Landour
Encyclopedia
Landour a small cantonment
town contiguous with Mussoorie
, is about 35 km (21.7 mi) from the city of Dehradun
in the northern state of Uttarakhand
in India
. The twin towns of Mussoorie and Landour, together, are a well-known British Raj
-era hill station
in northern India. Mussoorie-Landour was widely known as the "Queen of the Hills". The name Landour is drawn from Llanddowror
, a village in Carmarthenshire
in southwest Wales
. During the Raj, it was common to give nostalgic English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish names to one's home (or even to British-founded towns), reflecting one's ethnicity. Names drawn from literary works were also common, as from those by Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others.
Landour is located in the Lower Western Himalaya, in the Mussoorie Range, the second of the five parallel folds of the Himalaya. On average, Landour is about 1,500 ft (450 m) above Mussoorie, which itself is mostly at an altitude of 6,800 to 7,500 ft (2,250 to 2,500m). The town lies largely on an east-west ridge, with a prominent southerly spur connecting its western end to Mussoorie. The altitude differential, aided by Landour being partly Tibet
-facing, has a marked effect on the temperature, which can be 2-3°C lower than in Mussoorie. During the monsoon
, Landour receives almost daily rainfall, often heavy. Additionally, pre- and post-monsoon showers mean a rainy season that can run from May to September, though it can be shorter. Before the rains arrive, April–May is the warmest period, with the temperatures rising to over 30°C. (~85°F) on hotter days. December to February is downright cold, especially if one does not receive enough direct sunlight, as on the northern slopes. It can snow anywhere between 3 and 15 times in the winter, at times heavily. In a given year Landour receives perhaps twice the snow that Mussoorie does; it also takes longer to melt especially on the north-facing slopes.
If one travels the 290 km (180.2 mi) to Landour from New Delhi
by train or bus, a switch at Dehradun is needed. Buses and taxis, and even "shared taxis", are easily available. There are also direct buses from New Delhi, and one can easily negotiate with taxis at any of New Delhi's railway stations or at the Delhi airport. One can also fly from Delhi in just 40 min to Jolly Grant Airport east of Dehradun, which saves a lot of time, but it takes another 90 minutes to drive up to Landour from the airport.
East of Landour lie the small hamlet of Dhanoulti and the Surkhanda Devi temple; further east are Kanatal
, Tehri
(now submerged by the Tehri dam
) and Chamba
(not to be confused with the town and district of the same name in Himachal Pradesh). And to the West lie the tourist trap
of Kempty Falls
, the military town of Chakrata
and the region of Jaunsar bordering Himachal Pradesh.
of the former United Provinces
. The United Provinces themselves were carved out of the former Northwest Province of the vast Bengal Presidency
, which stretched from Burma to the Khyber Pass; accordingly, early accounts show Landour as part of "Bengal", which was technically true though the description was incomplete.
Landour was initially built by and for the British Indian Army
. From 1827 when a sanatorium
was built in Landour, the town was a convalescent station for the military, and hence much of Landour is a Cantonment
. The original sanatorium is now occupied by the Institute of Technology Management ("ITM") of the DRDO; it is at the eastern end of the Landour ridge. In the early 20th century, a full British Military Hospital (BMH) was opened, with a medical staff than specialized in tropical diseases; the hospital closed soon after 1947. Also within the ITM premises is the former Soldiers' Furlough Home, a holiday home for British and Irish soldiers and JCOs in Indian regiments who lacked the means to return to Europe regularly. Or, the holidaying soldiers were serving in British regiments on rotation in India, their tours of duty lasting anywhere from 6 to 48 months. In terms of area, Landour Cantonment comprises about two-thirds of Landour; the remainder includes Landour Bazaar, which stretches along the spur that connects to Mussoorie.
The first permanent building in all of Mussoorie-Landour was also built in Landour in 1825. The house was built by Captain Young, the "discoverer" of Mussoorie, who was also the Commandant of the first Gurkha
(or Gorkha) battalion raised by the British after prevailing in the Gurkha War. Young's house, "Mullingar
" (hinting at his Irish
blood), was the family home during the hot summers in the plains. Young's Dehradun-based battalion, then called the Sirmour (or Sirmoor) Rifles, was initially raised in a Gurkha POW camp in Paonta Sahib
in Sirmour District - hence the name. The huge L-shaped building, with an outsized courtyard inside the bend of the "L", sits prominently atop Mullingar Hill in Landour Cantonment.
Among distinguished house guests at Mullingar in the early decades were Emily Eden
(see below). Mullingar was expanded, changed hands several times and by the early 20th century had become the Mullingar Estate Hotel. During World War II
, Mullingar was leased by the army to house the overflow of convalescing soldiers from the sanatorium, given the huge increase in war-related injuries. The hotel was bursting at the seams, as a number of British civilian evacuees from Burma, the Andamans, Manipur & Nagaland, which were occupied by Japanese forces, were also housed in Mullingar before being shipped out elsewhere. Mullingar finally fell into disuse after 1947 when Britons began to leave India, with the army already having vacated it after the postwar demobilization
of 1945-46. The building soon fell into disrepair, occupied largely if not entirely by squatters (see below). A number of the families now living in Mullingar are Tibetan
. Prayer flags flutter in the wind every day, and Losar
celebrations are held in the courtyard every year.
The legal distinction between Mussoorie and Landour did not arise until the 1860s, when after the historic events of 1857 cantonments were properly surveyed and formalized. In particular, control of the ridge-lines and water sources was crucial, given rising British anxieties over their grip on India. The defensibility of garrisons was critical, especially in hill stations with large European populations. The Cantonments Act of 1924 further clarified the rights of the property owners; new construction of any kind, especially of private homes, was virtually banned. Conservation was also a key goal, given the excesses of the 19th century (see below); the Act clearly states that title to all trees remains with the army, hence there has been no logging in Landour since in over a century, as can be seen. By definition, all non-military and non-governmental buildings built after 1924 are 'illegal'. Therefore, there are few 'modern' homes in Landour, though renovations and reconstruction of pre-existing houses are permitted. Thanks to the 1924 Act, Landour Cantonment is—unlike Landour Bazaar—largely free of the crass commercialization that has scarred much of Mussoorie proper, especially along the 'main drag' of Mall Road where budget tourists throng in the summer. (Proximity to Delhi
, Chandigarh
and Ambala
is both a blessing and a curse).
Racially, Landour was distinctly more European than Mussoorie. It was no accident. First, the army presence (albeit non-regimental) offered an excuse to 'keep out' Indians. Second, Maharaja
s were encouraged to build grand summer homes, but were directed towards Mussoorie. Among them were the ruling families of Kapurthala, Nabha, Alwar, Jind, Baroda, Kasmanda, Katesar, Kuchesar and other princely states. And this despite Maharajas being hand-in-glove with the Raj in terms of ruling the Indian masses; the former, who remained nominally 'autonomous', legitimized the rule of the latter. Tellingly, not a single princely residence was ever built in Landour. (The only 'exception' was The Castle, see below, but it was built by the British as a quasi-prison). Even the ruling family of Tehri-Garhwal (from whom the region was seized by the British) had no residence in Landour, though the family later did acquire some properties from Britons who sold out. These racial barriers, while quite real were more informal than formal; they began to weaken after World War I as the Indian freedom movement gained steam. The author Emily Eden
, sister of the Governor-General
Lord Auckland, wrote incisively about the biting racism of Britons towards all Indians (except Maharajas, whose over-the-top hospitality they craved), after spending much time in Landour, Shimla and Ooty in the late 1830s. Many Anglo-Indian
families also put down roots in Landour, and in Barlowganj just below Mussoorie, in the 19th century. They were attracted in part by the schools, and by the sense of 'otherness' versus quotidian India. A handful remain, most having emigrated after 1947, but the few who remain (most are in their golden years) are treasure troves of local lore.
