Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Fig. 1.9.
Crowded dwellings around Coonoor bazaar. Source: author, Coonoor (2007).
Ooty, Conoor or somewhere as small as Yer-
caud. They all had features in common: at the
centre of each was the Anglican church, the club
which was a particularly British institution
(Sinha, 2001), reading rooms, tennis courts and
a lake probably created by damming a stream
(Price, 1908). In addition, there were opportu-
nities for hunting, shooting and fi shing and all
such pursuits favoured by the English gentry
and widely adopted by Europeans in India
(even though they might never have partici-
pated in such sports, were they in Britain).
Ooty's hunt club, for example, which dated
from 1835 was renowned and continues to this
day to meet once a month to charge through
the Nilgiris, chasing the scent of a jackal rather
than a fox (
Independent on Sunday
, 2005).
Images of huntsmen in their deep pink uniforms
remain - a lingering legacy of Ooty's colonial
past. This engagement with the landscape is not
peculiar to the European visitor to India and has
been noted in Perkins and Thorns' (2001) ana-
lysis of current international tourists in settler
societies such as New Zealand.
Social life on hill stations also contrasted
markedly with the plains: it was more abundant,
lively and was taken extremely seriously (Cros-
sette, 1998). The hills were the place where
young men and women could meet, as other
opportunities were comparatively few. There
was a sense of excitement and anticipation at
the balls and the dances, which were used as
'coming out' occasions for young women,
announcing their readiness for marriage. Euro-
pean society on the hills rippled with frisson as
rumour, gossip and scandal abounded (Ken-
nedy, 1996). Social life was all the sweeter
because the gender balance was fairly equal,
contrasting with the plains where men far out-
numbered women. Also, schools in the hills
were good and many tried to re-create the Brit-
ish public school in India: institutions such as
Bishop Cotton's school in Simla; St. Paul's of
Darjeeling; St. George's College, Mussoorie;
St. Joseph's of Coonoor; the Lawrence School
at Lovedale, near Ooty, and to a lesser extent in
the colonial era, Montfort and the Sacred Heart
Convent in Yercaud attracted children of the Raj
(Fig. 1.10). These and many others had clear
religious affi liations and were renowned for
their academic quality. Even more importantly,
such schools enabled children to be educated
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