Taxali
Gate is also known as the red light area (Heera Mandi). It is the only opening
of the Walled City to the West. Once it was also called Lakhi Gate. Behind this
gate is the single arterial route of the Walled City which runs from East to
West and connects Taxali Gate with Delhi Gate. Starting from the West this very
route is called the main bazaar Taxali Gate and as we head east it connects
with Kashmiri Bazaar and this bazaar ends up at the start of Akbari Mandi. Now,
the ancient gate has vanished but the route still persists. It is believed that
behind this gate and close to the Lahore fort once lay the royal mint (Taxal)
—- hence the name Taxali Gate. It was pulled down during the early British
regime-The name, however, continues.
There
is a bazaar in Taxali Gate called Heera Mandi. Most of the people have the
misconception and call it the Diamond (heera) Market because of the beautiful
girls there, inimitably like diamonds. However, that is not the real meaning or
origin of the name. Actually this mandi is named after Heera Singh, who was the
son of a minister of Ranjit Singh’s royal court. Heera Singh was also a
minister of Sher Singh’s court during the Sikh period. A few decades ago this
place was famous for dancing and music. People used to go there to give there
eyes and ears a treat. Beautiful girls (kanjiries) used to sit in a stall
shaped balconies called kootha and ply their trade of the oldest profession in
the world. But basically the place was more famous for singing and dancing.
However, slowly the aesthetic pursuit became less arty and more tarty and
became the centre of prostitution of the city. During the Zia-ul-Haq era a
rigorous operation was conducted against these vendors of pleasure, because
these so called musicians were actually running brothel houses in the guise of
music and dance. Of course, the operation didn’t root out this iniquity and
instead it scattered all over the city, The Mughals were the founders of that
trend of dancing and singing, but as far as I have read about them they never
promoted the prostitution publicly. These brothel houses were first developed
by the British in old Anarkali Bazaar for the recreation of the British
soldiers. After that these were shifted to Lohari Gate and then to Taxali gate.
They seemed to have spent more time at Taxali Gate than other places. Thus they
settled in Heera Mandi. One can still find the traces of that at Heera Mandi.
There
is a dark galli (street) where every naughty boy wonders to go and every
gentleman fears to go. We can call it Sinner’s Street, and please don’t go
there because not only is it sordid but very dirty. When we were passing
through the street, please don’t get me wrong I was there on a journalistic
survey; there were prostitutes were standing in the dark corners of that street
and calling customers, strange isn’t it? We saw two motorbike riders enter the
street. They accosted a prostitute. She asked them where they had got the bike.
One of them replied, ‘I just lifted it, now its mine.’
This
street is full of filth, with no proper sewerage system. It’s like you are
walking in a drain. In a way it is the most poignant loss of heritage, as once
prostitutes were hired by wealthy families to teach their children culture and
social behavior. All that it left of a colorful, gay street with music and the
sound of ghoongros coming out of the carved wooden porticos is some old
prostitutes lurking in corners, lots of lots of filth, a rotten smell and last
but not least some drug addicts —- we call them ‘jahaz’.
The
story is not finished yet. Taxali gate was not famous for its brothel houses in
the beginning. Some very noble people and historical figures used to live
there. Mualana Altaf Hussain Haali and Allama Mohammad Iqbal were some very
eminent residents. Still some noble people are living here, like Main Yousaf
Sala-ud-din, the renowned socialite and grand son of Allama Mohammad Iqbal, in
a beautiful and well preserved haveli one of the finest examples of the
architecture of the Mughal Dynasty.
Well, my friends the bottom line is that, this place is not worth living
any more. Pardon me for being blunt, I don’t want to hurt anybody’s feeling,
but the truth is that there is an awful smell here. Yet some of the best
delicacies of Lahore are sold here. Strange! Well not that strange, we can
imagine that our authorities are more interested in the monkey business here
than civic amenities. In the same way as these women are the cast-offs of our
society, it seems this place has also been cast off. There are a lot of respectable
people living here as well, and they too have to share this neglect. We mustn’t
forget that these are humans living here and we should treat them as humans.