Indeed, the events of 1857 led to a spurt in the European population of Mussoorie-Landour, with many families leaving the 'exposed' towns of the Gangetic Plain. Among the Britons who thus moved to Landour were the parents of Jim Corbett
. Both had lost their spouses, and would meet and re-marry in Landour (see below). His mother had moved from Meerut, where her first husband had been killed in action in 1857. Thousands of Europeans, mostly Britons, are buried in the twin towns. The Cantonment has adjacent Protestant and Catholic cemeteries, though due to overcrowding in the former, the latter has of late become non-denominational - they are managed by the same committee. In 1901, the town had a population of 1720, which climbed up to 3700 in the summers, when the heat of the Indian plains became unbearable.
children since the mid-19th century. (Hint: "Orphanage" was often a Raj-era euphemism for a school for illegitimate mixed-race children). Also, there were many missionary-run schools, of which the most well-known was (and remains) Woodstock School
, founded in 1854 for the children of American missionaries. Practically all of the other prominent schools including Wynberg-Allen School, St. George's School, Mussoorie Public School, Waverley Convent (now CJM) and Vincent Hill (now Guru Nanak 5th Centenary School) are in Mussoorie, not Landour. The Indian Army
also runs a primary school in Landour Cantonment.
There are under 100 detached private homes in the Cantonment, and under 200 buildings overall. The non-residential buildings belong to either the military, or to the state-owned broadcasters Doordarshan
and All India Radio
, who have repeater stations atop Lal Tibba hill, at over 7,700 ft. the highest point in all of Mussoorie-Landour. The transmitters are mounted on Landour's answer to Paris, an Eiffel-inspired orange-and-white tower that is the most recognizable feature in all of Landour. Lal Tibba was also known as Depot Hill, referring to the convalescent depot. Nearby Sisters Bazaar likewise referred to the nurses' dormitory at the location; nurses are still addressed as 'Sister' in the Subcontinent, from a time in the 19th century when most nurses were Anglican, Methodist or Catholic nuns. The Cantonment is also home to the well-known Landour Community Hospital, founded by American missionaries. At the time of its founding in 1931 it was one of the first good non-military hospitals in the region. It has been run by the Emmanuel Hospital Association, an indigenous Christian health and development agency, since 1981, and continues to provide affordable (or free) medical care to the people of Landour and the surrounding hills.
Among natural features in the area, the local peaks are the most prominent. ('Tibba' is a local word for hill/peak). Other than "Old" Lal Tibba and Landour hill themselves (which lie within the Cantonment), there is the hunched, heavily forested Pari Tibba (also called Fairy Hill or Witches' Hill), lurking due south of Woodstock School and due east of Wynberg-Allen School. Once a private hunting estate of the ruling family of Tehri-Garhwal, it was not deforested for that very reason. It is also called Burnt Hill, referring to the unusual number of lightning strikes it has taken over the years, which has given rise to local superstitions and also helped keep it free of humans. The hill remains a popular hiking spot for the local boarding schools, but not having motorable roads is blessedly free of "tourism". Due north of Landour, 16 km (9.9 mi) away as the crow flies is Nag Tibba
('Serpent's Peak'), at 3,022 m (9,972 ft) the highest peak in the local region. It lends its name to the Nag Tibba Range, itself the next-northerly of the five folds of the Himalaya. To the east of Landour are Tope Tibba and the oddly shaped Pepperpot mountain; both are hiking destinations.
There are no commercial hotels in Landour Cantonment, and only a handful of rudimentary, quasi-legal "guest houses". Landour Bazaar has fewer than 10 equally rudimentary hotels, none of which would merit a single star, with all of them together having perhaps 125 rooms. (Mussoorie proper has over a hundred hotels at various price points, though). There were never any entertainments in Landour - all the Raj-era theaters, cinemas, dance halls, skating rinks and public gardens were in Mussoorie. Accordingly, the decibel level was - and is - markedly lower (thanks to the military's zoning rules) than in Mussoorie, where it is ever-rising thanks to the explosion in middle-class tourism.
churches. Generations of American missionary
children (see Third Culture Kid
s) were educated at Woodstock School and/or born in Landour (see John Birch, below). Of late, their descendants have been deeming a dekko worthwhile. Nowadays, many young Americans on gap years or on exchange programs spend time learning Hindi at the popular Landour Language School, which was founded in the late 19th century to teach newly arrived missionaries. Another durable reminder of the American connection is the ubiquitous Landour Community Cookbook (1st formal edition: 1938; informal stencil copies since ca. 1900) though the Landour Community Center—once the locus of Anglo-American community life—is itself moribund. A half-dozen bakers in Landour still offer various breads, cookies/biscuits and cakes from 'The Cookbook', though with the rise of packaged foods and the departure of most missionaries, the bakeries are a pale shadow of their former selves. Landour was also one of the first places in India where an American classic such as peanut butter
was made commercially; Plausibly, a number of houses in Landour have American (rather than British) names, among them Aloha, Hollywood and Roanoke.
, Chir Pine
, Blue Pine
, West Himalayan Fir, Himalayan Maple
, Rhododendron
, Himalayan Manna Ash
and other tree species. Landour's north-facing slopes have more Deodar and Fir than other species; the south-facing slopes have more Oak than other species. Pines are at lower elevations than Deodar and Fir, true to form. Among introduced species, the adaptable Platycladus
(Hindi: Morpankhi) does well, and Oriental Plane
(Hindi: Chinar) too are seen. A logging ban has long been in place in the Reserved forests around Landour, and the ban is reasonably well enforced.
Landour offers striking views of the Garhwal
Himalaya, with a wide vista of up to 200 km (124.3 mi) visible on a clear day. The visible massifs and peaks include (West to East) Swargarohini
, Bandarpunch
, Yamnotri, Jaonli, Gangotri, Srikanta, Kedarnath, Satopanth, Chaukhamba (Badrinath) and even Nanda Devi
. At its closest point, Tibet
is about 70 miles (112.7 km) away as the crow flies; it is through Landour that Heinrich Harrer
escaped to Tibet during World War II after breaking out of a British internment camp in Dehradun
.
Birdlife is outstanding in its breadth of species; over 350 species may comfortably be seen at various elevations over the course of the year, including both endemic
species and migratory species from Tibet
, Central Asia
and Siberia
. Quite a few endemic species of pheasant
s and raptors
are among the more charismatic species that can be easily seen. As for wild mammals, leopard
s transit the area from time to time; their prey are mainly dogs, including strays from Landour-Mussoorie and the neighboring villages. Also present are some Jackal
s, Barking Deer (muntjac), Goral
(goat-antelope) and the secretive Sloth Bear
. Among smaller mammals, Yellow-throated Martens, Civet
s, Jungle Cat
s, and Himalayan Weasels are seen, and the occasional Flying Squirrel
. Pesky rhesus macaques and Hanuman langurs are as present in Landour as anywhere. Poaching
has severely reduced the numbers of the larger wild mammals, though the habitat itself could support larger populations. Of course, most charismatic megafauna
had already been wiped out by the British in the 19th century. Unsurprising, given the British penchant for 'blood sport', especially among the soldiery. After all, Mussoorie was first 'discovered' by Captain Young on a shooting expedition from his garrison in Dehradun. The ecology of the area clearly shows that Tiger
, Himalayan Black Bear, Striped Hyena
, Sambar
, Serow
, Himalayan Tahr
, Gaur
and other impressive species (all are now locally extinct) were well-represented in Mussoorie-Landour before British colonization; 19th century writings by British hunters boast of the countless trophies they collected in the area.
Deforestation itself dates from British times. There was also an early myth that "Indian forests are full of germs, which European constitutions cannot take"; clear-felling (clear-cutting) was the answer, as even a casual observer can still see, except in the Cantonment, thanks to the 1924 Act (see above). Many reforestation initiatives began in various hill stations in the late 19th century, thanks to some enlightened Raj administrators, but not in Mussoorie. Of late, the Indian Army has done yeoman service via its 'Eco-Battalions' in terms of re-forestation.
