In what can be termed as an act of mindless development oblivious to the priceless historical importance of a landmark in the erstwhile summer capital of the British, the Public Works Department on Monday pulled down the iconic US Club gate, close to The Mall to widen the road for the movement of swanky big vehicles. The gate, built of wood and stone and having a slate roof, is located about 500 metres from the historic Ridge and marks the entry to the US Club area. Established by the British in 1844, the gate, which old-timers still reminisce and have nostalgic memories of it, was pulled down to facilitate the movement of bigger vehicles, notwithstanding the fact that it falls in a sealed area of the city where only government-permit holders can drive in.
Mayor Surinder Chauhan said that the road had to be widened and the gate would be rebuilt while labourers pulled it down recklessly. Interestingly, the work to pull down the gate started at 6 am in stark contrast to the otherwise laid-back approach of most of the government agencies.
Executive Engineer, Public Works Department, Praveen said that the gate had been removed to widen the road. “So what if a simple gate has been pulled down. Labourers will pull it down, not engineers,” was his brazen reply.
Interestingly, the iconic gate etched in the memory of every resident of the city was never a hindrance for the passage of the convoy of six-time Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh, who drove through it several times in a day as he lived in his private residence at Jakhu. Also, the official residence of judges and senior bureaucrats are located right above the US Club gate and their vehicles, too, passed through it.
“The restoration of any heritage building or structure, as was the case of the Gaiety Theatre, Town Hall and the Bantony Castle in the city, was done meticulously only by conservation architects while numbering each stone and wood to be placed back exactly from where it was removed. This was not just a gate but an iconic structure which can’t be pulled down mindlessly,” said Sumit Raj Vashisht, founder of Shimla Walks.
“When the authorities are so insensitive towards our priceless heritage, why not shift the capital elsewhere and make Shimla the heritage capital so that it can be saved from being ruined,” he added.
Meanwhile, the demolition of the gate invited sharp criticism on social media with a retired bureaucrat saying ‘philistines’ while others termed the act as complete insensitivity towards heritage in the name of development. The United Service Club (US Club) is an iconic colonial era area, established by the British in 1844. Though set up as an exclusive military and civil services club, it was the venue of the 1914 Shimla Convention, where discussions on the McMahon Line and the China-India border were held. It was also the venue where sensitive discussions on the mapping of the partition of India and Pakistan were held.
