Tea at Golra Junction

Traveling back in time, 2018

By: Shameelah R. Balkhi (MS Yale), Durriyah Balkhi Asghar (CPA)

In the picturesque, quiet countryside, 15 minutes off Margalla Road, among small shops and
free range chickens, dozes Golra Railway Junction. Still functional after 137 years, connecting
the south of the country with Peshawar, Golra's train station also houses Pakistan Railways
Heritage Museum. On a leisurely drive with my sister, between Islamabad's sectors E11 and
G13, as the crow flies, we stopped to make a brief cultural visit, but this treasure chest of
nostalgia had us spell bound for hours.

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The museum sits at 1994 feet above sea level. The enormous hand crane, the gigantic wrenches
and other railway line
fixing tools
highlighted how
hardy people were
just a few decades
ago.

Solid, several inches

thick, metal wrenches
that most people
today would find
difficult to even lift,
let alone work. Note
the size of the car
keys for comparison.

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 Top Left: A chain. An adult’s slipper next to
it for comparison. Top Right: A rail tongue
to lift the track for the maintenance of the
track. Middle Right: A rattler and hand
cranked siren. Bottom Right: A hand crane.

Inside the museum, the hand cranked

siren that rises to ever higher volumes
with each turn of its handle transported us
onto the set of a World War movie.

The medical kit carried on trains (that

included an amputation saw) showed us
what our grandfather's tools of trade
might have been.

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 A surgeon’s instruments.

A glass container to hold the medicine for an IV.

A morse code machine.

A token machine. Modern looking cutlery.

The lanterns and token machine were so quaint, while the guns and crockery used a century
ago looked like they might have just been borrowed from someone's house.

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But visually jarring were the signboards in English, Hindi and Urdu listing the price of a cup of
tea and showing a Sikh, a Muslim and a Hindu, separately, drinking tea.

I suppose this is what

Quaid-e-Azam built his case
for Pakistan on. Beverly
Nichols interviewed Quaid-
e-Azam in 1943 and
included it in his 1944
book Verdict On India:

Nichols: How would you

describe the ‘vital principles’
of Pakistan?

Jinnah: In five words. The

Muslims are a Nation…

Nichols: When you say the

Muslims are a Nation, are
you thinking in terms of
religion?

Jinnah: Partly, but by no

means exclusively. You must
remember that Islam is not
merely a religious doctrine
but a realistic and practical
Code of Conduct. I am
thinking in terms of life, of
everything important in life.
I am thinking in terms of our
history, our heroes, our art,
our architecture, our music,
our laws, our
jurisprudence…

Nichols: Please, I would like

to write these things down.

Jinnah (after a pause): In all

these things our outlook is
not only fundamentally
different but often radically

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 antagonistic to the Hindus. We
are different beings. There is
nothing in life which links us
together. Our names, our
clothes, our foods—they are all
different; our economic life, our
educational ideas, our
treatment of women, our
attitude to animals... we
challenge each other at every
point of the compass. Take one
example, the eternal question
of the cow. We eat the cow, the
Hindus worship it. A lot of
Englishmen imagine that this
‘worship’ is merely a picturesque
convention, an historical survival.
It is nothing of the sort. Only a
few days ago, in this very city,
the cow question became a
matter for the police. The Hindus
were thrown into the greatest
agitation because cows were
being killed in public. But the cow
question is only one of a
thousand. (A pause) What have
you written down?

Nichols: I have only written ‘The Muslims are a Nation.’

Jinnah: And do you believe it?

Nichols: I do.

The two nation theory was as real

as the carriage that Quaid-e-Azam
and Lord Mountbatten had used.
For an extra RS 50 you can tour it.
Its elegant wood paneling,
contemporary-looking furniture
and bathtub came to Pakistan
amid "history's greatest
migration”i involving 14 million
people.

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 The carriage that Quaid-e-Azam had traveled in.
How did Quaid-e-Azam believe things would pan out in the economic domain?

Nichols: Are the Muslims likely to be richer or poorer under Pakistan? And would you
set up tariffs against the rest of India?

Jinnah: I’ll ask you a question for a change. Supposing you were asked which you would
prefer…a rich England under Germany or a poor England free, what would your answer
be?

Nichols: It’s hardly necessary to say.

Jinnah: Quite. Well, doesn’t that make your question look a little
shoddy? This great ideal rises far above mere questions of
personal comfort or temporary convenience. The Muslims are a
tough people, lean and hardy. If Pakistan means that they will have to be a little
tougher, they will not complain. But why should it mean that? What conceivable reason
is there to suppose that the gift of nationality is going to be an economic liability?

A sovereign nation of a hundred million people—even if they are not immediately self-
supporting and even if they are industrially backward is hardly likely to be in a worse

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 economic position than if its
members are scattered and
disorganized, under the
dominance of two hundred
and fifty million Hindus
whose one idea is to exploit
them.

There are currently at least 135

separatist movements in India. The
state of India's minorities is not
hidden from any who wish to know
it either. However, the main point
Quaid-e-Azam made with this
answer illustrates that he
envisioned an ideological state
independent of Hindu rule.

Elsewhere Quaid-e-Azam
expounded:

"It is my belief that our salvation lies

in following the Golden Rules of
conduct set for us by our great law-
giver, the Prophet of Islam."ii

“We do not want any flag excepting

the League flag of Crescent and Star.
Islam is our Guide and a Complete
Code of our life. We don’t want any
Red or Yellow flag. We don’t want
any isms: Socialism, Communism or
National Socialism.”iii

Nichols then asked the Quaid if his

positive expectations regarding
Pakistan extended to its defence as
well.

The bronze plaque on this postal van reads: THIS LETTER BOX, WHICH WAS TAKEN FROM A RAILWAY
STATION ON THE TANGA-MOSCHI LINE IN GERMAN EAST AFRICA, CAPTURED BY THE BRITISH
DURING 1916, WAS PRESENTED TO THE LAHORE POST OFFICE BY MAJOR GENERAL SIR R. HEWART
D.A. AND Q.M.G. IN RECOGNITION OF THE SERVICES RENDERED BY POSTAL OFFICIALS OF THIS
CIRCLE TO THE EAST AFRICAN EXPEDITIONARY FORCE.

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 Jinnah: Of course it applies to defence. Once again I will ask you a question. How is
Afghanistan defended? Well? The answer is not very complicated. By the Afghans. Just
that. We are a brave and united people who are prepared to work and, if necessary,
fight. So how does the question of defence present any peculiar difficulties?

The cash safe next to the guard room.

If one of the poorest countries of the world can be the graveyard of three consecutive empires,
British, Russian and American, then what's holding resource laden Pakistan from rising
according to its aspirations?

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 Left: A
telephone
used in the
railway
control room.

Right: A
theodolite – a
precision
instrument
used for
measuring
angles, both
horizontally
and vertically.

Below: A train
passing
through Golra
Junction.

Tea please!

i Nigel Smith, Pakistan: History, Culture, and Government

ii Daily The Pakistan Times, February 15, 1948, The Morning News, February 17, 1948, -vide- The
Nation’s Voice, Vol 7 2003, p182
iii The Eastern Times, March 21, 1944 – vide – Speeches, Statements & Messages of Quaid-e-

Azam, Vol. 3, Ed, Khurshid Ahmad Khan Yusufi, p 1861

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