Changing with time: Bagh Ramanand, first planned locality of city

Strap: Custom collector Rama Nand spent Rs7 lakh to construct wall around city

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Charanjit Singh Teja

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, September 22

Densely populated Bagh Ramanand in southeast of the Golden Temple was a first planned locality of the city.

Once it was a Bagh of custom collector Rama Nand, who used to work with Misar Ralia Ram (died in 1864), in- charge of customs, during Maharaja Ranjit Singh’s rule.

Samadh of Nizam-Ul Mual, Dabir-ud-Dowla, Rais-Azim of Amritsar Ralia Ram, talaab and a temple in the memory of Ralia Ram is the only memorial. There is no memorial of Rama Nand in the locality.

***From Bagh to locality

Bagh was ruined before the Amritsar Municipal Committee planned the locality. Anand Ghaba, an eminent historian mentioned in the book, “Amritsar, a Study in Urban History”, that it was a planned locality with 12 to 20-feet wide lanes allowed under the bylaws of the Amritsar Municipal Committee, 1922. The development of the Bagh commenced in 1920 and it was completed in 1938. Most of the traders of the walled city preferred to stay here.

Swami Building, a massive residential building was completed in 1941. There were some old structures inside the Swami Building.

Locals witnessed changes in several decades. Kishore Chand, a shopkeeper, said, “I saw garden and open area during my childhood.”

**Study of locality

Prof Balvinder Singh, former Head of Guru Ramdas School of Planning, conducted study of the locality in 1980 while pursuing his master degree in “City and Regional Planning” at Guru Nanak Dev University.

“My first assignment was to study some parts of the locality. I got opportunity to study Bagh Ramanand. I was surprised to find that there was no garden in Bagh Ramanand. Later, I found that a large number of such localities were developed by ruining gardens,” he said.

Prof Balvinder found that due to poor planning of civic body, old houses in the area were demolished. “In 1980, I found that almost all the houses in the locality were around 5-feet low from the street level. The MC recarpeted the street without considering level of houses in the area. This forced the residents to demolish their houses.”

***Rama Nand’s contributions

Majority of population in Bagh Ramanand is unaware about the role and contribution of Ramanand.

Giani Gian Singh mentioned name and role of Ramanand in his book titled, “Tawarikh Sri Amritsar”. He mentioned that Maharaja Ranjit Singh used to call Ramanand “Baba ji” to pay respect. He was one of the elites in the city. Ramanand spent Rs 7 lakh for construction of wall around the city.

Harpreet Singh Bhati, a researcher said, “Ramanand was custom collector under Misar Ralia, son of Missar Chhaju, most trusted general of Sadha Kaur, mother-in law of Maharaja Ranjit Kaur. Sadha Kaur appointed Missar Chhaju as the first in charge of Katra Kanheya in the city. Ralia Ram was appointed in charge in 1811 and Ramanand was his custom collector.”