Photographic prints at the Kern Institute Leiden
A Glimpse of Simla around 1900
Simla, situated in the Western Himalayas and at present capital of the Himachal Pradesh state, was the most famous hill-station in colonial India. Between 1864 and 1939 it was the official 'summer capital' of British India, which raised this small town from the status of a mere pleasure resort to a powerful community from which the government of the Raj was conducted between April and October.
By GERDA THEUNS-DE BOER
The Kern Institute possesses twenty excellent full-plate photographs of Simla hill-station around 1900. Besides the beauty of the Himalayan scenery, the predominant motif of the photos shows the efforts of the British to create a Simla in the mould of a wealthy English-European design. Simla had to become a place where the heat of the plains could be forgotten, where officials would be more productive, and physical and mental health should be restored by the overwhelming sphere of 'home', of Englishness: English country houses, English gardens, the Club, the English renaissance-style of the Viceregal Lodge, a spired Anglican church...Let us plunge into history and look for the story behind photograph 240 taken by most probably the commercial photographic firm Johnston & Hoffmann, entitled: Arrival of the Mail Tonga at the Post Office. Although the scene is not unknown to the photographic world, there are two reasons that made me choose this photograph. Firstly, the print shows the most characteristic part of the so-called Mall, the main thoroughfare in Simla. The group of buildings shown, the post office and a block known as the 'bank buildings' became a sort of landmark for Simla. Secondly, although identically entitled and numbered, the Kern Institute photograph is not the same photograph as the one published by Pat Barr & Ray Desmond in their book on Simla (page 59). The print shown is slightly earlier and has much more contrast, partly thanks to the touching up activities of the photographer. Let us take a tour through the photo.
Mail tonga
To the left, we see the General Post Office, built in the 1880s in the so-called neo-Tudor style. In front of it stands the mail tonga, a two-wheeled covered cart drawn by a couple of ponies, designed to transport mail and, if the weight and bulk of the local and parcel mail would permit, of passengers. The tonga service was given the official seal of approval in 1881, with the establishment of a monopoly on the road by the government. The mail service had a very good reputation and was called the finest wheel posting service in the world. The ponies were selected Kabuli entires and also its drivers were, according to E.J. Buck, 'a class of men apart, who through storm and rain, torrents and hillslides, hail, and snow carried His Majesty's mails often at the risk of their lives'. Simla was at that time by no means easy to reach. It is now hard to believe that all goods and people the Viceroy (Lord Curzon), the heads of state, and other state officials, all with their extensive entourages had to ascend the mountains over that same famous artery: a widened but still unpaved cart-road. From John Murray's Handbook for Travellers in India, Burma and Ceylon, London 1898, we know that it took the mail tonga drivers seven to eight hours to cover the 58 miles between Kalka, the nearest train station and Simla. The drivers frequently blew their horns which was essential as the tonga constantly had to pass strings of mules and carts. Passengers (fare: 25 rs) using the front seat were advised to wear close-fitting goggles or veils, to protect their eyes from particles of stone or metal! There was just one stop at Solon for a lunch-break.
The tonga mail service stopped by the end of 1903, when the Kalka-Simla railway was opened to public traffic. The line was regarded a triumph of engineering skill, rising in a steep gradient from Kalka, at 640 m, to Simla railway station at 2,060 m. To cover the 95 kilometres distance between both stations still took six hours, as 103 tunnels, 800 bridges, and 900 bends, partly reversed, had to be negotiated.
Bank buildings
The block of open-fronted timbered premises, beginning a little bit to the left of the mail tonga, was known as the 'Bank Buildings' (1895), although not all the enterprises were banks. The far left part (barely visible) housed the Punjab Banking Company. Next to it was the photographic firm Johnston and Hoffmann, which had started in Calcutta and later opened branches in Simla and Quetta. This portion of the building was later occupied by Mr E. Clarke, draper. The firm name of the central portion is unfortunately not legible. Next to it is the firm of Messrs Ranken & Co., civil and military tailors. The white, half-timbered building to the right burned down later and was replaced by a stone building. Between the pines we can see the spires of Christ Church, where the Mall terminated in an open space, called the Ridge. Here was the official rikshaw stand. Rikshaws were very common in Simla since there were only three carriages permitted on the Mall, these of the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, and the Lieutenant-Governer of the Punjab. On the far right we see the side wall of the Town Hall.
There are many colonial buildings left in present-day Simla. What was once the Viceregal Lodge houses another IIAS: the Indian Institute of Advanced Study! *
References
- Bar, Pat and Ray DesmondSimla, A Hill Station in British India
The Scholar Press: London 1978
- Buck, Edward J.
Simla Past and Present
Bombay: The Times Press, 1925,
second edition
Drs Gerda Theuns-de Boer is an art historian and Project Manager of the Photographic Database on Asian Art and Archaeology, Kern Institute, Leiden University.
E-mail: Theuns@let.leidenuniv.nl