Hari Sud’s International View

  Gaddi* and the King (*Pahari word for Sheppard) I am going to relate you a story about Himachal Pradesh, which really happened a few centuries back. It is not about Shimla but about a princely state of Himachal Pradesh. It is about Kangra and Haripur-Guler, the twin cousin states north west of Shimla.  Trigatha was a large kingdom witch ruled from Kabul in Afghanistan to Kangra in Himachal Pradesh in the 8th and 9th century. Its Hindu rulers lost many battles to aggressive and freshly converted Afghans to Muslim faith. The Hindu rulers finally retreated to Kangra but were still being chased by Mahmud of Ghazani. In 1009 AD, he came to grab its treasury. After that event, for the next three hundred years, the kingdom shrunk 90%. It was left alone, although a few forays were made by the Muslim rulers in Delhi. The area ruled by the Kangra King was mostly hilly terrain with with a few valleys and rivers flowing through them, hence grain and other production internally fulf...

 Shimla's Gunj Bazaar. Chaos is the right word to describe the scene at Gunj Bazaar in Shimla at about 7.00am everyday, what the author remembers when he was in his early teens in the fifties. My job Saturday morning was to bring warm milk and bread to my dad for breakfast. Shimla Gunj Mandi became operational at approximately 6 a.m. If I remember correctly sixty years later, the farmers who grew vegetables, potato, fruits in the surrounding areas would bring their produce to sell to their favorite “Arhatiya” (Commission Agent) store. It was weighed and dumped in a heap and auctioned. There were quite a few Arhatiyas in the Gunj Bazaar, mostly Suds/Soods. The farmer preferred the Arhatiya who sold his produce fast and gave him his money right away. The auctioneer of the Arhatiya, usually on top of his voice, begins the bidding process. So are the other Arhatiyas. They may be selling different items. The Arhatiya concurrently could be auctioning other items also. In the din of this ...

  Tunnels in Shimla Shimla’s life-line is the Cart Road is also known as the Circular Road. Both commerce and pedestrians follow this pathway. Built around 1860 from Kalka to Shimla to move the government from Kolkata to Shimla each year, it had also become the life-line for commerce and people. Although the road begins at Kalka but only the area around Shimla is called the Cart Road, but it continues all the way to Shipki Pass at the China border with road designated as NH22. It was widened from its initial 20 feet width, several times during 1860 to 1920 period up to Shimla. Beyond that, it remained this 20-foot route until around the 1950s. It was later extended and made motorisable. The construction of this road was no easy task because the mountains and their spurs stood on the path. Mules, horse-drawn carriages and bull-drawn carriages require a level road and gentle incline. This was only possible if the road went along the contours of the mountains. Once completed, it bro...

 Scandalous Shimla during the British Era We know the British rulers for their stiff neck, impeccable manners and brisk walk. That is how Oxford graduates and or Sandhurst trained army officers mostly behave. In 1857 there were 881 British subjects in Shimla, by 1881 that number had risen to 1551. At the turn of the century in 1900s, there were close 2100 British subjects in Shimla. A bigger bulk of these subjects were of the female persuasion. Reasons: the men were away on assignments whether civil or military, they left their wives behind in the glamour city like Shimla and others places too. Their lifestyle was also upper class, far more comparable to Indian Rajah. The men came from the top echelons of society in England, who made through the high-end British school and university system. Above all, they had qualified the tough Imperial Civil Service exam or got thru successfully the four years of tough Sandhurst military training school. Now commissioned into the army or public...