Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Ooty and Yercaud in 2006 and 2007 and visits
to several other hill stations, both colonial and
post-colonial - will ensure that the pictures and
explanations in the author's head, though still
remaining personal constructions, might to
some extent concur with the reality of the 'world
outside'.
Before considering the different visitors to
hill stations and the factors that may have infl u-
enced the construction of their gaze, I fi rst con-
sider the form, function and evolution of hill
resorts. Where possible the aim is to generate a
visual image of these settlements in pictures, but
where such images are unavailable, we resort to
words as a means of creating visuality.
waters had healing properties, and the myth
gradually faded.
From the early years of the 19th century,
growth of the leading hill stations, Simla, Darjeel-
ing, Mahabaleshwar, Ooty and others, was rapid,
and throughout the century the hills became
increasingly attractive as summer resorts for the
European population in India. However, going
to the hills was not all that easy for the earliest
European visitors, as access was so diffi cult
(Price, 1908). There were no roads, only paths,
and in places, these were steep and diffi cult.
Wildlife abounded, some of it dangerous, and
no sooner had tracks been cleared than they
were overgrown or washed away by the mon-
soon rains. When at the hill station, comforts
would have been few in those early days. All
that would have made the whole journey bear-
able were the cooler temperatures, the reduc-
tion in the fl ies and biting insects, the spectacular
scenery and possible meetings with like-minded
British explorers and soldiers (personal commu-
nication, former hill station residents).
The early 19th century was a time when
the British were considering India as a potential
settler colony as the climate of hill stations was
ideally suited to a British or European popula-
tion. A particular virtue of the hills, from the
viewpoint of the early visitors was that unlike
the plains, they were thinly settled. The majority
of Indians considered the cool atmosphere of
the hills unhealthy and going out into the 'night
air' was, and to some extent still is, perceived
the surest way of getting a cold (author's fi eld-
work). If a future settler colony were to be based
on the hills, then these hills had to attract colo-
nizers. Kennedy (1996) argues that the adop-
tion of the term 'hill' station was an attempt to
scale down the remoteness, the isolation and
the overpowering sensation of 'nature untamed'
in what was really a mountain environment.
Mountains were popular in works of art, and the
Grand Tour had brought an appreciation of the
Alps to Britain but these picturesque images in
no way compared with the magnitude of India's
'hills', particularly the Himalayas. According to
Reynolds-Ball (1907, p. 311) 'Himalayas are to
the Alps what these mountains are to the Welsh
Hills', and though much smaller, even the West-
ern and Eastern Ghats of southern India pre-
sented an image of nature as a major barrier to
human existence (Fig. 1.2). It was not just that
Evolution of India's Hill Stations
Most of India's hill stations were created in the
colonial era by the British, for the British (Shaw,
1944; Spencer and Thomas, 1948; Thomas,
1948; Reed, 1979; Kennedy, 1996; Kohli,
2002). As their names suggest, they were con-
fi ned to the hills and mountains, usually between
altitudes of 1200 m and 2250 m (roughly 4000
and 8000 ft) and are to be found in the Himala-
yas and further south on high land in the penin-
sula. Figure 1.1 shows the locations of some of
the major hill stations. It is not quite certain how
many there were, but Kennedy (1996) has iden-
tifi ed some 60, around 20 of which have devel-
oped since independence in 1947. India's hill
environments are believed to have been discov-
ered unoffi cially, by explorers from the East
India Company who wanted to know more
about the sub-continent (Price, 1908). Other
visitors in the early 19th century were soldiers
seeking good health, but very soon a far wider
civilian population was 'going to the hills' for
the same reason (Spencer and Thomas, 1948).
Soldiers would return to the plains refreshed
and hill stations, with their cooler air, developed
a reputation for possessing curative powers.
People with fevers or diarrhoea were said to
have been restored to health after visiting the
hills. 'Going to the hills' in 19th-century India
showed certain parallels with 'taking the waters'
in the spa towns back home (Urry, 2002).
Secretly, those who made these pilgrimages
were hoping for cures, but never was it proven
that either the hill environments or the spa
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