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HISTORY,
LEGENDS & MYTHOLOGY
House of first Pak President lying in ruins in India
Murshidabad:
The ancestral home of Pakistan's first President in
West Bengal presents a ghastly picture of neglect.
Weeds have encroached the once-manicured lawns of
the 1831 mansion and creepers have a free play and
for the locals it's a hang out, no questions asked.
Firdaus Mahal in Murshidabad district is the ancestral
home of Iskander Mirza, the great great grandson of
the provincial ruler Farad Unza.
Locals
lament the dilapidated look of the mansion seeped
in history. "He (Iskander Mirza) later went to Pakistan
and then became the first President of the country
but in Murshidabad, there is no significant sign of
his presence left today. Most of the buildings are
in ruins due to ignorance and several properties are
under encroachment. We know his paternal property
stands as the Iskander Ali estate but it is a hollow
shell, totally neglected. His father's mausoleum is
now surrounded by jungle," Gaur Sunder Das, a local
teacher, said.
Iskander
Mirza had left for Mumbai for his studies and later
joined the British army. Later, under the influence
of Muslim League leader Mohammed Ali Jinnah, he went
to Pakistan after partition in 1947. He went on to
become the first President of Pakistan when the country
became a republic on March 23, 1956. The mausoleum
of Iskander Mirza's father Fateh-Ali Mirza is also
in ruins. The sprawling 90 acres of land surrounding
the mausoleum is has been encroached by locals.
The
state's tourism department says it plans to turn the
historical mansion into a major tourist spot. "Not
only Iskander Mirza but Murshidabad is also the birthplace
of great Urdu poet Insha Allah Khan Insha, whose poetry
is taught at the Master's level even today. But there
is no reference of these great men today here. The
tourism department is asking other state departments
to work together towards preserving things of historical
significance related to these men, generate publicity
and create public awareness regarding this," Mohammed
Ali, an official of the department of the state's
tourism department, said.
-March
4, 2004
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