“Jine Lahore nahivekhiya, o jamya hi nahi.” One who has not seen Lahore has not truly been born. 

Lahore has been epicenter of history, culture, and politics of the Sapt –Sindhu region of undivided India.  For centuries, Lahore has served as a major center of political power, artistic production, and intellectual exchange in the region of Punjab. The city flourished particularly during the reign of Maharaj Ranjit Singh when the real spirit of cultural unity came to limelight through celebration of the traditional festivals like Lohri, Holi, Baisakhi, Dussehra, Basant, and Diwali, besides the celebration of Muslim festival like Id.  It was during the Ranjit Singh era that Lahore became a famous place for traditions of literature, music, cuisine, and festivals, which continue to shape Punjabi identity. 

 The celebrations of the Basant festival in Lahore with great old cultural traditions from 6-8 February, 2026 have a great meaning for the revival of the socio-cultural traditions of the city of Lahore.  The government support to this great cultural festival after 19 years of ban have once again brought back the joy of cultural traditions of this ancient city. Thegreat enthusiasm of Lahoris (inhabitants of the Lahore are known as Lahoris) and the great business which this festival has made just within the first 3 days forced the authorities to extend the celebrations of this colorful festival for three more days. On one hand the celebration of the Basant have contributed to struggling economy of Pakistan and on the other it has provided an opportunity to the Lahoris to connect themselves with their socio-cultural roots. 

 As per the estimates Basant festival generated the heavy revenue of $14-21 million from direct and indirect spending. The event revitalized the local economy and every business man from local vendors to the big showroom owners of the city have been benefited from this festival.  All hotels, transporters, vendors, shopkeepers and even the government official were not only busy but over busy with the work and opportunity provided by the revival of the Basant festival. The people were nostalgic about the colorful kites and the Basanti colour (yellow color)   and the skies of Lahore were filled with joy of colorful kites at the top and the bottom the whole city of Lahore witnessed the yellow shine on the ground as the carnival, shops, and roof tops of the houses across the city were decorated with yellow tents and decorative cloth sheets of yellow colour.  The kite craze was so high that people waited for hours to purchase the kites and kite strings from the busy shops of Lahore. As per the media reports over one million kites were sold out daily during the festival and only the sale of kites generated business of 500 million to 1 billion Pakistan Rupee. (PKR). The price of the Pinna (spool of kite string) were inflated to ten times and touched the level of 10, 000 to 12, 000 PKR but expats flock of millions of Lahoris on their rooftops were enjoying the kite flying with the sound chants of “boo kata” (meaning hacked or cut) with every kite-war win or loss was enjoyed without bothering the price of kite and string. 

This year the Basant Festival of Lahore is reported as one of the top festival of Asia by   top mediahouses and the social media sites like You Tube, Instagram and Facebook etc. The social media reels and the interview of the participants and audience of this great festival by the media depicts the return of the joy of  cultural life to city of Lahore  for which  Lahoris have been waiting for two decades. The rooftop gatherings presented the open-air, scenic spots (like Doha’s Katara Cultural Village) where attendees enjoy the sounds of traditional performances, such as violin duets or street musicians, often blending into a “magical mix” of culture. The atmosphere of the city depicted by the media is featuring a “magical environment”, rooftop parties, traditional music and yellow themed décor-matches reports of spring celebrations, such as Baisakhi and Lantern Festivals or similar cultural festivals sometimes described as bringing together traditional and modern values and style. 

 It is very pertinent to mention that the Chief Minister of the state of Punjab Maryam Nawaz has not only showed her involvement in the colorful festival but also invested heavily in promoting the celebrations on one hand. On the other she has made this festival to happen despite of pending of some legal petition before the Lahore High Court to ban or continue to ban the Basant festival in Pakistani Punjab.  Her commitment from the successful organization to the successful completion of the event is very appreciable. Every event in this festival was organized with zeal and commitment to the culture of Lahore which shows that government put a lot of efforts to bring life even to every small event of the festival.Despite of her willingness and commitment to visit the Basant festival, Maryam couldn’t attend some of the important events including the planned big Basant show at the Liberty Chowk due to deadly blast in Islamabad. Despite of her absence and tragedy of Islamabad blast, the festival itself continued and drew a large public gathering. The Punjab government highlighted the event as a revival of Lahore culture and later praised the citizens for celebrating the festival responsibly under the safety guidelines.   

