by Parag Ranjan Dutta

Without doubts, India is one of the most favoured tourist destinations of the world today. Millions come to India every year to discover our works of architecture, cultural heritage and the glorious historical past. But of the great number of foreign tourists only few of them venture in the higher reaches of the beautiful hill stations nestled in the Himalayas and elsewhere. Come the sultry summer months thousands of Indians, as if bitten by instinct take days off to the hills to enjoy the salubrious climate. Much before the capital of the country was shifted from Calcutta to Delhi in 1911, a number of hill stations had already been developed in the hills in erstwhile U.P. and Himachal Pradesh. On a later day the British developed cantonments and sanatoria in the hills for the British Army and subsequently for the Indian soldiers.
It is not very easy to trace back a chronological history of the hill stations founded and developed by the British. My story is about some selected ones and begins with the history of Darjeeling. Darjeeling was discovered by Lt. General George Lloyd of the East India Company but it was never a part of India then. In the early part of 1700s Darjeeling was under the administration of Chogyl (King) of Sikkim, inhabited by the local Lepchas. Gorkhas from the neighbouring Nepal made several unsuccessful attempts to invade Sikkim but in 1780 were in full control of the territory. In 181 A war between the British and the Royal Nepal Kingdom broke out in the western front in present day U.P. and in 1816 the Nepalese army lost the battle. The fallout of the battle was seen in the eastern part of India when Nepal was forced to sign a treaty at Sugauli, on March 28, 1861, conceding entire territory, including Darjeeling, annexed from the Chogyl to the East India Company. Sir Ashley Eden, Lieutenant Governor of Bengal signed the treaty on behalf of the British. It was Dr. Archibald Campbell who may be credited to be called the founding father of Darjeeling. A member of the Bengal Medical Service Dr. Campbell was the first superintendant of the sanatorium of Darjeeling.

In 1817 John Sullivan, the collector of Coimbatore was on a mission to the Blue Mountains or the Nilgiri Hills for the first time with a contingent of British and Madras sepoys. After travelling for six days through difficult terrains reached a scenic hill station and was very much fascinated by its beauty. The place was then called Udhagamandalam, derived from Ottakal Mandu, which means village of a single stone. The place was inhabited by the local tribal people, called the Todas. In 1822 Sullivan bought a land from the Todas and built a permanent house and named it ‘Stone House’, and planted an oak tree in the compound. Wellington, another beautiful hill station was founded by John Sullivan in1820. The cantonment town of Wellington is the home to the Madras Regimental Centre and the Defence Services Staff College.

Around the same time Shimla was founded by the British when General Hastings declared a war against Nepal I 1814 for economic reasons. The main reason behind this invasion was Nepal’s growing army strength and its vintage location. Anglo Nepalese war was fought between1814-16, and after the war the treaty of Sugauli between the Gorkha chiefs and the British, some areas of present-day Nepal was ceded to the British East India Company. Prior to the coming of the British, Shimla, the ‘Queen of the Hills’ was ruled by the Gorkhas. During the war Anglo Nepalese war with the British found a temple of the Goddess Shyamala in the midst of a dense forest. Goddess Shyamala Devi is actually an incarnation of the Goddess Kali. From then on the place came to be known as Shimla, after Goddess Shymala.

In the 19th century after the Gorkha conquest of the Kumaon – Garhwal region under one Umer Singh Thapa the British moved from Dehradun, the state capital, to Mussoorie, approximately twenty kilometres to the to build a sanatorium. It is then the British raised their Gorkha battalion. It is believed that Mussoorie has been derived from an indigenous shrub, mansur which used to grow on the hill slopes and extensively used by shepherds to graze their sheep. To the south Mussoorie overlooks the Doon Valley and the Lower Siwalik Range. Mussoorie, the beautiful hill station was actually founded by one Lieutenant Frederick Young, an Irish officer of the East India Company when he ventured into the hills for shooting game around 1823. Frederick decided to build a hunting lodge on the Camel Back road, located at the foothills of the Garhwal Himalayas.

Captain Young, the commandant of the first Gorkha Battalion, built his house in the twin town of Landour and named it Mullingar, after the name of his native place in Ireland. Scotts and Irish were very nostalgic in naming their houses in a faraway place from their homes. The small cantonment town is known for its colonial-type architecture and triangular-roofed house. Landour, considered a part of Mussoorie is known for fairytale atmosphere to the outsiders. The quiet small town is ideal for sidewalks among the greenery. The name Landour is drawn from Llanddowor, a village in Carmarthenshire in South West Wales.