Another local menace is non-biodegradable refuse. While there have been some steps by the citizenry (without much help from the authorities) to combat this, it remains a challenge. Much refuse is just dumped down hillsides by many locals—langurs, macaques, civets, stray dogs and other animals forage these open dumps. While the Indian Army has a somewhat better record, Doordarshan and All India Radio (both state-owned, revealingly) are notorious for calmly dumping most of their garbage down the hillsides of the Cantonment. Few in Landour Bazaar seem to take the environment seriously; that is for the "rich" of the Cantonment to worry about. Woodstock School, which remains the largest landowner in Landour behind the Indian Army, has sought to be progressive on this score (e.g., by collecting used plastics from across Landour) but its efforts are more effective within and around their own large campus than elsewhere in Landour.
The ethnic mix of Landour has changed dramatically since 1947, and since the 1970s-1980s due to the departure of most missionaries, and also via the recent Indian economic boom. Many of the shopkeepers and small-business owners of Landour Bazaar and the Cantonment are descended from bania
merchants who came from far afield in the 19th century—as far away as Gujarat and Bombay—to service the then-growing Anglo-American community.
, Landour had an "official" population of roughly 3,500. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Landour has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 85%, and female literacy is 70%. In Landour, 8% of the population is under 6 years of age. However, these statistics do not account for the transient population of the Cantonment, which includes military personnel on study tours, or the "second home" crowd that owns many of the properties in Landour Cantonment. Nor does it account for the student population at Woodstock or the language school.
in administrative, political or military terms, there are few 'grand official buildings' to speak of. The private homes are largely the common Raj-era pastiches, with pitched roofs (often painted a dull red) and large verandah
s, important given the heavy monsoons. Most houses contain architectural echoes both of Home Counties
England and of the resort towns of the Scottish Highlands
. Many have well-kept gardens.
About the only "architecturally significant" building was The Castle on the aptly named Castle Hill, now part of Survey of India
, where the deposed boy-king Duleep Singh
of Punjab, the son of the iconic Maharaja
Ranjit Singh
, was often "kept" for convalescent purposes between 1849 and 1953. (Sadly, The Castle was heavily modified in an ad hoc manner over the decades, rendering it unrecognizable as compared to early photographs). The Amir of Afghanistan
too was in the town in quasi-exile at various times in the early 20th Century as Raj officials engaged in their customary machinations of map-drawing and re-drawing across the Subcontinent.
A prominent local landmark is the Clock Tower at the beginning of Landour Bazaar. It is of no architectural merit, but informally marks the boundary between Landour and Mussoorie (others say it is the former Picture Palace movie theater a bit lower down).
Landour has four Raj-era churches, two of them distinctly Indo-Gothic
in style. Of the four, two remain very much in use: Kellogg Church (built 1903, once American Presbyterian, now non-denominational, and also home to the Landour Language School) and the St. Paul's Church
(built 1840, once Anglican, now non-denominational) in Char Dukan, where Jim Corbett
's parents, Christopher and Mary Corbett, married on October 13, 1859. A third Methodist church in Landour Bazaar fell into disuse after the Raj ended and was eventually seized by squatters for commercial purposes by way of 'kabza'. The fourth church is the once-Anglican St. Peter's Church, latterly Catholic
, and now is disuse and occupied by squatters apparently with the 'permission' of the church committee; it is atop Landour hill.
author Ruskin Bond
. Another resident is the self-styled "rabid thespian" Victor Banerjee
, formerly of Calcutta. Another thespian Tom Alter
, himself Landour-raised and a Woodstock School
graduate, is a part-year resident, spending the remainder of his time in Bollywood
. His cousin, the peripatetic Stephen Alter
, also a Woodstock
alum and an "Indo-nostalgic" author, is often in town for long stretches (Stephen Alter's book "Neglected Lives" is set in a fictional hill-station named Debrakot, sharing some characteristics with the real Landour). Stephen's father Rev. Bob Alter had been principal of Woodstock
in the 1970s and 1980s. Landour was home in the 1850s and 1860s to the multi-talented John Lang
, seen as the "first Australian novelist". Lang's 1864 grave was rediscovered by Ruskin Bond in Camel's Back Cemetery in Mussoorie and was restored by the Australian High Commission in Delhi (which also has a bolthole nearby).
Other bohemians
who call Mussoorie (but not Landour) home are the writer Bill Aitken and the husband-wife travel-writing team of Hugh and Colleen Gantzer. And then of course there is Allan Sealy
of Trotter-Nama fame, down in the valley in Dehradun. And finally, Landour was the unlikely birthplace in 1918 of John Birch
, in whose name the controversial arch-conservative John Birch Society
would be founded in America, after his murder in China
at the hand of Communists. Landour has, in large part, survived "untouched" thanks to the military presence and also due to its small size.
Ghayur and Patricia Alam (Himalayan Weavers) live on Mussoorie-Dhanaulti Rd, where they use natural dye
s to produce handmade shawls, stoles and scarves of wool, eri silk and pashmina.http://www.himalayanweavers.org
Cantonment
A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland. In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations...
town contiguous with Mussoorie
Mussoorie
Mussoorie is a city and a municipal board in the Dehradun District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is located about 35 km from the state capital of Dehradun and 290 km north from the national capital of New Delhi...
, is about 35 km (21.7 mi) from the city of Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
in the northern state of Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand
Uttarakhand , formerly Uttaranchal, is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the Land of Gods due to the many holy Hindu temples and cities found throughout the state, some of which are among Hinduism's most spiritual and auspicious places of pilgrimage and worship...
in India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. The twin towns of Mussoorie and Landour, together, are a well-known British Raj
British Raj
British Raj was the British rule in the Indian subcontinent between 1858 and 1947; The term can also refer to the period of dominion...
-era hill station
Hill station
A hill station is a town located at a higher elevation than the nearby plain or valley. The term was used mostly in colonial Asia , but also in Africa , for towns founded by European colonial rulers as refuges from the summer heat, up where temperatures are cooler...
in northern India. Mussoorie-Landour was widely known as the "Queen of the Hills". The name Landour is drawn from Llanddowror
Llanddowror
Llanddowror is a small, historic, relatively unspoilt village 2 miles from the town of St. Clears in Carmarthenshire in West Wales.- History & Amenities :...
, a village in Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
in southwest Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. During the Raj, it was common to give nostalgic English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish names to one's home (or even to British-founded towns), reflecting one's ethnicity. Names drawn from literary works were also common, as from those by Robert Burns, Walter Scott, Thomas Hardy, Robert Louis Stevenson and many others.
Location and climate
Landour is located in the Lower Western Himalaya, in the Mussoorie Range, the second of the five parallel folds of the Himalaya. On average, Landour is about 1,500 ft (450 m) above Mussoorie, which itself is mostly at an altitude of 6,800 to 7,500 ft (2,250 to 2,500m). The town lies largely on an east-west ridge, with a prominent southerly spur connecting its western end to Mussoorie. The altitude differential, aided by Landour being partly Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
-facing, has a marked effect on the temperature, which can be 2-3°C lower than in Mussoorie. During the monsoon
Monsoon
Monsoon is traditionally defined as a seasonal reversing wind accompanied by corresponding changes in precipitation, but is now used to describe seasonal changes in atmospheric circulation and precipitation associated with the asymmetric heating of land and sea...
, Landour receives almost daily rainfall, often heavy. Additionally, pre- and post-monsoon showers mean a rainy season that can run from May to September, though it can be shorter. Before the rains arrive, April–May is the warmest period, with the temperatures rising to over 30°C. (~85°F) on hotter days. December to February is downright cold, especially if one does not receive enough direct sunlight, as on the northern slopes. It can snow anywhere between 3 and 15 times in the winter, at times heavily. In a given year Landour receives perhaps twice the snow that Mussoorie does; it also takes longer to melt especially on the north-facing slopes.
