Residency in Lucknow undergoes restoration

Post British High Commission intervention, ASI refurbishing graves in the cemetery.The ASI has also launched a restoration drive at the treasury house and other parts of the Residency that have been a standing witness to the First Freedom Movement.

LUCKNOW: ‘Near this spot are interred the remains of John Sherbrooke Banks, Major of the 33rd Regiment who fell in Lucknow on 21st July, 1857’—reads an epitaph on a grave in the cemetery located in the Residency here that recently underwent restoration.

The gravesin the Residency cemetery in Lucknow being repaired. (HT)

Preservation of Bank’s grave is part of the Archaeological Survey of India’s (ASI) recent exercise launched to restore and preserve the graves in the cemetery among the ruins of the Residency. The ASI has also launched a restoration drive at the treasury house and other parts of the Residency that have been a standing witness to the First Freedom Movement.

ASI officials said the initiative was the outcome of repeated British High Commission requests to ASI regarding maintenance and preservation of the graves in the cemetery on the Residency premises. “One of the biggest restoration drives has been launched in the Residency. We are restoring and preserving the graves in the cemetery that were in a shambles,”,” said Aftab Hussain, superintending archaeologist (SA), ASI, Lucknow Circle.

Hussain said the British High Commission approached the ASI multiple times regarding the restoration of the graves in the cemetery.

“There are more than 100 graves in the cemetery that were in bad shape and in need of immediate repair,” an official engaged in the restoration exercise said. Most graves needed plastering and cleaning and in some graves stone replacement was required, the official said.

The ASI is also carrying out the restoration work at the Treasury House in the Residency. “The restoration is being done in a way that the originality of the ruins remains intact. This is perhaps for the first time when the Residency has witnessed such a massive restoration drive,” the officials said.