By Cookie Maini
Neither time nor tide wait for man, goes the adage or rather the cliché. 1 am an ardent believer that clichés are most applicable to day today life situations, that is why constant usage makes them hackneyed.
This cliché struck me when | recently stood by the banks of the Sutlej river in Ropar, Punjab. Down below I could see the river lapping at its shores and here was i trying to resurrect its history. This river certainly never waited, as it flowed through an eons and eras of history. Through the ages, it has weathered its eternity through various moods in space, in parched paucity, sometimes in anger and sometimes placid.
In various stages it meanders and sometimes flows straight as it dissects an area steeped in history, from as far back as the pre Harrapan period to as recent as the British Raj.
Tam mesmerized by this scene as this great blue river flows below. And here where I stand is the famous Peepul tree, under which Maharaja Ranjit Singh, the Lion of Punjab, and Lord William Bentinck, the British Governor General met in 1831. This river had earlier been used by the British as a boundary determining the spheres of influence between them and the Maharaja.
The Maharaja nursed the ambition to become the undisputed monarch of the entire Punjab, so he tried to conquer territories and bring them under his tutelage.
When he attacked the Cis Sutlej States, the rulers of Patiala, Nabha, and Sind met the British Resident at Delhi, Mr Seton and sought his intervention. The British saw this as a God sent opportunity to clip the wings of this upcoming monarch who, if he became all-powerful, could pose a threat.
The Maharaja, too, was wary of the British power, so he signed the treaty of 1809, in which the Sutlej River was made the dividing line; this became the determinant of future Anglo Sikh relations.
The Maharaja made foray unhampered in the trans Sutlej area but the cis Sutlej area was out of bounds for him as it was under the British. Here was I, almost a century and a half later standing in the erstwhile British protectorate, ie. The cis Sutlej region.
In 1831, the British organized a grand durbar here at this very spot and the Peepul tree was where the Lion of Punjab and the “Laard Nawab Sahib” as the Governor General was referred to by Ranjit Singh met! Can visualize the whole scene, the Maharaja Camping on the opposite bank of the Sutlej, 2 colorful pageants crossing in boats and then arriving with caparisoned elephants and horses, The Governor General welcoming the Lion of Punjab with fanfare and bugles. I close the curtain on the show in my mind and look at that very Peepul tree which was a witness to historic episode: It stands desolate, with a dull inscription about its worthy credentials. I decide to walk further down across the Water headwork’s erected by the British. All the human activity is near the restaurant and boating area. All the tourist pressure is there. It is a major source of income for the tourism department.
I can see some people excitedly rushing towards the boats some are busy eating snacks. The river flows along passively and on my way back I see the Peepul tree standing there aloof and desolate, speculating at what history the con temporary revelers will create.
Article extracted from this publication >> July 16, 1993
