“Banjara Bhavan”, the first house in Banjara Hills built by Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung without disturbing the rocky landscape that inspired the Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore to pen a poem, was reduced to rubble on Monday.
Heritage activists were aghast to find the Grade I listed building where Tagore stayed in 1933 demolished, though the present owners and developers claimed that “the dilapidated structure collapsed in the recent rains.” Neighbours said the demolition had been going on for quite some time now even as the owners desperately tried to get the building de-notified and remove it from the list of those protected by a regulation.
When contacted, Sajjad Shahid, member of the Heritage Conservation Committee of the Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority, said the panel had not received any application for either de-notification or re-development from the owners. It was possible that they may have approached the government directly and when they realised that it may not get the nod for de-notification, could have begun chipping away the building, making it appear as if it has collapsed. Activists say this is a typical move aimed at circumventing the heritage law and many of the heritage buildings have been brought down to make way for multi-storeyed complexes.
P. Anuradha Reddy, who heads INTACH, Hyderabad chapter, wondered why heritage buildings were notified when the government was not in a position to protect them. Demanding stern action, she wanted the GHMC authorities not to give permission for development as was done in the case of other heritage buildings pulled down surreptitiously.
The decimation of the landmark wipes out not only a significant page of city's urban growth history but a cultural symbol where the nation's greatest poet once stayed. Tagore came here at the invitation of the nawab in 1933 and enthused by the undulating rocky landscape called the place “Kohistan” and penned a poem in Bengali and English with the same title.
He liked the place so much that he is believed to have commented that if he did not have his ‘Shanti Niketan' to look after, he would have settled down here.
Passionately built by Nawab Mehdi Nawaz Jung plumb on the rocks in the then hilly forest area, ‘Banjara Bhavan' was the only house in Banjara Hills for a long time.
The nawab was the private secretary to Maharaja Kishen Pershad (Prime Minister of the Nizam), a Minister in Andhra Pradesh and the first Governor of Gujarat. In the late 1920s, he is stated to have bought all of 200 acres in Banjara Hills from Moin Yar Jung who wanted “to dispose of the wasteland”. After building his own house, the nawab made others do the same offering large plots at Rs. 5,000 each, ushering in urbanization of the western part of Hyderabad and transforming it into the most sought after addresses.