If one travels the 290 km (180.2 mi) to Landour from New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
by train or bus, a switch at Dehradun is needed. Buses and taxis, and even "shared taxis", are easily available. There are also direct buses from New Delhi, and one can easily negotiate with taxis at any of New Delhi's railway stations or at the Delhi airport. One can also fly from Delhi in just 40 min to Jolly Grant Airport east of Dehradun, which saves a lot of time, but it takes another 90 minutes to drive up to Landour from the airport.
East of Landour lie the small hamlet of Dhanoulti and the Surkhanda Devi temple; further east are Kanatal
Kanatal
Kanatal is a city in Uttarakhand, 78 km ahead of Dehradun , 38 km ahead of Mussoorie which is also known as the Queen of Hills & 12 km from Chamba. Kanatal is a hamlet built around numerous hills, a locale which personifies the romantic aura of Tehri District, Uttarakhand, State...
, Tehri
Tehri
Tehri is a city and a municipal board in Tehri Garhwal District in the Indian state of Uttarakhand. It is the administrative seat of Tehri Garhwal District.-History:...
(now submerged by the Tehri dam
Tehri dam
The Tehri Dam is a multi-purpose rock and earth-fill embankment dam on the Bhagirathi River near Tehri in Uttarakhand, India. It is the primary dam of the Tehri Hydro Development Corporation Ltd. and the Tehri hydroelectric complex...
) and Chamba
Chamba, Uttarakhand
Chamba is a town and a nagar panchayat in Tehri Garhwal district in the state of Uttarakhand, India. It is situated at the junction of roads leading from Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Tehri Dam/ Lake and New Tehri....
(not to be confused with the town and district of the same name in Himachal Pradesh). And to the West lie the tourist trap
Tourist trap
A tourist trap is an establishment, or group of establishments, that has been created with the aim of attracting tourists and their money...
of Kempty Falls
Kempty Falls
The stunningly beautiful Kempty Falls is situated on the Hilly tracks of 'Uttaranchal, , 15 km from Mussoorie on the Chakrata Road . This place is located nearly 1364 Meter above the sea level and placed 78o-02’East on longitude and 30o -29’North on Lattitude of the globe...
, the military town of Chakrata
Chakrata
Chakrata or Chakrauta is a cantonment town in Dehradun district in the state of Uttarakhand, India.It is situated between the Tons and Yamuna rivers, at an elevation of 7000–7250 feet, 92 km from state capital, Dehradun, it was originally a cantonment of British Indian Army...
and the region of Jaunsar bordering Himachal Pradesh.
Early history
Landour is within Dehradun DistrictDehradun district
There are five railway stations in Dehradun:* Raiwala* Rishikesh* Doiwala* Harrawala* DehradunAirport...
of the former United Provinces
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
The United Provinces of Agra and Oudh was a province of India under the British Raj, which existed from 1902 to 1947; the official name was shortened by the Government of India Act 1935 to United Provinces, by which the province had been commonly known, and by which name it was also a province of...
. The United Provinces themselves were carved out of the former Northwest Province of the vast Bengal Presidency
Bengal Presidency
The Bengal Presidency originally comprising east and west Bengal, was a colonial region of the British Empire in South-Asia and beyond it. It comprised areas which are now within Bangladesh, and the present day Indian States of West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Meghalaya, Orissa and Tripura.Penang and...
, which stretched from Burma to the Khyber Pass; accordingly, early accounts show Landour as part of "Bengal", which was technically true though the description was incomplete.
Landour was initially built by and for the British Indian Army
British Indian Army
The British Indian Army, officially simply the Indian Army, was the principal army of the British Raj in India before the partition of India in 1947...
. From 1827 when a sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
was built in Landour, the town was a convalescent station for the military, and hence much of Landour is a Cantonment
Cantonment
A cantonment is a temporary or semi-permanent military or police quarters. The word cantonment is derived from the French word canton meaning corner or district, as is the name of the Cantons of Switzerland. In South Asia, the term cantonment also describes permanent military stations...
. The original sanatorium is now occupied by the Institute of Technology Management ("ITM") of the DRDO; it is at the eastern end of the Landour ridge. In the early 20th century, a full British Military Hospital (BMH) was opened, with a medical staff than specialized in tropical diseases; the hospital closed soon after 1947. Also within the ITM premises is the former Soldiers' Furlough Home, a holiday home for British and Irish soldiers and JCOs in Indian regiments who lacked the means to return to Europe regularly. Or, the holidaying soldiers were serving in British regiments on rotation in India, their tours of duty lasting anywhere from 6 to 48 months. In terms of area, Landour Cantonment comprises about two-thirds of Landour; the remainder includes Landour Bazaar, which stretches along the spur that connects to Mussoorie.
Gurkha
Gurkha are people from Nepal who take their name from the Gorkha District. Gurkhas are best known for their history in the Indian Army's Gorkha regiments, the British Army's Brigade of Gurkhas and the Nepalese Army. Gurkha units are closely associated with the kukri, a forward-curving Nepalese knife...
(or Gorkha) battalion raised by the British after prevailing in the Gurkha War. Young's house, "Mullingar
Mullingar
Mullingar is the county town of County Westmeath in Ireland. The Counties of Meath and Westmeath Act of 1542, proclaimed Westmeath a county, separating it from Meath. Mullingar became the administrative centre for County Westmeath...
" (hinting at his Irish
Irish people
The Irish people are an ethnic group who originate in Ireland, an island in northwestern Europe. Ireland has been populated for around 9,000 years , with the Irish people's earliest ancestors recorded having legends of being descended from groups such as the Nemedians, Fomorians, Fir Bolg, Tuatha...
blood), was the family home during the hot summers in the plains. Young's Dehradun-based battalion, then called the Sirmour (or Sirmoor) Rifles, was initially raised in a Gurkha POW camp in Paonta Sahib
Paonta Sahib
Paonta Sahib पौंटा साहिब is a small beautiful town in the south of Sirmour district in the Indian state of Himachal Pradesh. It is an important religious spot for Sikhs and a bustling industrial town...
in Sirmour District - hence the name. The huge L-shaped building, with an outsized courtyard inside the bend of the "L", sits prominently atop Mullingar Hill in Landour Cantonment.
Among distinguished house guests at Mullingar in the early decades were Emily Eden
Emily Eden
Emily Eden was an English poet and novelist who gave witty pictures of English life in the early 19th century.Born in Westminster, Eden was the seventh daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, and the great-great-great-aunt of Anthony Eden...
(see below). Mullingar was expanded, changed hands several times and by the early 20th century had become the Mullingar Estate Hotel. During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Mullingar was leased by the army to house the overflow of convalescing soldiers from the sanatorium, given the huge increase in war-related injuries. The hotel was bursting at the seams, as a number of British civilian evacuees from Burma, the Andamans, Manipur & Nagaland, which were occupied by Japanese forces, were also housed in Mullingar before being shipped out elsewhere. Mullingar finally fell into disuse after 1947 when Britons began to leave India, with the army already having vacated it after the postwar demobilization
Demobilization
Demobilization is the process of standing down a nation's armed forces from combat-ready status. This may be as a result of victory in war, or because a crisis has been peacefully resolved and military force will not be necessary...
of 1945-46. The building soon fell into disrepair, occupied largely if not entirely by squatters (see below). A number of the families now living in Mullingar are Tibetan
Tibetan people
The Tibetan people are an ethnic group that is native to Tibet, which is mostly in the People's Republic of China. They number 5.4 million and are the 10th largest ethnic group in the country. Significant Tibetan minorities also live in India, Nepal, and Bhutan...
. Prayer flags flutter in the wind every day, and Losar
Losar
Losar is the Tibetan word for "new year." lo holds the semantic field "year, age"; sar holds the semantic field "new, fresh". Losar is the most important holiday in Tibet....
celebrations are held in the courtyard every year.
