From the Beginning to Lahore's Happenings

Unlike other history books that dwell on official descriptions of rulers, prominent people, and major events, almost always from the perspective of the victors, this is a collection about the people, places, things, and faces of Lahore, written by me over the last few years. It covers everything from rulers and battles to freedom fighters, from the struggles of the poor to the processes of exploitation. Lahore, which is thousands of years old, has been invaded repeatedly by foreign forces intent on looting its wealth and taking its people away as slaves to be sold in far-off markets. In almost every case, nearly half the population was killed. This aspect of our history is rarely told. The pieces in this collection are based on academically verifiable events and aim to present the formal, the informal, and the personal together. The result, I hope, is a picture closer to reality. That, at least, is the intention