Lokmanya Tilak Garden

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Lokmanya Tilak Garden
Victoria Garden
Victoria Garden Today.jpg
Aerial shot of the garden
Lokmanya Tilak Garden
Type Urban park
Location Ahmedabad, India
Coordinates 23°01′17″N72°34′45″E / 23.0214°N 72.5792°E / 23.0214; 72.5792
Area28,260 square metres (304,200 sq ft)
Opened1905
Etymology Lokamanya Tilak
Owned by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation
Operated byU. N. Mehta Foundation
Visitors10-11 lakh (in 2023) [1]
Open6am-12:30pm, 2pm-10:30pm
AwardsCity Beauty Competition - Green Space [1]
ParkingYes
Public transit access AMTS
BRTS

Lokmanya Tilak Garden, formerly known as Victoria Garden, [2] is a is an urban park in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. It was proposed in 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee and was opened in 1905. It has few monuments including ones dedicated to Lokmanya Tilak and Mahagujarat movement. It was renovated and refurbished in 2019-21. It has walkways, central lawn, bandstand, forest walk, maze garden, children's play area and civic amenities.

Contents

Location

The garden is located at the east end of the Ellis Bridge which connects Old Ahmedabad on the east bank with the new city grown on the west bank of the Sabarmati river. [2] [3] It is located near Bhadra Fort, Jam-e-Masjid, CNI Church, I P Mission School, and Town Hall across the bridge. [3]

History

The garden was proposed by the group of elite citizens of the city on 31 May 1897 to commemorate Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee. [2] [4] [5] The land of an old jail garden was handed over by the British Government to the Ahmedabad municipality in 1901. [2] [3] The funds were raised from the public and the government. [6] The groundbreaking ceremony was held on 9 January 1902. [7] [3] The garden was opened to the public in 1905. [2] It had a bandstand where a band performed weekly for few years from 1906. [2] [3] It is considered as one of the oldest gardens in India [2] and one of the three Victoria gardens in the country; others are in Mumbai and Kolkata. [3]

When the city was recovered from plague, on 13 December 1917, a fête was held at the garden. [2] [5] On 27 November 1918, a celebration of the end of the World War I was held here. [8] [3]

The garden became neglected over years as the city grew on the west side of the river and lost its vicinity to riverbank. [3] It lost an area of about 2,500 square metres (27,000 sq ft) as new roads leading to Sabarmati Riverfront were built on its edges. [2]

In 2019, the garden was renovated and redesigned by Prabhakar B Bhagwat, a landscaping firm led by Aniket Bhagwat, in collaboration with the Torrent Group's non-profit arm U. N. Mehta Foundation's Pratiti initiative and Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC). The monuments were refurbished and old features of the garden were restored such as a public radio and a bandstand. [2] [3] [1] It was reopened to the public in 2021. [5]

Monuments

Queen Victoria Statue

Queen Victoria statue, now in Sanskar Kendra Queen victoria statue in sanskar kendra.JPG
Queen Victoria statue, now in Sanskar Kendra

On 7 January 1910, a statue of Queen Victoria was installed in the garden and unveiled by Mr. Barrow, the Commissioner of Ahmedabad. It was designed and sculptured by Ganpatrao Kashinath Mhatre from Mumbai in Carrara marble. The seven-feet statue displayed the queen seated in a royal chair wearing royal robes with intricate carvings of embroidery, crown on her head and a globe and a sceptre in her hands. The stone canopy and the high back of the royal chair which shows behind the statue was made of cold-blue Indian marble. [2] [6] [5] [9] Later the statue, damaged in some parts, was moved to the Sanskar Kendra. The empty canopy still exists in the garden. [2] [10]

Lokmanya Tilak Statue

On 28 February 1929, Mahatma Gandhi inaugurated a bronze statue of Lokmanya Tilak in the garden. It was designed by Mahadev Kashinath Kolhatkar from Baroda. The statue was an issue of conflict between the Ahmedabad Municipality presided by Vallabhbhai Patel, and the British administrators. [2] [11] [12] [13] It cost Rs. 15000 from which Rs. 10000 were contributed by Ahmedabad Municipality and the rest was raised from the public. "Swarajya is my birth right" is engraved on its pedestal. [3] [14]

Mahagujarat Shahid Smarak

On 8 August 1956, some college students of Ahmedabad went to the local Congress House near Lal Darwaza to demand a separate linguistic state. The police firing resulted in the death of five to eight students. [15] [16] The Mahagujarat Shahid Smarak was erected in the garden to commemorate this event of the Mahagujarat movement. [2] [5] As this memorial was away from the Congress House where the deaths happened, it was opposed and another memorial was built near the Congress House. [17] [16]

Nanavatty Memorial Fountain

Dr. Byramji Hormasjee Nanavatty was the first gynecologist of city to receive a Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons (FRCS). Dhanbai was his wife. This Parsi couple had two daughters Frenny and Dr. Bachoo and a son Phiroze, nicknamed Ball, who died on 26 December 1910 at an age of 19. There is no information about the cause of his death. [2] [5] [18] The Nanavatty Memorial Fountain was donated by the couple in 1912 commemorating the death of their son Phiroze. [2] [5] [18] It was renovated at the cost of ₹4.5 lakh (US$5,400) in 2016 by the heritage department of the AMC. [18]

