By Our Correspondent
LAHORE, Feb. 14 — A historic and emotional Sikh worship service was held Wednesday morning at the Gurdwara located on the campus of Aitchison College on Mall Road, Lahore, after remaining closed since 1947.
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The Gurdwara had remained non-operational following Partition due to the absence of Sikh students, although the college continued maintaining the structure. The special worship service was organized as part of the institution’s 140th anniversary celebrations.
Aitchison College was established to provide education to the royal and chief families of undivided Punjab. Its foundation stone was laid on Nov. 3, 1886.
The Aitchison Gurdwara was designed by renowned Sikh architect Ram Singh of the then Mayo School of Arts, now known as the National College of Arts. The foundation stone of the Gurdwara was laid in 1910 by Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala, who studied at the college from 1904 to 1908. The Patiala royal family played a key role in fundraising for the project.
The building was completed within a few years and served as a daily evening prayer space for Sikh students. Alumni have recalled the Gurdwara’s distinctive black-and-white marble flooring and castle-like interior architecture.
Currently, around 15 Sikh alumni of Aitchison College are residing in India, many of whom remember regularly attending prayers at the Gurdwara during their student years.
Apart from the Gurdwara, the college campus also houses a pre-Partition mosque and Hindu temple. The mosque was built in 1900 by the Nawab of Bahawalpur, while the Hindu temple’s foundation was laid in 1910 by the Maharaja of Darbhanga.
The service marked a symbolic revival of the site’s religious and historical significance, reflecting the region’s shared cultural and interfaith heritage.
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