art of travel

The Mall on the main ridge served as the axis of a hill station. With benches and kiosks, this tree-lined promenade connected the various European wards with their charming residential cottages and hotels. Observatories were set up at the summit of the highest ridges and hills that offered panoramic views. This was done both for leisure and strategic reasons. From the Observatory Hill in Darjeeling, one can enjoy a stunning sunrise over Mt. Kanchenjunga on a clear day minus the crowd of Tiger Hills. It is also the site of the Mahakal Temple, revered by both Hindus and Buddhists. This is from where the story of Darjeeling or Dorjé-ling, “the place of the thunderbolt” began. Shops, churches, banks, post offices, assembly rooms, libraries, gymkhanas, clubs, and playgrounds were all built at the edge of the Mall. The Military cantonments and the bazaars that provided supplies were located outside the Mall area. The settlements of the Indians who served the gentry were even further.

From the mid-19th – century onwards, the hill stations of India witnessed very interesting times that led to their diversification. The use of purified quinine which facilitated correct dosing to treat Malaria was a breakthrough during this period. There was an unprecedented rigour in the efforts of the British Raj to distribute and enforce the consumption of quinine. Systematic planting of Cinchona initially started at Ootacamund (present Ooty) followed by Darjeeling and Sikkim. And gradually, it became the economic backbone of the hills where cinchona plants were integrated into the wider colonial plantation economy. The now famed Darjeeling Himalayan Toy train which chugged up and down the hills of North Bengal was used in transporting the bark of Cinchona plants to manufacture quinine. This progress in the treatment of Malaria meant that long stays in the hill stations were no longer required. But in spite of this, doctors continued sending their patients, particularly women, and children, to the hill stations to recover. Keeping with Victorian ideology and social Darwinism to produce the strong men that the Empire needed to rule India, this was also the time when a lot of boarding schools were established in the hill stations.

Post the Great Indian Mutiny of 1857, many hill stations became British Army headquarters and summer capitals for civil administration. The remote locations of the hill stations proved to be of great advantage while sheltering women and children during the Mutiny. As a result, there was a large influx of the British civil and administrative elite from the big cities of Calcutta, Bombay, and Madras to the mountainous periphery of the Empire with their entourage of Indian servants. They were all housed in the crowded bazaars located below or at quite a distance from the English wards. Towards the end of the 19th century, the colonial project of the hill stations witnessed a new entrant which put to an end the British claims of exclusivity on the hill stations of India – the Maharajas and the princes of India who built their summer castles, bungalows, and manors despite the opposition of the British gentry. They were soon joined by rich Indian businessmen who purchased properties in the English wards not only as their summer residences but also for rent to European holidaymakers. They also built hotels that catered only to the Indian elite who would come on holiday and spend time with their children studying in the boarding schools. Socialising and recreation in the hill stations progressively took over from what started off as health–cum–vacation getaways from the tropical maladies during summer a century ago.

With Shimla becoming the summer capital of the British Raj at the beginning of the 20th century, socialising and recreation soon gave way to decadence. Here is an excerpt from a letter written by a British gentleman to his mother from Shimla – “Last night I went to a ball given by the German Consul who is the richest man in Simla and gives the best entertainments. The narrowness of the space rather prevented me from showing off my fine stride but I did not get very much bored, which is generally the best I can say of a ball. Thursdays I am going to Viceroy’s for a dance and I am afraid I shall get entrapped for several others”. Soon after, Kalka in the plains was connected to Shimla by what is now the Kalka-Shimla toy train passing through quaint stations with stories legends are made of. At about the same time, Madras (now Chennai) was connected to the hill station of Ootacamund (now Ooty) by the present-day Nilgiri Mountain Toy train.

India’s independence in 1947 resulted in the hill stations of India losing their shine temporarily, although the Indian elite who assumed the leadership of the country after the departure of the British continued their sojourn in the hills every summer and joined their children studying in the boarding schools during holidays. But the hill stations made a strong comeback with the formation of new states and many became state capitals such as Shimla, Dehradun etc. With the emerging middle class of the 1960s starting to travel, the hill stations no longer remained exclusive to the elite of Indian society. Bollywood on its part played a great role in popularising the hill stations in the public imagination. “Mere Sapno Ki Rani” from the film Aradhana (1969) is still considered to be one of the most romantic songs to be shot on a train, the Darjeeling Himalayan toy train in this case, while the more recent film Barfi (2012) is shot across many picturesque locations in Darjeeling.

Today, if the elites of India have villas and bungalows in the hill stations where they holiday in the summer with their retinue of servants just like the British did before them; there are also all categories of hotels, from the very simple budget guesthouses to the more swanky ones, some from the colonial age, scattered across all the wards. The romance of the hill stations continues!!