Shimla town's amazing history: British then Indian

 Vice Regal Lodge

By 1808 Gurkha invaders had con­qu­ered many of the fortified posts near Shimla/Simla and began th­eir ruthless rule over neigh­bouring hill states, so the lo­cals ap­p­eal­ed for British help. A small Bri­t­ish force un­d­er Maj Gen Dav­id Ochterlony arrived and the majority of hill chiefs re­sponded to his call. After the Anglo-Nepalese war heated up in 1814 and continued till 1816, the Brit­ish East In­dia Co transferred control of the region to Maharaja of Pat­iala, rewarding him for allying with the British.

Once de­f­eated by super­ior Brit­ish guns, the Gurkhas HAD to sign a treaty, allowing the British East India Company to re­tain the strategic forts. All the Chieftains who helped the British expel the Gur­k­has were rest­or­ed to their land under British prot­ection.

Shimla’s history can be div­ided into 1]the British era and 2]post-Indian Independence. In the British era the image of God­dess Kali was shifted to a new place, now Kali Bari Temple. Only in 1819 did the Assis­t­. Polit­ical Ag­ent of Hill States Lt Ross have a British wooden cottage. His successor Lt Ch­arles Kennedy erected the first proper house.

Shimla’s geography was rugged, built over several hills and up to 6000 ms high. Soon stories about Shimla’s climate resembling Brit­ain reach­ed many officers, and increasing numbers of officers st­art­ed visiting town in the hot, humid Indian summer. Sl­owly the peop­le who came to stay start­ed increasing so they buil­t houses and offices for the sen­ior officers. When the suit­able accomm­od­ation was avail­able, Gov Generals and Commanders-in-chief moved in. The other senior off­icers, their fam­il­ies and staff stayed at Shim­la for a social life. Then Ind­ian bus­in­ess­men fol­lowed to cater for British demand for supp­lies and ser­vices, and new boarding schools were est­abl­ished for upper-class students.

Christ Church

Beauty of India

Building Hindustan Tibet Road was started in 1850-1, com­m­en­cing from Kalka and then up to Shimla. The Road was used for wheeled traffic, then a very long tun­nel was built.

The First War of Independence spread over most of the country in 1857, but Shimla remained unaff­ected. Christ Church was built in the neo-Gothic style in 1857, largely to serve the Anglican Brit­ish people on the open Ridge, still an enduring legacy of the Raj.

The Ridge 

In 1863 Viceroy of India John Lawrence moved the capital of Bri­t­ish In­dia from Cal­cut­ta each winter, to Shimla each summer. In 1864 Shimla was formally declared Summer Capital; the mass mig­rat­ion of vice­roys, mi­litary att­aches, 5,000 imperial staff, families and serv­ants continued for decad­es. But note the rugged 1,900 ks trip by bullock cart from Calcutta took 5 tough days. In 1876 Lord Lytton started town planning, including ad­min­­istrat­ive, town hall, library and thea­t­res.

Shimla sits on a panoramic site, sur­rounded by green pastures and snow-capped peaks. The spectac­ular cool hills still have the col­onial era structures that create an aura, very different from ot­her hill stat­ions. Exp­anding rapidly, Shimla retained its colonial herit­age, with grand old build­ings, the stately Vice-regal Lodge, charming iron lamp posts and Anglo-Saxon names. See inside the im­posing, extravag­ant Vice-regal Lodge which later housed a series of Bri­tish rul­ers eg Lords Elgin, Canning, Curzon and Moun­t­batten.

The government’s Kalka-Shimla narrow-gauge railway line opened in 1903, increasing the town’s accessibility, and boosting its devel­opment. This railway line was known as the British Jewel of Orient but governing from afar, even with the tele­graph, had consequences

The Imperial summer capital was from where 1/5 of hum­an­ity was once ruled. Still, the Viceroy directly ruled a larger pop­ul­ation than the Br­itish monarch. Modern-day India, Pakistan, Bang­ladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka were governed from Shimla amid colon­ial picnics, balls, hunts, cock­tail parties, races, polo games and cricket matches. Shimla combined the British id­yll with the entire resources of the Indian subcont­in­ent, but solely for elites and their servants.

 Elegant social life for British citizens in Shimla

 PeepulTree

Kipling, who visited Shimla frequently in the 1880s, wrote of the in­tense flirtation, trysts and steamy social life. Sc­ores of young British girls, in search of suitable husbands, turned up in Shimla ready to impress, only to find stiff rivalry from more experienced ladies in their 40s visiting alone.

But if Brits were romantic with their own, they shunned ev­eryone else. Simla was an escape from “nat­ive cul­ture” since soc­ial interaction between races was not tolerated. Its neighbour­hoods reflected the stark div­isions. At the top of the Ridge lived the Viceroy, senior British officers and weal­thy re­sidents. Brit­ons who permanently resid­ed in Ind­ia and mixed-race Anglo-Indians lived a tier below, around the Mall and cent­ral part of town. And the Ind­ian cool­ies, lab­ourers, rickshaw pullers and washer women lived in the Low­er Baz­aar, their inferior status clear to all.  

Towards the top of Ridge,

houses became bigger and classier.

In 1946 Indian nationalist leaders came to Shimla for a crucial conference that paved the way to Independ­ence. Post-Independence, 28 nearby princely states were merged and the state of Himachal Prad­esh started with India’s Const­it­ution in Jan 1950. Shimla was the state capital.

Annandale, a strategic site near the Ridge, houses the spec­ial Army Heritage Museum, established in 2006 May by Army Training Command Shimla. The history is from ancient times, so see weap­ons, am­m­unit­ions, medals and unif­orms of great Ind­ian warriors, all the way to the dev­el­­op­ed Indian Army today. And see the surrender let­ter of Pakistan’s 1971 war. Annandale was also a centre of sports grounds for cricket, riding and polo.

The government and the wealthy still colonise the Ridge. But now a new generation of young In­dians consider the town a permanent home they love and are preserving. Today herit­age buildings are Shim­la’s core econ­omic asset, and tourism of the colonial past is keen. The small, narrow-gauge train still chugs in from the flat bel­ow so tourists can roam the charming, pedestrianised shopping Mall.

Train has a steep climb up to Shimla  

Read Raja Bhasin’s book, Simla, the summer capital of British India, 2011.