Lahore at the crossroads

Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran have produced an empathetic guide to a remarkable city

In their brief introduction to Lahore in the Time of the Raj,  authors Ian Talbot and Tahir Kamran point to the dichotomies that mark most colonial cities in the Indian sub-continent — the confused and congested sprawl of the old and native city and the ordered elegance and manicured spaces of the new colonial city with landmarks that are familiar in every such city. These include the Civil Lines where most of the civilian bureaucracy lived and worked; the Cantonment that housed the military units with separate quarters for the colonial masters and the natives; the inevitable club and the