi Shiv Narain, Ghalib has vividly described Kalan Mahal. In one of his letters to Munshi Shiv Narain, Ghalib does talk about disposing his ancestral property due to economic hardships. The beneficiary was Seth Lakhmi Chand who bought it around the 1857 Gadar.

At the moment the property is owned by a trust which runs an educational institution there. The management categorically states that Ghalib had nothing to do with this place. The beautiful garden mentioned in the records, in the Kalan Mahal has long disappeared making way for an overhead water tank. The present occupants of the property emphatically deny any association with Mirza Ghalib.

The facts are however different. In 1957, a programme organised to commemorate Ghalib's birth anniversary, Maikash Akbarabadi, another noted Urdu shair, a photo was taken right in front of the principal's office. Till the 1960s regular programmes were being held at that place. Later, the property was taken over by the trust which carried out several changes in the original structure. A number of VIPs including late Firaq Gorakhpuri and actor Farooq Shaikh, who produced a film on Ghalib, have been to this haveli. Historical evidence strongly suggest that the haveli or the birth place of Mirza Ghalib is now under the possession of the girls inter college. The ASI and other agencies which look after ancient sites and heritage monuments should identify the birth place of Mirza Ghalib and convert it into a national monument for posterity.

To read this blog post in Hindi, please click here.