The Clock Tower, standing tall in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk area, was built in 1980 within the flourishing market of Srinagar. A business hub in Kashmir, named after the market place, Red Square in Moscow.
A comparison can be made by viewing the maps of both the places in which one can see that both are populated with a number of shops and places to visit. Tourists visit this historical monument place to experience the culture of Kashmir through the market by its intricate shop studded lanes and local eatery shops. Unlike Moscow’s Red Square, Lal Chowk doesn’t have any river flowing around next to it but the famous Dal Lake is in the vicinity. Important religious, cultural and political processions, highlights and photographs are witness of its symbolic significance.
The market surrounding Lal Chowk is magnificent and anyone can take a dip into into Kashmir’s beautiful local arts, crafts and rich socio-cultural fabric through the souvenirs. There are authentic Kashmiri food restaurants inclusive of both the elaborate Wazwaan- a diners delight and also casual Kandirwans or local bakeries, tujji or kebab stalls and tea stalls preparing and serving tea in samovars for the casual roadside eaters. There is a myriad of textiles, leather goods and dry fruit shops around the Lal Chowk. Booksellers, Jewellers and mobile phones and accessories dealers also have a niche here. The area is dotted with accommodation lodges priced at varying rates, both high and low budget, for the travel and shopping enthusiasts coming from various places both within and outside the valley.
Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, due to its reputation of being a commercial hub and an old business centre since decades, has garnered an equivalence to New Delhi’s famous Connaught Place. Lal Chowk is indeed a centre of attraction for local and outside tourists as well as dealers of various commodities who come here to procure goods.
In India’s historical timeline too, the Lal Chowk maintains great significance. At this very place in 1948, Pandit Nehru, then Prime Minister of India, addressed Kashmiri people for first time after its accession to India. The Clock Tower in Lal Chowk has always held a significant importance and many great leaders have also tried to hoist the Tiranga atop the Clock Tower though could not succeed until on Jan 26 2022, when on the 73rd Republic Day, two local Kashmiri Muslim youth Sajid Yousuf Shah and Sahil Bashir proudly took the Indian flag to the top of Ghanta Ghar and hoisted it. The Tiranga was brought in few hours down due to dilapidated condition of the Ghanta Ghar which awaits repair and renovation. On the occasion of 73rd Republic Day Lal Chowks flag hoisting was followed by singing of the National Anthem to uphold the pride of India.
In present times too, the Lal Chowk continues to hold paramount relevance politically and economically, especially for the citizens of this country since a couple of decades. Every day in the evening, the red brick tower is illuminated with the tricolor, increasing the majestic symbolism of the place. Lal Chowk remains the mute spectator of the historical, political and cultural revolution of the erstwhile state, now a buzzing union territory.