It is pertinent to note that the celebration of festivals of colour and music such as Basant on a large scale in a country like Pakistan is significant, particularly in a socio-cultural and political environment that has, at times, been influenced by Islamic fundamentalism. In such a context, the organization of cultural festivities has often faced restrictions on the grounds that these events allegedly violate the principles of Sharia. However, the enthusiastic and widespread celebration of the festival by the people of Lahore demonstrates the enduring strength of cultural traditions. It suggests that deeply rooted cultural practices continue to resonate strongly with the public, often outweighing attempts of ideological control or restrictive interpretations of religion. The popular participation in Basant reflects the resilience of local cultural values and traditions, many of which predate the advent of Islam in the region, and highlights the persistent cultural identity of the people despite socio-political pressures.

However, the vibrant spirit of Basant and the cultural enthusiasm of the people of Lahore, the historic capital of Punjab, continue to be overshadowed by the persistent shadow of violence and religious fundamentalism. On 6 February, a bomb attack at a Shia mosque in Islamabad claimed the lives of thirty-two people, casting a tragic shadow over a period otherwise associated with cultural festivity and public celebration. The incident starkly highlighted the fragile space within which cultural expression operates in Pakistan. The brutal killing of innocent civilians at a place of worship not only exposed the continuing threat of sectarian violence but also served as a grim reminder that cultural freedom remains vulnerable to extremist forces. For many who seek to revive and celebrate traditional cultural practices such as Basant, the episode reinforced the fear that spaces of cultural celebration can abruptly be transformed into scenes of mourning.

More significantly, the incident reflects a deeper tension between the revival of synergetic and historically rooted cultural traditions—often traced to pre-Islamic cultural practices—and the pressures exerted by religious fundamentalism, which frequently seeks to delegitimize such traditions by labeling them un-Islamic or contrary to the principles of Shariat. Consequently, the effort to preserve and celebrate traditional cultural values unfolds within a complex socio-religious and political environment shaped by competing visions of cultural identity and religious orthodoxy. In such a context, where sections of society seek to reconnect with inherited cultural traditions while simultaneously negotiating contemporary religious frameworks and the freedom of worship, the contradictions of the present moment demand careful historical analysis. The celebration of Basant thus becomes both a symbol of cultural vitality and an expression of underlying tensions within society. To understand these tensions more fully, it is essential to examine the deep historical roots of Lahore and the long-standing socio-cultural traditions that have shaped the city’s identity over centuries.

The origin of Lahore dates back to antiquity. According to an old Hindu tradition, the city was known in ancient times as Nokhar or Lavapuri—the city associated with Lava, the son of Rama. The ancient Lava temple, believed to lie beneath the sanctum of the Lahore Fort, has symbolically stood witness to the numerous socio-cultural and political upheavals that have occurred in the region. One of the earliest textual references to Lahore appears in the Persian geographical work Hudud al-‘Alam, written anonymously in 982 CE and later translated into English by Vladimir Fedorovich Minorsky in 1927. In his translation, Minorsky describes Lahore as a beautiful small city with impressive temples, bustling markets, and extensive orchards, indicating its early prominence as a flourishing cultural and commercial Centre. The look of the city of Lahore has been changed during the Mughal rule over the Punjab. The fortified city of Lahore was made a commercial and political Centre by Akbar and the construction of Shalimar Garden, Badshahi Mosque and Wazir Khan Mosque were built to accommodate the Islamic culture or the religion of the new rulers.   

