NEW DELHI: Nearly eight decades after Partition, a classroom at Lahore’s Aitchison College has become an unlikely bridge between India and Pakistan. On June 10, ‘Classroom No. 108’ at the 140-year-old institution was dedicated to Harcharan Singh Brar, a pre-Partition student who later became CM of Punjab (1995-96). The plaque, bearing the words ‘God is One’ in English, Urdu and Gurmukhi (‘Ik Onkar’), was unveiled by Brar’s daughter Babli Brar.The tribute was funded by Brar’s schoolmate and lifelong friend, Syed Babar Ali, 100 now, believed to be Aitchison’s oldest living alumnus, a prominent industrialist, former finance minister and the longest-serving member of its Board of Governors. Their friendship, forged in undivided Punjab, survived Partition, wars and decades of hostility until Brar’s death in 2009.Founded in 1886 and known as Pakistan’s ‘Eton’, Aitchison has educated generations of leaders, including former PMs Imran Khan, Zafarullah Khan Jamali and Feroz Khan Noon.Brar joined Aitchison in 1937, excelling as a student, prefect and sportsman. During his last visit to Lahore in 1989, he inaugurated a library at Aitchison and dedicated it to Ali. More than three decades later, Ali has returned the gesture.The Brar plaque is part of a wider remembrance project through which Ali has funded classrooms and plaques honouring classmates and teachers from 1934-43, including Pandit Hetwa Nand Kashyap, Ram Rakha Mal, Sardar Harbaksh Singh, Sardar Harnam Singh Bal, Lala Dhani Ram, Lala Shanti Lal Sehgal and the sons of Patiala Maharaja Bhupinder Singh-together recalling an undivided Punjab before history scattered its people across borders.Muhammad Mohsin Khan Leghari, a fourth-generation Aitchisonian, former senator and Punjab minister whose family includes former president Farooq Leghari, said the honour reflected the school’s tradition of dedicating rooms and facilities to distinguished alumni. “Sons of rajas, maharajas, nawabs and tribal chiefs studied here. It was about grooming leadership.”The commemorations coincide with a wider effort in Lahore to revisit aspects of its pre-Partition past. Historic names such as Krishan Nagar from Islampura, Ram Gali from Rahman Gali, and Sant Nagar from Sunnat Nagar have been restored, while discussions on memorialising Bhagat Singh continue. The trend gained momentum after the Lahore Heritage Area Revival project launched in 2025.For descendants of former students, Aitchison’s story remains inseparable from Partition. “Hindu, Muslim and Sikh boys studied together here. After Partition they lost contact, but we have tried to preserve their stories,” said Dr Tarunjit Singh Butalia, the college’s honorary envoy. Of Aitchison’s roughly 245 students in 1947, about 160 were Hindu and Sikh boys, many of whom left for summer holidays and never returned.Butalia recalled one student who had just dropped off his bicycle for repairs when an army truck arrived at school. A soldier told him his father had sent for him and gave him minutes to gather his belongings. “He asked if he could meet his friends before leaving,” Butalia said. “He was told no.” Within hours, the boy was on his way to India.Today, only a handful of pre-Partition Aitchisonians are believed to be alive in India, but many whose names now line Aitchison’s red-brick corridors left Lahore in 1947 and never returned-until now.