The legal distinction between Mussoorie and Landour did not arise until the 1860s, when after the historic events of 1857 cantonments were properly surveyed and formalized. In particular, control of the ridge-lines and water sources was crucial, given rising British anxieties over their grip on India. The defensibility of garrisons was critical, especially in hill stations with large European populations. The Cantonments Act of 1924 further clarified the rights of the property owners; new construction of any kind, especially of private homes, was virtually banned. Conservation was also a key goal, given the excesses of the 19th century (see below); the Act clearly states that title to all trees remains with the army, hence there has been no logging in Landour since in over a century, as can be seen. By definition, all non-military and non-governmental buildings built after 1924 are 'illegal'. Therefore, there are few 'modern' homes in Landour, though renovations and reconstruction of pre-existing houses are permitted. Thanks to the 1924 Act, Landour Cantonment is—unlike Landour Bazaar—largely free of the crass commercialization that has scarred much of Mussoorie proper, especially along the 'main drag' of Mall Road where budget tourists throng in the summer. (Proximity to Delhi
Delhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
, Chandigarh
Chandigarh
Chandigarh is a union territory of India that serves as the capital of two states, Haryana and Punjab. The name Chandigarh translates as "The Fort of Chandi". The name is from an ancient temple called Chandi Mandir, devoted to the Hindu goddess Chandi, in the city...
and Ambala
Ambala
Ambala is a city and a municipal corporation in Ambala district in the state of Haryana, India, located on the border of the states of Haryana and Punjab in India. Politically; Ambala has two sub-areas: Ambala Cantt and Ambala City, approximately 3 kilometers apart from each other...
is both a blessing and a curse).
Racially, Landour was distinctly more European than Mussoorie. It was no accident. First, the army presence (albeit non-regimental) offered an excuse to 'keep out' Indians. Second, Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
s were encouraged to build grand summer homes, but were directed towards Mussoorie. Among them were the ruling families of Kapurthala, Nabha, Alwar, Jind, Baroda, Kasmanda, Katesar, Kuchesar and other princely states. And this despite Maharajas being hand-in-glove with the Raj in terms of ruling the Indian masses; the former, who remained nominally 'autonomous', legitimized the rule of the latter. Tellingly, not a single princely residence was ever built in Landour. (The only 'exception' was The Castle, see below, but it was built by the British as a quasi-prison). Even the ruling family of Tehri-Garhwal (from whom the region was seized by the British) had no residence in Landour, though the family later did acquire some properties from Britons who sold out. These racial barriers, while quite real were more informal than formal; they began to weaken after World War I as the Indian freedom movement gained steam. The author Emily Eden
Emily Eden
Emily Eden was an English poet and novelist who gave witty pictures of English life in the early 19th century.Born in Westminster, Eden was the seventh daughter of William Eden, 1st Baron Auckland, and the great-great-great-aunt of Anthony Eden...
, sister of the Governor-General
Governor-General
A Governor-General, is a vice-regal person of a monarch in an independent realm or a major colonial circonscription. Depending on the political arrangement of the territory, a Governor General can be a governor of high rank, or a principal governor ranking above "ordinary" governors.- Current uses...
Lord Auckland, wrote incisively about the biting racism of Britons towards all Indians (except Maharajas, whose over-the-top hospitality they craved), after spending much time in Landour, Shimla and Ooty in the late 1830s. Many Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
families also put down roots in Landour, and in Barlowganj just below Mussoorie, in the 19th century. They were attracted in part by the schools, and by the sense of 'otherness' versus quotidian India. A handful remain, most having emigrated after 1947, but the few who remain (most are in their golden years) are treasure troves of local lore.
Indeed, the events of 1857 led to a spurt in the European population of Mussoorie-Landour, with many families leaving the 'exposed' towns of the Gangetic Plain. Among the Britons who thus moved to Landour were the parents of Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett (hunter)
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was a British hunter, conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India....
. Both had lost their spouses, and would meet and re-marry in Landour (see below). His mother had moved from Meerut, where her first husband had been killed in action in 1857. Thousands of Europeans, mostly Britons, are buried in the twin towns. The Cantonment has adjacent Protestant and Catholic cemeteries, though due to overcrowding in the former, the latter has of late become non-denominational - they are managed by the same committee. In 1901, the town had a population of 1720, which climbed up to 3700 in the summers, when the heat of the Indian plains became unbearable.
A few local facts
Like Mussoorie and Dehradun, Landour has long been a center of secondary education. The towns have had several schools and "orphanages" for both European and mixed-race Anglo-IndianAnglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
children since the mid-19th century. (Hint: "Orphanage" was often a Raj-era euphemism for a school for illegitimate mixed-race children). Also, there were many missionary-run schools, of which the most well-known was (and remains) Woodstock School
Woodstock School
Woodstock School is a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India....
, founded in 1854 for the children of American missionaries. Practically all of the other prominent schools including Wynberg-Allen School, St. George's School, Mussoorie Public School, Waverley Convent (now CJM) and Vincent Hill (now Guru Nanak 5th Centenary School) are in Mussoorie, not Landour. The Indian Army
Indian Army
The Indian Army is the land based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. With about 1,100,000 soldiers in active service and about 1,150,000 reserve troops, the Indian Army is the world's largest standing volunteer army...
also runs a primary school in Landour Cantonment.
There are under 100 detached private homes in the Cantonment, and under 200 buildings overall. The non-residential buildings belong to either the military, or to the state-owned broadcasters Doordarshan
DoorDarshan
Doordarshan is an Indian public service broadcaster, a division of Prasar Bharati. It is one of the largest broadcasting organizations in India in terms of the infrastructure of studios and transmitters. Recently, it has also started Digital Terrestrial Transmitters. On September 15, 2009,...
and All India Radio
All India Radio
All India Radio , officially known since 1956 as Akashvani , is the radio broadcaster of India and a division of Prasar Bharati. Established in 1936, it is the sister service of Prasar Bharati's Doordarshan, the national television broadcaster. All India Radio is one of the largest radio networks...
, who have repeater stations atop Lal Tibba hill, at over 7,700 ft. the highest point in all of Mussoorie-Landour. The transmitters are mounted on Landour's answer to Paris, an Eiffel-inspired orange-and-white tower that is the most recognizable feature in all of Landour. Lal Tibba was also known as Depot Hill, referring to the convalescent depot. Nearby Sisters Bazaar likewise referred to the nurses' dormitory at the location; nurses are still addressed as 'Sister' in the Subcontinent, from a time in the 19th century when most nurses were Anglican, Methodist or Catholic nuns. The Cantonment is also home to the well-known Landour Community Hospital, founded by American missionaries. At the time of its founding in 1931 it was one of the first good non-military hospitals in the region. It has been run by the Emmanuel Hospital Association, an indigenous Christian health and development agency, since 1981, and continues to provide affordable (or free) medical care to the people of Landour and the surrounding hills.
Among natural features in the area, the local peaks are the most prominent. ('Tibba' is a local word for hill/peak). Other than "Old" Lal Tibba and Landour hill themselves (which lie within the Cantonment), there is the hunched, heavily forested Pari Tibba (also called Fairy Hill or Witches' Hill), lurking due south of Woodstock School and due east of Wynberg-Allen School. Once a private hunting estate of the ruling family of Tehri-Garhwal, it was not deforested for that very reason. It is also called Burnt Hill, referring to the unusual number of lightning strikes it has taken over the years, which has given rise to local superstitions and also helped keep it free of humans. The hill remains a popular hiking spot for the local boarding schools, but not having motorable roads is blessedly free of "tourism". Due north of Landour, 16 km (9.9 mi) away as the crow flies is Nag Tibba
Nag Tibba
Nag Tibba , , is the highest peak in the lesser himalayan region of Uttarakhand state , and lends its name to the 'Nag Tibba Range', itself the next-northerly of the five folds of the Himalaya. It is situated away from Landour cantonment, and around 57 km from Mussoorie in Tehri Garhwal...
('Serpent's Peak'), at 3,022 m (9,972 ft) the highest peak in the local region. It lends its name to the Nag Tibba Range, itself the next-northerly of the five folds of the Himalaya. To the east of Landour are Tope Tibba and the oddly shaped Pepperpot mountain; both are hiking destinations.