After the Anglo-Sikh war Punjab province came under the British rule. It was then that one Lt. Col. Napier, the chief engineer of the Punjab Province spotted a beautiful place in the Chamba Valley of Himachal Pradesh. In 1854 Sir Donald Macleod suggested that the charming hill station founded by Napier be named after Lord Dalhousie. Lord Dalhousie the Governor General of India wanted to establish summer resort here. Lansdown, the little explored hill station and not very far off from Dalhousie was founded by the British Viceroy in 1887. In the wake of the Tibetan uprising in 1959 his Holiness Dalai Lama escaped from Lhasa. The head quarter of the Tibetan Government in exile was shifted to Macleodganj, a suburb of picturesque Dharamshala in the Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh. In the 18th century the region fell to the Gorkhas and after the Anglo- Sikh war, the settlement was named Macleodganj. Today Macleod Ganj is known as ‘Litte Lhasa’. Macleodganj is the home of the local tribes, the Gaddis and Gujjars. It was named after Sir Donald Macleod, the former Lt. Governer of Punjab. Ranikhet though ruled by the Kumaoni rulers, it was the British who took over the beautiful hill station of the Kumaon in 1859, where they wanted to develop a cantonment. Lord Mayo was so much impressed with the place that he wanted to shift the summer capital from Shimla to Ranikhet. But the plan did not work. The British developed the place and built a cantonment, which is now the head quarter of the Kumaon Regiment.

One of the marvels of Kerala, Munnar, known for its tea plantations was accidentally discovered by John Daniel Munroe, a British resident of Travancore kingdom, Kerala, when he was asked to solve a dispute between the Kingdom and Madras. One A.H. Sharp was the first person to plant tea bushes in about 50 acres of land. In 1895 Finlay and Muir bought 33 estates. In 1964, the Tata Group entered the area and started a collaboration with Tata Finley, a new horizon opened up in tea industry. Munnar, a lovely hill station in the Western Ghats of the Iduki district of Kerala is a former resort of the British Raj. The lush green hill slopes dotted with tea and coffee plantations look like Alpine Meadows. Munnar, known as ‘Kashmir of South India’ is famous for a rare flower Nellakurinji which flowers in every twelve years from August to October.

In 1842 Sir Thomas Munroe, the Governor of Madras Residency discovered Yercud near Shevaroy Hills in the Eastern Ghats. Etymologically the name Yercud has been derived from two Tami words, ‘yer’ meaning lake and ‘kadu’ from forest. But it was David Cockburn who really developed the place with the introduction of coffee, pears and apple. In 1821 lt. B.S. Ward was the first person to visit Kodaikanal, the Princess of Hills when he was on a mission to survey the area around Palani Hills. In Tamil language Kodaikanal means’ the gift of the forests’. Henry Levinge, the collector of Madurai district created the beautiful Kodai lake by damming three streams.

In 1816 The Baptist Missionary Society of England established the Serampore Mission near Calcutta. In 1822 David Scott, known as Iskat Sahep to the locals was appointed Agent to the Governor General of India for North Eastern Frontiers. In 1832 18 year old Alexander Lish was sent by Willam Carey of Serampore Mission to commence missionary operations in Cherra. Old Cherra or Sohrarim was the original Cherra village, but with the coming of the British the village came to be known as Sohra.

The British made Cherra their first summer capital. But the climatic conditions and facilities of Chrrapunji did not make British happy. The place was too wet for them. Thomas Jones and his wife arrived in Cherrapunji on 22nd June, 1841. He opened three schools at Mawmluh and Sohra. Jones was known as the father of the Khasi alphabet. The coming of the British to Cherra had a distant connection to Assam. To understand the backdrop we have to go back to the days of the Ahom rule. Assam was in turmoil during the rule of Gaurinath Singha Moamaria rebellion and the Burmese invasion destabilized the region. Raja Gourinath Singha was advised by his ministers to approach the British for a solution. Gourinath sought the help of Lord Cornwallis.At that point of time the British were reluctant to colonize in Assam. At long last the British Army entered Assam and defeated the Burmese Army. After the treaty of Yandaboo ( Burma) on 24th February,1826, formally ended the Anglo-Burmese War and the whole of Assam Manipur were ceded to the British. In order to connect Surma Valley the British wanted to establish a station north of Chatak in the hills far north. And Cherra was selected.

In search of a much drier place the British arrived at a farming village known as Laban. Shillong became the new civil station in 1864 and made the British headquarter. The place was then known as Yeddo or Iewduh, the market place of the Syiem of Mylliem. Hopkins did not like idea of naming the settlement Yeddo, because there was another place called Yeddo in Japan, which is today’s Tokyo. Hopkins renamed the settlement at the foothills of the revered Shillong Peak as Shillong.
So it can very well be said that today we are enjoying the sweet fruits once nurtured by the British.

The author was the former Head Department of Geography, St. Edmund’s College