Darjeeling tales
Book review :
Sonam B Wangyal: Darjeeling Stories: Sahibs, Natives and
Oddballs.
In the general knowledge books which were very popular in
our schooldays, Darjeeling was always referred to as the “Queen of the Hills”.
This was a matter of parochial pride for us; later, of course, we discovered
that the same soubriquet was applied to Simla and Ooty and god only knows what
other places. Be that as it may, Darjeeling was and still is a lovely place to
visit. The principal attraction now and always has been the view of the
Kanchenjunga massif which, if you are lucky, provides a view that is only
rivaled by the view of the Macchapuchare and Annapurna range from Pokhara.
The Darjeeling hills were part of Sikkim in the eighteenth
century. At the end of the eighteenth century the all-conquering Gurkhas who
united the country of Nepal also took over the part of the hills West of the
Teesta, more specifically the land between the Mechi river which is today the
border between Nepal and India and the Teesta. The British East India company
which was just concluding its very succesful campaign to take over the entire
Indian subcontinent around that time felt this to be an affront to their
dignity and after defeating the Nepalese forces in 1814, arranged that this
land be returned to the Rajah Of Sikkim. If the British were not in India, it
is not inconceivable that Nepal would have been much larger than it is today,
as they had also conquered plenty of territory in what is now Uttrakhand. Then, as now, not too many armies could face
up to the Gurkhas.
The British merchants did nothing without a price and the
Sikkimese authorities had to sign the treaty of Titalya on the 10th February, 1817 , which made the British
the paramount power in the area and made it incumbent on the Rajah to refer to
the British for arbitration in case of any disputes with Nepal or any other
neighboring state. In 1828, there was a dispute with Nepal and a Captain Lloyd
was sent to be the arbitrator. During his visit, the good captain happened to
visit the then sparsely populated village of Darjeeling.
It must be mentioned that at this point in time, Kolkata was
the imperial capital and the seat of the most powerful men of the land. Kolkata
had fast become a city of palaces, but there was one deficiency. All other
presidencies had their hill stations where the sahib log could repair during the
summer months. But Calcutta had no such retreat where they could ride out the
summer months. This must have been on Captain Lloyd’s mind and when he stayed
in Darjeeling for 6 days in February 1829, it immediately struck him that this
could be the “sanatorium” that they were looking for.
There was a minor problem, which was that this land belonged
not to the Britishers but to the Rajah of Sikkim. But an opportunity to bully
him came in 1834-35 when some Lepcha refugees from Nepal entered the Sikkimese
terai and the by then General Lloyd not only forced them to return to Nepal but
also prevailed on the Sikkim Rajah to sign a less than 100-word deed of grant
that made over “ the land south of the Great Runjeet River. East of the
Balasur, Kahail and Little Runjeet Rivers, and west of Rungno and Mahanuddi
rivers”. For this, the British were to
pay an annual allowance of Rs 3000, which was late raised, in 1846 to Rs 6000.
Even allowing for inflation, this seems to be a pretty derisory amount of money
for what was to become the nucleus of the Darjeeling district. This country,
however, was surrounded by Sikkim and to get there the Britishers had to pass
through Sikkimese territory and this could not be countenanced for too long and
in 1850, when Sir Joseph Hooker and Dr Campbell made what was patently an
illegal incursion into Sikkim and were arrested, it became the excuse for a
punitive expedition which resulted in the annexation of the Sikkim terai as
well as the territory connecting the terai to the already “granted” Darjeeling
hills. This cut off all access for Sikkim to the plains and has been the bane
of Sikkim ever since. In recent times, they have particularly faced severe
problems when agitations in the Darjeeling hills have cut them off from the
rest of the country. Another expedition that was sent to Bhutan in 1964 for
some perceived slight resulted in what is now the Kalimpong Hills to be annexed
and the District of Darjeeling as we knew it came into being. Now, of course,
there is a separate Kalimpong District. This resulted in Sikkim and Bhutan
being cut off from each other and fixed the borders more or less as we have
them today.
Sonam B Wangyal is a physician by profession. He graduated a
few years ahead of us from the Medical College and with his wife Dicky (who was
one year ahead of us in Medical College) had a practice in Jalgaon at the border of Bhutan for many many years. Here he
made a name for himself not only as a physician. but as a scholar. In recent times he has shifted to Siliguri,
which has made it possible for me to socialize with him, and to be enriched by
his vast knowledge of the history and culture of the hills of Bengal, Sikkim
and Bhutan. He is a worthy successor of the many doctor scholars we used to
read about.
His latest book is an irreverent and very engaging look at
Darjeeling through the years and he has written amusingly and wittily about the
people who made Darjeeling what it is today. The fun should not conceal the
fact that he has put lots of solid research into what he has to say and in the the process has enlightened us about the denizens of the hills over the past two
hundred odd years.
The slim book has been divided into three sections, he has stories
about sahibs, the Britishers in other words, the natives who actually made Darjeeling
what it was and is today and he has a section devoted to the mavericks who he
calls the oddballs who added to the charm of the District. He has also added
some delicious tidbits of history which are like sparklers lighting up the
book.
Captain Lloyd, Wangyal tell us,
tried to hog the credit for the “ discovery” of Darjeeling but he was not the
lone Britisher when he came here as he claimed. He had with him the commercial
resident at Maldah, a Mr. J W Grant who was lost to the history books as Lloyd
claimed that he was “the only European to have visited it( Darjeeling) ”. Lloyd,
however, was promoted and as Lt General Lloyd made a fool of himself in the
defense of Danapore during the First Indian war of Independence and he retired
in obscurity to where else, Darjeeling where he died in 1865 aged a venerable
75.
The author has also dug out an
advertisement for David Wilson’s Dorjeeling Family Hotel in 1839, when he
advised patrons to make reservations for the “stewing months” of September and
October as early as possible, thereby proving that the so-called “Puja season”
had nothing to do with the Pujas; the British wanted to be up there in autumn
even before the Bengalis made it a must do Puja vacation destination. Similarly
he has investigated the reason why the British Army had to evacuate Senchel
Hill where they had set up a barrack. He points out that they should have taken
heed of the fact that the Lepchas avoided the place and in fact that the Lepcha
name itself “ shin shel hlo” meant “the damp and misty hill” and that is
exactly what it turned out to be.
There are many other gems in this
volume. He has reminded us of Mayadevi Chettri, the Kurseong child bride who rose to become the Vice
Chairman of the Rajya Sabha; there is an anecdote about tigers in Kalimpong as
well as hilarious stories of football matches in the hills in the early years
of the last century.
There are a hundred other stories
in this book. He has documented the fact that St Paul’s School was not always
the epitome of discipline and manners that it is today, a harebrained scheme to
close down the toy train and most of all he has reminded us of the many men and
women, sahibs, natives and oddballs who helped to make the district what it is
today.
We await his next book eagerly.
( This book is available from Amazon: https://www.amazon.in/Darjeeling-Stories-Sahibs-Natives-Oddballs/dp/8194244234)
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Great story….Keep on sharing… Thanks