There are no commercial hotels in Landour Cantonment, and only a handful of rudimentary, quasi-legal "guest houses". Landour Bazaar has fewer than 10 equally rudimentary hotels, none of which would merit a single star, with all of them together having perhaps 125 rooms. (Mussoorie proper has over a hundred hotels at various price points, though). There were never any entertainments in Landour - all the Raj-era theaters, cinemas, dance halls, skating rinks and public gardens were in Mussoorie. Accordingly, the decibel level was - and is - markedly lower (thanks to the military's zoning rules) than in Mussoorie, where it is ever-rising thanks to the explosion in middle-class tourism.
Americana in the Himalaya
Aside from the obvious British legacy, Landour has a thick vein of Americana too, with American missionaries having had a strong footing in the town since the 1830s, when the policy changes introduced by the English administrator Lord Macaulay prompted the rapid growth of American missions across India, particularly those of the Presbyterian and BaptistBaptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
churches. Generations of American missionary
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
children (see Third Culture Kid
Third culture kid
Third culture kid is a term coined in the early 1950s by American sociologist and anthropologist Ruth Hill Useem "to refer to the children who accompany their parents into another society". Other terms, such as trans-culture kid, are also used by some. More recently, American sociologist David C...
s) were educated at Woodstock School and/or born in Landour (see John Birch, below). Of late, their descendants have been deeming a dekko worthwhile. Nowadays, many young Americans on gap years or on exchange programs spend time learning Hindi at the popular Landour Language School, which was founded in the late 19th century to teach newly arrived missionaries. Another durable reminder of the American connection is the ubiquitous Landour Community Cookbook (1st formal edition: 1938; informal stencil copies since ca. 1900) though the Landour Community Center—once the locus of Anglo-American community life—is itself moribund. A half-dozen bakers in Landour still offer various breads, cookies/biscuits and cakes from 'The Cookbook', though with the rise of packaged foods and the departure of most missionaries, the bakeries are a pale shadow of their former selves. Landour was also one of the first places in India where an American classic such as peanut butter
Peanut butter
Peanut butter is a food paste made primarily from ground dry roasted peanuts, popular in North America, Netherlands, United Kingdom, and parts of Asia, particularly the Philippines and Indonesia. It is mainly used as a sandwich spread, sometimes in combination as in the peanut butter and jelly...
was made commercially; Plausibly, a number of houses in Landour have American (rather than British) names, among them Aloha, Hollywood and Roanoke.
Ecology and environment
Landour is for the most part (unlike largely deforested Mussoorie) carpeted by old-growth forests of Deodar Cedar, Himalayan OakOak
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus Quercus , of which about 600 species exist. "Oak" may also appear in the names of species in related genera, notably Lithocarpus...
, Chir Pine
Chir Pine
The Chir Pine, Pinus roxburghii, named after William Roxburgh, is a pine native to the Himalaya.The range extends from northern Pakistan , across northern India and Nepal to Bhutan.It generally occurs at lower altitudes than other pines in the Himalaya, from...
, Blue Pine
Blue Pine
Pinus wallichiana is a pine native to the Himalaya, Karakoram and Hindu Kush mountains, from eastern Afghanistan east across northern Pakistan and India to Yunnan in southwest China. It grows at high altitudes in mountain valleys at altitudes of 1800–4300 m , and is a tree from 30–50 m in height...
, West Himalayan Fir, Himalayan Maple
Maple
Acer is a genus of trees or shrubs commonly known as maple.Maples are variously classified in a family of their own, the Aceraceae, or together with the Hippocastanaceae included in the family Sapindaceae. Modern classifications, including the Angiosperm Phylogeny Group system, favour inclusion in...
, Rhododendron
Rhododendron
Rhododendron is a genus of over 1 000 species of woody plants in the heath family, most with showy flowers...
, Himalayan Manna Ash
Ash tree
Fraxinus is a genus flowering plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae. It contains 45-65 species of usually medium to large trees, mostly deciduous though a few subtropical species are evergreen. The tree's common English name, ash, goes back to the Old English æsc, while the generic name...
and other tree species. Landour's north-facing slopes have more Deodar and Fir than other species; the south-facing slopes have more Oak than other species. Pines are at lower elevations than Deodar and Fir, true to form. Among introduced species, the adaptable Platycladus
Platycladus
Platycladus is a distinct genus of evergreen coniferous tree in the cypress family Cupressaceae, containing only one species, Platycladus orientalis, also known as Chinese Arborvitae or Biota. It is endemic to Northwestern China...
(Hindi: Morpankhi) does well, and Oriental Plane
Oriental Plane
Platanus orientalis, or the Oriental plane, is a large, deciduous tree of the Platanaceae family, known for its longevity and spreading crown. The species name derives from its historical distribution eastward from the Balkans, where it was recognized in ancient Greek history and literature....
(Hindi: Chinar) too are seen. A logging ban has long been in place in the Reserved forests around Landour, and the ban is reasonably well enforced.
Landour offers striking views of the Garhwal
Garhwal Division
Garhwal is the north-western region and administrative division of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand which is home to the Garhwali people. Lying in the Himalayas, It is bounded on the north by Tibet, on the east by Kumaon region, on the south by Uttar Pradesh state, and on the north-west by...
Himalaya, with a wide vista of up to 200 km (124.3 mi) visible on a clear day. The visible massifs and peaks include (West to East) Swargarohini
Swargarohini
Swargarohini is a mountain massif in the Bandarpunch Range of the Garhwal Himalaya. It lies in the Uttarkashi District of the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand, west of the Gangotri group of peaks. It comprises four separate peaks; Swargarohini I is the main peak, and is the subject of this...
, Bandarpunch
Bandarpunch
Bandarpunch is a major peak of the Garhwal division of the Himalayas, in the Indian state of Uttaranchal. It literally means "Tail of the monkey" or "Tail of Hanuman" in Hindi. It's a twin peak: Bandarpunch-I & Bandarpunch-II...
, Yamnotri, Jaonli, Gangotri, Srikanta, Kedarnath, Satopanth, Chaukhamba (Badrinath) and even Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi
Nanda Devi is the second highest mountain in India and the highest entirely within the country ; owing to this geography it was the highest known mountain in the world until computations on Dhaulagiri by western surveyors in 1808...
. At its closest point, Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
is about 70 miles (112.7 km) away as the crow flies; it is through Landour that Heinrich Harrer
Heinrich Harrer
Heinrich Harrer was an Austrian mountaineer, sportsman, geographer, and author.He is best known for his books Seven Years in Tibet and The White Spider .-Athletics:...
escaped to Tibet during World War II after breaking out of a British internment camp in Dehradun
Dehradun
- Geography :The Dehradun district has various types of physical geography from Himalayan mountains to Plains. Raiwala is the lowest point at 315 meters above sea level, and the highest points are within the Tiuni hills, rising to 3700 m above sea level...
.
Birdlife is outstanding in its breadth of species; over 350 species may comfortably be seen at various elevations over the course of the year, including both endemic
Endemic (ecology)
Endemism is the ecological state of being unique to a defined geographic location, such as an island, nation or other defined zone, or habitat type; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsewhere. For example, all species of lemur are endemic to the...
species and migratory species from Tibet
Tibet
Tibet is a plateau region in Asia, north-east of the Himalayas. It is the traditional homeland of the Tibetan people as well as some other ethnic groups such as Monpas, Qiang, and Lhobas, and is now also inhabited by considerable numbers of Han and Hui people...
