Lalit Gupta
JAMMU, July 20: Presenting the visual narrative of life and works of Girdhari Lal Dogra, the ongoing photo-exhibition at the Zorawar Singh Auditorium, University of Jammu, surely offers a unique opportunity for viewers to get a clear idea about great leader’s long and productive innings of active public and political life.
Inaugurated on July 17, 2015, by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the occasion of function marking Girdhari Lal Dogra’s birth centenary celebrations, the well mounted and well presented week-long exhibition with more than one hundred panels on display emerges as a photo-essay that with combination of text and photographs portrays a comprehensive view of great Dogra leader’s life from 1915, the year of his birth to 1987 when he passed away.
Organized by Girdhari Lal Dogra Memorial Trust, the exhibition aptly titled ‘The Peoples Man’, chronologically traces Girdhari Lal Dogra’s humble origin, parental house at village Bhaiya of Hiranagar tehsil, trail of his education through various schools, higher education at Hindu College Amritsar, degree in Law from Lahore in early 1940s, apprenticeship under lawyer Dina Nath Mahajan, and later joining politics.
The sequence of photo and text panels then present account of his marriage to Shakuntla Devi in 1942, birth of two daughters in 1956 and 1962. It is followed by description of the political life in the State, partition of the country, Dogra Sahib’s appointment as Emergency Officer at Kathua to look after the welfare of refugees, and in 1948 joining as minster of finance in the newly formed State Government with Sheikh Mohammad Abdulla as Prime Minister.
It is followed by panels that highlight his active involvement in landmark steps like the J&K Big Landed Estate Abolition Act, 1950, and ownership rights to peasants, setting of Chenab Textile Mills at Kathua when he became Minister of industry in 1965. After winning consequent elections, he served as Minister of revenue, foods and supplies, planning, finance, law, tourism, industries and labour.
The panels on Dogra Sahib’s ‘political life in centre’ after being elected twice as Member of Parliament, paint a comprehensive picture of his close proximity to the national leaders like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, Morar Ji Desai, Gyani Jail Singh, Indira Gandhi and others. A set of photo panels show Dogra Sahib with foreign dignitaries and heads of State who visited J&K during those days.
The exhibition that successfully chronicles the eventful life of quintessentially simple, down to earth Girdhari Lal Dogra, also emerges as a true visual narrative of the leader of masses. It is also a document of great historic importance especially in times when politics is a much maligned sphere of public life.
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