When I first came to London in 1993, I was very keen to see the parks, art galleries, libraries, theaters and museums of the British capital, which still stands today. A walk in the parks especially here gives me a kind of spiritual satisfaction and dedication. However, London is a wonderful city with over 3,000 green and varied parks.
In the center of this city there is a Hyde Park covering an area of ​​three hundred and fifty acres, which is considered to be the largest park in the center of the capital of any country in the world. The history of this park is very interesting.
This park was built in 1536 by King Henry VIII as his hunting ground, which was later opened to the public by King Charles in 1637. In 1665, when the plague broke out in Great Britain, Hyde Park was also used as a military camp for some time.
In 1887, Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee celebrations were also held in the same park, where a banquet was organized for 26,000 children from different schools and royal gifts were also given to them. In 1880, a pet cemetery of the royal family was built in a part of Hyde Park, in which about three hundred animals are buried.
At the end of the 20th century, thousands of trees in the same park contracted a special disease that caused them to be cut down and planted with maple trees and dozens of other trees and plants. Hyde Park currently has more than 4,000 trees and plants besides the Flower Gardens.
The park also has a unique identity for royal events, musical concerts, festivals and military parades. When Pope Benedict visited the UK in September 2010, around 80,000 people gathered in Hyde Park for a prayer service. Similarly, in 2012, a huge festival was held in this park on the occasion of the Diamond Jubilee of the Queen of Great Britain.
One of the unique characteristics of Hyde Park is the Speakers Corner, which was built in 1872, after which it was built in 5 other parks in London and in different cities of the United Kingdom. Such speaker corners were also made.
Not only this, but now there are speakers of this style in Sydney, Canada, America, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Holland, New Zealand, Singapore, Thailand and Trinidad and Tobago.
Speakers’ Corner in Hyde Park, London is not only a symbol of freedom of speech, but also a historic place where figures like Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin and George Orwell have given speeches. From 1906 to 1914, when the movement for women’s rights and the right to vote in general elections was going on in Britain, Speakers’ Corner was the most important center for the expression of women’s demands.
In February 2003, when the United States imposed a war on Iraq and the United Kingdom supported it, more than a million people protested against the decision of the Labor government, and this Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park became a center of freedom of expression for every pacifist. Stayed. When I first visited Hyde Park in 1994, it was a bright summer day. Due to Sunday, there was a lot of confusion in Speakers Corner. At a little distance, many people were standing on stools giving speeches.
Someone was venting his anger against the Queen of Great Britain, while someone was insulting the glory of Jesus Christ. He was showing full enthusiasm and enthusiasm. Someone was lamenting the era of slavery of black people, while someone was proclaiming the denial of the existence of God.
Someone was raising his voice in favor of the poor of the third world and people deprived of the basic necessities of life, while Hitler was issuing the order to exterminate the Jews, someone was aware of the dangers of the rapidly growing population in the world.
While doing so, someone was giving the news of the signs of destruction and destruction of the world soon. A man was standing on a stool giving a speech in favor of the Palestinians and a few monks were listening to his speech silently holding the Israeli flag nearby, when suddenly, due to a strong gust of wind, the Israeli flag came out of a plastic stick and turned into a Palestinian flag.
He fell under his feet and got tangled in the wooden stool. The people standing nearby started clapping with excitement. It was just a coincidence or the will of nature, but I felt that sometimes even a breath of wind indicates the fate of the oppressor and the oppressed.
Bhant Bhant dialects are spoken in Speakers Corner. Here people take out their hearts and believe that they have fought a great battle. Perhaps in this way their life becomes lighter and they get relief for some time from psychological and mental pressure.
By the way, anyone can express their opinion or be a part of the discussion in the Speakers Corner, but it is important that the freedom of expression of other people or persons does not turn into a scuffle or fight, otherwise the police have to intervene. . I left the hustle and bustle of Speakers’ Corner and sat down on a bench by the beautiful lake (Serpentaton Lake) in the middle of Hyde Park. The evening was falling
. Swans and ducks were swimming in the water and flocks of wild pigeons were flying towards their nests filling the adari from different parts of the park. The atmosphere was dominated by a certain silence and serenity and I was thinking that every city in Pakistan should have a Hyde Park and a Speakers Corner where people can pour their hearts out in the name of freedom of expression.
They can have open debates so that they are safe from psychological and mental oppression, but then I wondered whether the tolerance level in Pakistani society is at a level where we don’t bleed when we hear the dissenting words of others. Open up? It is only thanks to education, training and knowledge that the spirit of endurance is matured in humans.
In a society where every moment is taught not to comfort and accept each other’s religion and ideology, instead brainwashing is done there. Even if Hyde Park and Speakers’ Corner are built in a city and people are allowed to speak freely there, dozens of dead bodies will have to be lifted from there every day because people in the Islamic Republic of Pakistan now talk in the language of guns and bullets instead of argument.
Instead of knowledge, weapons and ammo are spreading rapidly in the country and people’s endurance is shrinking to a dangerous extent.
I wanted to limit this column to Hyde Park and Speakers Corner, but I don’t know why it reached the tolerance of us Pakistanis. However, if you ever come to London, make sure to include a visit to Hyde Park in your itinerary. I
t is open from 5 AM to 12 PM. Apart from the fountain installed in July 2004 in memory of Princess Diana, the Joy of Life Fountain is a special attraction for every tourist. If you enter the park from Oxford Street and Marble Arch, you will also see Speakers’ Corner in front.
Hyde Park has witnessed political, social and royal events in British history since 1637. Established over five centuries ago, this park has not only retained its uniqueness and grandeur, but its beauty and serenity have continued to grow with the passage of time. Living nations protect their historical and natural assets in the same way.