, Central Asia
Central Asia
Central Asia is a core region of the Asian continent from the Caspian Sea in the west, China in the east, Afghanistan in the south, and Russia in the north...
and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
. Quite a few endemic species of pheasant
Pheasant
Pheasants refer to some members of the Phasianinae subfamily of Phasianidae in the order Galliformes.Pheasants are characterised by strong sexual dimorphism, males being highly ornate with bright colours and adornments such as wattles and long tails. Males are usually larger than females and have...
s and raptors
Bird of prey
Birds of prey are birds that hunt for food primarily on the wing, using their keen senses, especially vision. They are defined as birds that primarily hunt vertebrates, including other birds. Their talons and beaks tend to be relatively large, powerful and adapted for tearing and/or piercing flesh....
are among the more charismatic species that can be easily seen. As for wild mammals, leopard
Leopard
The leopard , Panthera pardus, is a member of the Felidae family and the smallest of the four "big cats" in the genus Panthera, the other three being the tiger, lion, and jaguar. The leopard was once distributed across eastern and southern Asia and Africa, from Siberia to South Africa, but its...
s transit the area from time to time; their prey are mainly dogs, including strays from Landour-Mussoorie and the neighboring villages. Also present are some Jackal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
s, Barking Deer (muntjac), Goral
Goral
Goral may refer to:* Three species of Asian ungulates in the genus Naemorhedus.* The Gorals, a people living in southern Poland, northern Slovakia and the Czech Republic....
(goat-antelope) and the secretive Sloth Bear
Sloth Bear
The sloth bear , also known as the labiated bear, is a nocturnal insectivorous species of bear found wild within the Indian subcontinent. The sloth bear evolved from ancestral brown bears during the Pleistocene and shares features found in insect-eating mammals through convergent evolution...
. Among smaller mammals, Yellow-throated Martens, Civet
Civet
The family Viverridae is made up of around 30 species of medium-sized mammal, including all of the genets, the binturong, most of the civets, and the two African linsangs....
s, Jungle Cat
Jungle Cat
The jungle cat is a medium-sized cat and considered the largest remaining species of the wild cat genus Felis. The species is also called the swamp lynx but is not closely related to the lynxes....
s, and Himalayan Weasels are seen, and the occasional Flying Squirrel
Flying squirrel
Flying squirrels, scientifically known as Pteromyini or Petauristini, are a tribe of 44 species of squirrels .- Description :...
. Pesky rhesus macaques and Hanuman langurs are as present in Landour as anywhere. Poaching
Poaching
Poaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
has severely reduced the numbers of the larger wild mammals, though the habitat itself could support larger populations. Of course, most charismatic megafauna
Charismatic megafauna
Charismatic megafauna are large animal species with widespread popular appeal that environmental activists use to achieve conservation goals well beyond just those species...
had already been wiped out by the British in the 19th century. Unsurprising, given the British penchant for 'blood sport', especially among the soldiery. After all, Mussoorie was first 'discovered' by Captain Young on a shooting expedition from his garrison in Dehradun. The ecology of the area clearly shows that Tiger
Tiger
The tiger is the largest cat species, reaching a total body length of up to and weighing up to . Their most recognizable feature is a pattern of dark vertical stripes on reddish-orange fur with lighter underparts...
, Himalayan Black Bear, Striped Hyena
Striped Hyena
The Striped Hyena is a species of true hyena native to North and East Africa, the Caucasus, the Middle East, Middle and Central Asia and the Indian Subcontinent...
, Sambar
Sambar Deer
The Sambar ' is a large deer native to southern and southeast Asia. Although it primarily refers to R. unicolor, the name "Sambar" is also sometimes used to refer to the Philippine Deer and the Rusa Deer...
, Serow
Serow
Serow may refer to:*Three species of Asian ungulate in the genus Capricornis**Japanese Serow**Mainland Serow**Taiwan Serow* Serow, Iran, a city in Urmia County, West Azarbaijan Province, Iran*Alternative spelling of Serov...
, Himalayan Tahr
Himalayan Tahr
The Himalayan Tahr or Common Thar is a large ungulate related to the wild goat.-Habitat:...
, Gaur
Gaur
The gaur , also called Indian bison, is a large bovine native to South Asia and Southeast Asia. The species is listed as vulnerable on the IUCN Red List since 1986 as the population decline in parts of the species' range is likely to be well over 70% over the last three generations...
and other impressive species (all are now locally extinct) were well-represented in Mussoorie-Landour before British colonization; 19th century writings by British hunters boast of the countless trophies they collected in the area.
Deforestation itself dates from British times. There was also an early myth that "Indian forests are full of germs, which European constitutions cannot take"; clear-felling (clear-cutting) was the answer, as even a casual observer can still see, except in the Cantonment, thanks to the 1924 Act (see above). Many reforestation initiatives began in various hill stations in the late 19th century, thanks to some enlightened Raj administrators, but not in Mussoorie. Of late, the Indian Army has done yeoman service via its 'Eco-Battalions' in terms of re-forestation.
Another local menace is non-biodegradable refuse. While there have been some steps by the citizenry (without much help from the authorities) to combat this, it remains a challenge. Much refuse is just dumped down hillsides by many locals—langurs, macaques, civets, stray dogs and other animals forage these open dumps. While the Indian Army has a somewhat better record, Doordarshan and All India Radio (both state-owned, revealingly) are notorious for calmly dumping most of their garbage down the hillsides of the Cantonment. Few in Landour Bazaar seem to take the environment seriously; that is for the "rich" of the Cantonment to worry about. Woodstock School, which remains the largest landowner in Landour behind the Indian Army, has sought to be progressive on this score (e.g., by collecting used plastics from across Landour) but its efforts are more effective within and around their own large campus than elsewhere in Landour.
The citizenry
The year-round population of the Cantonment is under 1,200, and if you include Landour Bazaar it is under 4,000. The summertime population of Mussoorie triples to perhaps 90,000 with the influx of budget tourists (and hotel staff, shopkeepers, tradesmen etc. to service them), but the population of Landour Bazaar only goes up by perhaps 1,000, given the paucity of hotels. But the summertime population of the Cantonment goes up by only 500, if that; there is no place for outsiders to stay. Indeed, the weekend population of Mussoorie proper too now spurts—year-round—to near-summertime levels, given the improvements in India's highways and the ever-rising numbers of private cars.Bania (caste)
Bania is an occupational caste of bankers, money-lenders, dealers in grains, spices and in modern times numerous commercial enterprises. Baniya is a distinct caste mostly coming from Western India and Central India but spread now all over India...
merchants who came from far afield in the 19th century—as far away as Gujarat and Bombay—to service the then-growing Anglo-American community.
Demographics
According to the 2001 India censusCensus
A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring and recording information about the members of a given population. It is a regularly occurring and official count of a particular population. The term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common...
, Landour had an "official" population of roughly 3,500. Males constitute 55% of the population and females 45%. Landour has an average literacy rate of 78%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 85%, and female literacy is 70%. In Landour, 8% of the population is under 6 years of age. However, these statistics do not account for the transient population of the Cantonment, which includes military personnel on study tours, or the "second home" crowd that owns many of the properties in Landour Cantonment. Nor does it account for the student population at Woodstock or the language school.
Architecture
Architecturally speaking, Landour is akin to other Raj-era hill stations of Northern India. Since Mussoorie-Landour never rivalled ShimlaShimla
Shimla , formerly known as Simla, is the capital city of Himachal Pradesh. In 1864, Shimla was declared the summer capital of the British Raj in India. A popular tourist destination, Shimla is often referred to as the "Queen of Hills," a term coined by the British...
in administrative, political or military terms, there are few 'grand official buildings' to speak of. The private homes are largely the common Raj-era pastiches, with pitched roofs (often painted a dull red) and large verandah
Verandah
A veranda or verandah is a roofed opened gallery or porch. It is also described as an open pillared gallery, generally roofed, built around a central structure...
s, important given the heavy monsoons. Most houses contain architectural echoes both of Home Counties
Home Counties
The home counties is a term which refers to the counties of South East England and the East of England which border London, but do not include the capital city itself...
England and of the resort towns of the Scottish Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
. Many have well-kept gardens.
About the only "architecturally significant" building was The Castle on the aptly named Castle Hill, now part of Survey of India
Survey of India
The Survey of India is India's central engineering agency in charge of mapping and surveying. Set up in 1767 to help consolidate the territories of the British East India Company, it is one of the oldest Engineering Departments of the Government of India...
