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Road to enlightenment
BY ANGELA KELLY24/11/2006
A CHANCE to "travel" the famous Grand Trunk Road which runs
right across the Indian sub-continent comes to the People's History
Museum in Manchester this month.
In March this year, well-known photographer Tim Smith and oral
historian Irna Qureshi travelled along the famous highway.
Their mission was to compile pictures and information for an
unusual exhibition which has just opened and which runs until
April.
The Grand Trunk Road stretches 1,500 miles from Kabul in
Afghanistan into Pakistan and on to Calcutta in India.
Their journey along it took them from Delhi in India to the Khyber
Pass on the Pakistan/Afghan border.
Tom and Irna were particularly interested in this stretch of the GT
Road, as it is known, because most Hindus and Sikhs from north
India - as well as Pakistanis who now live in Britain - have their
roots along this part of it.
This link is a subject close to the hearts of both Irna and Tim,
who has spent the last 20 years documenting groups of people living
in Britain with their origins overseas, including the Asian
communities of Bradford.
This resulting exhibition is a fascinating photographic collection
personalised by memories, opinions and feelings of the individuals
interviewed and photographed.
The GT Road itself has a particular place in the history of the
Indian sub-continent as it was an early trade route.
In the 16th century, a major road running across the Gangetic plain
was built afresh by Sher Sha Suri, who then ruled much of northern
India. His intention was to link together the most remote provinces
of his vast empire for administrative and military reasons.
The Sadak-e-Asam ("royal road") is universally recognised as having
been the precursor of the Grand Trunk Road.
This endured as his outstanding legacy and the Mughals, who
succeeded the Suris, extended it westwards to Kabul, crossing the
Khyber Pass.
This was later improved by the British rulers of colonial India and
renamed the Grand Trunk Road, earning it the nickname of the Long
Walk as it was extended to run from Calcutta to Peshawar and so to
span a major portion of British India.
The People's History Museum explores world-changing events brought
about by the working people of Britain over the last 200
years.
The exhibition is in the Pump House in Bridge Street and it has its
head office in the former Manchester Mechanics Institute in
Princess Street.
To find out more about the exhibition and other events there, ring
0161 228 7212.
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