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n as “androon sheher” which refers to Old Lahore. It has in its boundaries the most historical and spiritual buildings. Data darbaar (Tomb of Syed Abul Hasan Bin Usman Bin Ali Al-Hajveri), Badshahi Mosque, Minar-e-Pakistan are just a few of the famous mosques and monuments present in such areas. These are places which have a rich history of tradition and culture. The two gates, bhaati and lahori gate are of utmost importance as well. They too are a symbol of our traditions and culture. Whenever the thought of visiting these places crossed my mind, I felt depressed because I always had the impression from childhood that these places were very poorly organized and simply put, filthy and dirty. But when I actually visited the gated areas (after a long time indeed), I felt quite excited. These places were amazing and beautiful. It was my first visit to Data Darbaar and I was very satisfied to finally seeing the place. Data Darbaar was the place from where I gathered the most material for my domain as the Director of Data Darbaar and the Manager of Data Darbaar (Mr.Sheikh Qayyum) were extremely helpful in enlightening me on the specific issue of the religious significance and impact of it on the socio-economic issues/problems of the area.”Why are people always highlighting the problems and negative sides of such traditional places? You people should take a look at how such places have been significant in enlightening the population and bringing spiritualism to life”(Mr.Sheikh Qayyum, personal communication,2011). These were the words of the manager when we first tried to enquire him about other domains of this research project. In the interview and discussion with him that followed, I acquired a significant amount of information about my domain.

Firstly, I came to know that approximately 35 thousand people visit the Data Darbaar every Friday, through Gate number 1 only that is. The total figure would sum up to be around 100,000, which can be considered as quite big. Mr.Sheikh Qayyum started with these figures because he wanted to emphasize on the large number of worshippers that visit the Data Darbaar mosque. He told me that this is arguably the largest number of worshippers gathering for the Friday prayers anywhere in Lahore. The reason he gave was that there is a huge number of followers of Syed Abul Hasan Bin Usman Bin Ali Al-Hajveri.This seemed to be true as I myself saw a number of extremely devoted followers of Syed Abul Hasan, who is also known as Data Ganj Baksh. Although I would also add the fact that free food is distributed among the people to the reason for the large chunks of population visiting such areas. The fact that enormous amount of people visit the darbaar for one reason or another, has positive as well as negative impacts. A sense of spiritualism develops in the Muslims through visiting the Data Darbaar mosque but the large number also contributes to criminal activities. I will not talk about that issue as it is a domain assigned to another member of my group. However, I will certainly discuss the religious point of view. Mr.Sheikh Qayyum tried to convince me that the Data darbaar is playing a significant role in basically driving the population toward Islam. He constantly kept using the figures of massive amounts of people visiting the place daily. I was convinced that this is indeed the case. However, when I interviewed people outside the darbaar I received mixed perceptions about the Data Darbaar. Also