The city of Lahore underwent a significant political and culture change during the reign of Maharaj Ranjit Singh who made Lahore the Capital of the Khalsa Empire.  Ranjit Singh reclaimed the ancient city of Lahore from the Mughal in 1799, the major historical building like Lahore fort and Hindu temples were in bad shape due to the neglect or attitude of the Mughal rulers towards the local socio-cultural and religious places and the attacks of Ahmad Shah Durani which weakened the Mughal Empire.  Under the Ranjit Singh rule Lahore regained the political stability   and once again emerged as an important administrative and cultural centre of Punjab. The city bazaars became active again, attracting merchants from Central Asia, Kashmir, Ladakh and northern India, special focus was given to the development of city as an industrial city and centre of crafts, arms production, and artistic activity during the period of Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Lahore is also witness to the internal conflict of the Khalsa Darbar and decline of the Khalsa Raj after the death of Sher-E- Punjab.   The Treaty of Lahore (1846) under which Khalsa Darbar (Court) accepted the political supremacy of British was also signed at Lahore.

The city of Lahore occupies an importanceplace in the history of India’s freedom struggle. As one of the most important cultural centre of the undivided Punjab the city of Lahore became the central point of the nationalist activities. The city presented the blend of both the moderate and revolutionaries activities against the British imperialism.  If the choosing of the Lahore for the passing of the Purna Sawaraj Resolution (Complete Independence) on 26 January, 2026 by the Congress was a strategic move of the Congress to imbibe the freedom struggle into Punjab, then the killing of J.P Saunders by Bhagat Singh and his associates in 1928  to take the revenge of the death of Lala Lajpat  who died due to the baton charge   during the anti British protest in Lahore is known as the revolutionary trumpet against British  in Punjab. The illegal hanging of Bhagat Singh and his associates at Lahore prison triggered a massive outpouring of public anger against British rule. This surge of popular resistance further intensified and strengthened the Indian struggle for independence throughout the country.

Lahore has not only been witness to the waves of socio-cultural and political history of India it has equally been impacted by these waves. The most tragic end of the freedom struggle and freedom of India ended with the drawing of the political boundaries or the communal partition of India by the British. The partition of India was more than the British and the dominant leadership of the country thought because it was not only the division of the land and territories and drawing of the political boundaries but it was  de rooting of  the cultural landscapes and  of the sacred and cultural region of Bharat by creating the permanent political boundaries.  The communal carnage and displacing of the millions of people from their homes and lands at the time of the partition and continued tensions and war like situation between India and Pakistan shows the immediate and long term consequences of the partition of India.  The city of Lahore and Lahoris have been deeply impacted by the partition of the country it became the place to be remembered as the communal killing of Hindus and Sikhs who happened to be dominant community of the city before the partition. Although the Hindus and Sikhs were forced to leave the city in pain and destitute and this pain and destitute remained in their life for a long time but they never forgot their cultural ties with the city and transferred their memories of the socio-cultural and commercial richness to their next generations. A lot of literature including Novel, Stories, Poems and Songs has been written in Punjabi, Hindi and English, Urdu on the Lahore and Lahore’s life after partition.

 The historical monuments, literary traditions, festivals, and vibrant social life make Lahore a symbol of cultural richness of pre-partition. The oral narratives of the displaced people of Lahore regarding their splendorous life style in the city of Lahore have been transferred from one generation to other and even the fourth generation of displaced Lahoris is nostalgic to listen about the splendors of Lahore in the Indian Punjab. On the other side the generations of the displaced people from India to Pakistan are also nostalgic to listen about their culture and community life to which their ancestors lived before the partition.  The nostalgic  memories  of the ancestral land and culture preserved among displaced communities reveal  that people  continue to not only in physical landscape but also in the emotional and cultural imagination of generations shaped by the experience of Partition. The longing expressed in the words, “Mainu pher gala suna oh bapu us Lahore dia” (“Father, tell me those stories of Lahore again”), reflects a collective remembrance that transcends national boundaries and political divisions. 

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