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When bureaucrats shared corridors with monkeys

Any museum created in North Block would be untrue to history if it didn't depict the monkeys who were an integral part of the building.

Ashok Lavasa

Updated At : 07:12 AM Oct 14, 2025 IST

National treasure: The building will soon cease to be the nerve centre of governance. Tribune photo

IN the beginning of the 20th century, two men moved to India from South Africa; one to dismantle the edifice of the British empire and the other to build an edifice that would keep reminding us of our colonial past. Seventy-eight years after Mahatma Gandhi — who gave us his three famous ideological monkeys and led India to freedom — the government is moving out of the North and South Blocks designed by Herbert Baker. Both Gandhi and Baker came to India after spending many years of their professional life in South Africa.

The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising five eminent persons as trustees.

The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the newspaper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.

The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).

Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia

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When bureaucrats shared corridors with monkeys

Any museum created in North Block would be untrue to history if it didn't depict the monkeys who were an integral part of the building.

Ashok Lavasa

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