The stone fountain features intricate carvings of children. At its center of the stand, there is a male face, thought to be Phiroze, though unconfirmed. Two marble plaques on the fountain bear eulogies for Phiroze in both English and Gujarati. Additionally, a Bible verse is inscribed, stating: “Until the day breaks and the shadows flee away.” [18]

SEWA plaque

On 12 April 1972, Ela Bhatt chaired a meeting of a group of women here which resulted in the foundation of Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA). [2] On 5 February 2023, Hillary Clinton unveiled a plaque near a banyan tree planted by Bhatt in 2022 on occasion of the 50th anniversary of SEWA. [19] [20]

Features

The garden is spread over an area of about 28,260 square metres (304,200 sq ft). Apart from several historical monuments, it has a central lawn square with a bandstand. Other features include an old water garden, walkways, seating arrangements, a children's play area, a volleyball court, toilets, a water tank and a drinking water facility. It also has a forest walk and a maze garden. It is said that the garden had installed the first public radio receiver tower in Ahmedabad and is the only garden in the city still having a public radio receiver tower. [2] [5] It had a shooting range and rockeries in the past. [5] There is a mazar (mausoleum) in the garden. [2] [5]

The garden has about 785 trees of more than 30 different species as well as more than 35,000 flowering shrubs and grasses of more than 100 species. It has a large heritage tree of baobab. [21]

Culture

Ravivari or Gujari Bazar, a flea market, gathers near the western side of the garden on every Sunday since 1950s; a tradition established since 15th century Gujarat Sultanate. [2] [22]

The garden is visited by 2,500 to 3,000 people every day and 10-11 lakh people per annum. [1]

It won the first award in Green Space category in the City Beauty Competition held by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs of Gujarat state in 2024. [1]

See also

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "City Beauty Competition: Victoria Garden bags 'Green Space' award". The Indian Express. 12 March 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 "Ahmedabad Foundation Day: Victoria Garden, cradle of several path-breaking movements in Gujarat". The Indian Express. 26 February 2023. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 REIMAGINING HISTORY: The Restoration of the Victoria Gardens; Ahmedabad (PDF). LEAF.
  4. ↑ "The Diamond Jubilee: Ahmedabad and Its Celebration". The Times of India. 2 June 1897. p. 5 – via Proquest Historical Newspapers.
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Victoria gets a 'royal' revamp". Ahmedabad Mirror. 17 November 2021. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  6. 1 2 "Ahmedabad Ceremony: Queen's Statue Unveiled". The Times of India. 8 January 1910. p. 9 – via Proquest Historical Newspapers.
  7. ↑ "Coronation Day in India: Rejoicing All Over the Country". The Times of India. 11 August 1902. p. 7 – via Proquest Historical Newspapers.
  8. ↑ "Ahmedabad". The Times of India. 30 November 1918. p. 11.
  9. ↑ Shelar, Jyoti (10 March 2020). "On a long quest to rediscover Mhatre's frozen art". The Hindu. ISSN   0971-751X . Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  10. ↑ "Know Your City: Statues of Ahmedabad and their storied past". The Indian Express. 15 February 2022. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  11. ↑ Yagnik, Achyut (2 February 2011). Ahmedabad: From Royal city to Megacity. Penguin UK. ISBN   978-81-8475-473-5.
  12. ↑ John, Paul (1 August 2020). "Lokmanya Bal Gangadhar Tilak in bronze shows iron will of Mahatma Gandhi, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel". The Times of India. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  13. ↑ "Tilak Bagh missing a signboard". The Times of India. 30 July 2018. ISSN   0971-8257 . Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  14. ↑ "Tilak's Statue: Unveiled by Mr. Gandhi At Ahmedabad". The Times of India. 1 March 1929. p. 7 – via Proquest Historical Newspapers.
  15. ↑ Yagnik, Achyut; Suchitra Sheth (2005). The Shaping of Modern Gujarat: Plurality, Hindutva, and Beyond. Penguin Books India. p. 226. ISBN   9780144000388 . Retrieved 24 November 2012.
  16. 1 2 Pathak, Dhwani (2 May 2011). "Unsung heroes". The Times of India . Archived from the original on 13 September 2014. Retrieved 25 November 2012.
  17. ↑ "શહીદોની બે ખાંભીથી વિવાદ, ડુપ્લિકેટ ખાંભી દૂર કરવાની માગણી". Divya Bhaskar (in Gujarati). 2018.
  18. 1 2 3 4 "AMC to fix 104-yr-old fountain in Raikhad". Ahmedabad Mirror. Retrieved 6 August 2024.
  19. ↑ "Former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on two-day Gujarat visit from Sunday; will pay tribute to SEWA founder Ela Bhatt". The Economic Times. 4 February 2023. ISSN   0013-0389 . Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  20. ↑ "Hillary Clinton and Elaben Bhatt: Why the former US First Lady saw the late founder of SEWA as a role model". The Indian Express. 4 February 2023. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  21. ↑ "Torrent Group's UNM Foundation-managed Lokmanya Tilak Garden (Victoria Garden) tops City Beauty Competition" (PDF). Torrent Group. 2024.
  22. ↑ "Lokmanya Tilak Bag (Victoria Garden)". AMC Heritage City. Retrieved 1 August 2024.
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