, where the deposed boy-king Duleep Singh
Duleep Singh
This article is about Maharaja Dalip Singh. For other uses, see Dalip SinghMaharaja Dalip Singh, GCSI , commonly called Duleep Singh and later in life nicknamed the Black Prince of Perthshire, was the last Maharaja of the Sikh Empire...
of Punjab, the son of the iconic Maharaja
Maharaja
Mahārāja is a Sanskrit title for a "great king" or "high king". The female equivalent title Maharani denotes either the wife of a Maharaja or, in states where that was customary, a woman ruling in her own right. The widow of a Maharaja is known as a Rajamata...
Ranjit Singh
Ranjit Singh
Maharaja Ranjit Singh Ji was the first Maharaja of the Sikh Empire.-Early life:...
, was often "kept" for convalescent purposes between 1849 and 1953. (Sadly, The Castle was heavily modified in an ad hoc manner over the decades, rendering it unrecognizable as compared to early photographs). The Amir of Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...
too was in the town in quasi-exile at various times in the early 20th Century as Raj officials engaged in their customary machinations of map-drawing and re-drawing across the Subcontinent.
A prominent local landmark is the Clock Tower at the beginning of Landour Bazaar. It is of no architectural merit, but informally marks the boundary between Landour and Mussoorie (others say it is the former Picture Palace movie theater a bit lower down).
Landour has four Raj-era churches, two of them distinctly Indo-Gothic
Gothic architecture
Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....
in style. Of the four, two remain very much in use: Kellogg Church (built 1903, once American Presbyterian, now non-denominational, and also home to the Landour Language School) and the St. Paul's Church
St. Paul's Church, Landour
St. Paul's is an Anglican church in Landour, India. The church was built in 1839 and first consecrated on May 1, 1840, by Bishop Daniel Wilson of Calcutta. From 1840 to 1947, the church was run by military chaplains and was the premier church for the cantonment used primarily by the British...
(built 1840, once Anglican, now non-denominational) in Char Dukan, where Jim Corbett
Jim Corbett (hunter)
Edward James "Jim" Corbett was a British hunter, conservationist, author and naturalist, famous for slaying a large number of man-eating tigers and leopards in India....
's parents, Christopher and Mary Corbett, married on October 13, 1859. A third Methodist church in Landour Bazaar fell into disuse after the Raj ended and was eventually seized by squatters for commercial purposes by way of 'kabza'. The fourth church is the once-Anglican St. Peter's Church, latterly Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
, and now is disuse and occupied by squatters apparently with the 'permission' of the church committee; it is atop Landour hill.
Residents
Landour also has an outsized presence on the cultural map of India, its most famous resident being the Anglo-IndianAnglo-Indian
Anglo-Indians are people who have mixed Indian and British ancestry, or people of British descent born or living in India, now mainly historical in the latter sense. British residents in India used the term "Eurasians" for people of mixed European and Indian descent...
author Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond
Ruskin Bond, born 19 May 1934, is an Indian author of British descent. He is considered to be an icon among Indian writers and children's authors and a top novelist....
. Another resident is the self-styled "rabid thespian" Victor Banerjee
Victor Banerjee
Victor Banerjee is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi, Bengali and English language films. He has also appeared on a number of TV series on Indian television...
, formerly of Calcutta. Another thespian Tom Alter
Tom Alter
Tom Alter is an Indian actor of American origin. As a thespian and television actor, he is best known for his work in Bollywood, but has also worked in the theatre...
, himself Landour-raised and a Woodstock School
Woodstock School
Woodstock School is a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India....
graduate, is a part-year resident, spending the remainder of his time in Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
. His cousin, the peripatetic Stephen Alter
Stephen Alter
Stephen Alter is an American author, primarily of non-fiction but also of fiction, who was born and raised in India, where he grew up as the son of missionaries. Accordingly, he was a Third Culture Kid , and his writings are generally described as Indo-nostalgic...
, also a Woodstock
Woodstock School
Woodstock School is a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India....
alum and an "Indo-nostalgic" author, is often in town for long stretches (Stephen Alter's book "Neglected Lives" is set in a fictional hill-station named Debrakot, sharing some characteristics with the real Landour). Stephen's father Rev. Bob Alter had been principal of Woodstock
Woodstock School
Woodstock School is a Christian, international, co-educational, residential school located in Landour, a small hill station contiguous with the town of Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, India....
in the 1970s and 1980s. Landour was home in the 1850s and 1860s to the multi-talented John Lang
John Lang (writer)
John Lang was an Australian lawyer and was Australia's first native born novelist. Lang was born at Parramatta, Sydney, Australia, second and posthumous son of Walter Lang, merchant adventurer, and his wife Elizabeth, née Harris. Lang was educated at Sydney College under William Timothy Cape...
, seen as the "first Australian novelist". Lang's 1864 grave was rediscovered by Ruskin Bond in Camel's Back Cemetery in Mussoorie and was restored by the Australian High Commission in Delhi (which also has a bolthole nearby).
Other bohemians
Bohemianism
Bohemianism is the practice of an unconventional lifestyle, often in the company of like-minded people, with few permanent ties, involving musical, artistic or literary pursuits...
who call Mussoorie (but not Landour) home are the writer Bill Aitken and the husband-wife travel-writing team of Hugh and Colleen Gantzer. And then of course there is Allan Sealy
Allan Sealy
Irwin Allan Sealy is a writer born in 1951 in Allahabad, Uttar Pradesh, India. His novel The Everest Hotel: A Calendar was shortlisted for the 1998 Booker prize.-Biography:...
of Trotter-Nama fame, down in the valley in Dehradun. And finally, Landour was the unlikely birthplace in 1918 of John Birch
John Birch (missionary)
John Morrison Birch was an American military intelligence officer and a Baptist missionary in World War II who was shot by armed supporters of the Communist Party of China. Some politically conservative groups in the United States consider him to be a martyr and the first victim of the Cold War...
, in whose name the controversial arch-conservative John Birch Society
John Birch Society
The John Birch Society is an American political advocacy group that supports anti-communism, limited government, a Constitutional Republic and personal freedom. It has been described as radical right-wing....
would be founded in America, after his murder in China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
at the hand of Communists. Landour has, in large part, survived "untouched" thanks to the military presence and also due to its small size.
Ghayur and Patricia Alam (Himalayan Weavers) live on Mussoorie-Dhanaulti Rd, where they use natural dye
Natural dye
Natural dyes are dyes or colorants derived from plants, invertebrates, or minerals. The majority of natural dyes are vegetable dyes from plant sources – roots, berries, bark, leaves, and wood — and other organic sources such as fungi and lichens....
s to produce handmade shawls, stoles and scarves of wool, eri silk and pashmina.http://www.himalayanweavers.org
Sources
- Landour Days: A Writer's Journal by Ruskin Bond. Penguin, 2002. ISBN 0-670-91170-4.
- Resorts of the Raj, by Vikram Bhatt (1998).
- Hill Stations of India, by Gillian Wright (1991).
- Mussoorie: Jewel of the Hills, by Ruskin Bond (1996).
- Mussoorie & Landour: Days of Wine and Roses, by Ruskin Bond (1992).
- Plain Tales from the Raj, by Charles Allen (1975).
- Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj (1996).
- All the Way to Heaven: An American Boyhood in the Himalaya, by Stephen Alter (1998).
- Raj: The Making and Unmaking of British India, by Lawrence James (2000).
- Memsahibs: The Women of Victorian India, by Pat Barr (1976).
- Footloose in the Himalayas, by Bill Aitken (2003).
- Touching Upon the Himalaya, by Bill Aitken & Geeta Kapadia (2004).
- Stones of Empire, by Jan Morris (1995).
- India Unveiled, by Bob Arnett (2006).
- Knowing Dil Das, by Joe Alter (1999).
- The Great Hill Stations of Asia, by Barbara Crossette (1999).
- Hill Resorts of the U.P. Himalaya, by Nutan Tyagi (1991).
- Farewell the Winterline, by Stan Brush (2002).