19TH CENTURY DARJEELINC O tudy In Urbanization 1835-1890 Thesis Submitted To The North Bengal University For The Award Of The Degree Of Doctorate Of Philosophy (Arts) In History Mr Kashinath Ojha DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY i.ORL-TO COLLEGE DARJEELiNG ^ ^' 126692 1 0 AUG 1399 DISTRICT DARJEELING " •'•'•'•/^Ultlr. .W. D/NAJPUrt ^''' ' '"=:f> to 8 nul ill OINTFNTS Chapter I : Urbanization in India : Pre-Colonial Expenence.., 1 Chapter II : From the Crown to the Company 29 Chapter III : On Road to Urbanization 62 Chapter IV : Urbanization achieved (A) Administration _,. 91 (B) Economy 127 (C ) Educational and other Institutions 166 (D ) Society 199 Chapter V : Conclusion 225 Glossary 234, Appendix I : Some place names and their oigin 235 Appendix II : Travellers' Bungalows in Darjeeling District and Sikkim 237 Appendix 111 ; Rough note on the v^ater supply of Darjeeling 238 Appendix IV : Inspection Report on the Darjeeling Municipality 242 Appendix V : First Annual Report of the [Darjeeling Volunteer Fire Bngade 1906-1907. 246 Appendix V A: Rules and Regulations of the Darjeeling Volunteer Fire Bngade 248 Appendix VI : Extracts from a report of the Sanitary Commissioner.... 254 Appendix VII : Some important buildings of the 19th century ,. 259 Appendix VIII : Pov;'er House 261 Appendix IX : List of holdings 263 Appendix X : Expenditure of the Municipality 267 Appendix XI : Results of vaccine operation 272 Appendix XII : Darjeeling Municipality Section 199 Act 111 275 Appendix XIII: Darjeeling Municipality Section 193 Act 111 277 Appendix XIV: Darjeeling Municipality Section 288,289 and 299 Act III 278 Appendix XV : Darjeeling Municipality : Rule 19 279 Appendix XVI: Darjeeling Municipality : Section 199 Act 111 280 Appendix XVII : Darjeeling Municipality : Section 231 Act III 281 Appendix XVIII: Darjeeling Municipality Section 193 Act III..- 282 Appendix XIX: Darjeeling Municipalit/ ; Section 199 Act Ml 2^3 Appendix XX : Darjeeling Municipality . Water works 284 Appendix XXI: Government of Bengal :Municipal Department 288 Appendix XXII : Government of Bengal ; Municipal Department 289 [ii] Appendix XXIil : Bye - Laws 290 Appendix XXIV : Government of Bengal : Municipal Department 291 Bibliography 292 Illustrations Sketch of Darjeeling i^lat e No. 1 Darjeeling, 1850 II How the Goods were carried III Train Running Through the Terai tv Loops in Darjeeling V Locomotive VI Darjeeling Railway Station V!l Bullock Hackeries VIM F'alankeens IX A Toujohn X Government House XI Native Market XII Weil developed Market XIII Hotel Mount Everest XIV Loreto Convent XV St. Andrew's Church XVI Hindu Mandir XVil Mai! and Victoria Park XVII Maps : Map of Darjeeling District Map of Darjeeling Town Sketch Map of the Darjeeling Municipality [iii] ACKNOWLEDGEMENT 1 take this opportunity to thank my supervisor, Professor T.K. Roychoudhury, Department of History, University of North Bengal, to whom I am greatly indebted for his scholarly guidance and constant encouragement which helped to see the completion of this research work. I am grateful to Rev. Mother Damien, Principal Loreto College, Darieeling, for bearing all the inconveniences caused by my absence in college and for always giving me the encouragement and support, which I needed. Her prayers and good wishes have seen me through my work for which i thank her most sincerely. I wish to express my gratitude to the University Grants Commission for the Teacher-fellowship which provided me with the much needed leave for a year and the financial aid to complete my research. I thank Dr. S.L. Datta, the Development Officer, University of North Bengal and his office, the Registrar and his office, the Finance Officer and his office, University of North Bengal. I would like to extend my heart-felt thanks to Dr. Chanda Chakraborty and Dr.Ananda Gopal Ghose, Department of History, University of North Bengal. I am equally grateful to the Director and officials of the National Archives, New Delhi and also to the Director, Assistant Director and his staff of the State Archives, Calcutta whose willing co-operation was valuable in gathenng information from the original documents. I wish to extend my sincere thanks to the National Library, Calcutta, and its officials for making it possible for me to use the Main Library as well as the Annexe which has some important original documents. My sincere thanks to the officials of the Darjeeiing District Record Room for making available to me whatever documents I could use for my work. The District Magistrate's Library and its Librarian cannot be forgotten by me for lending me some important reports to look through. I also owe my thanks to Mr. Chettri of the D.M.'s office for lending me some important books. The Deshbandhu District Library and its Librarian, Mr. Allay, have also been of great help for which I am grateful.^ [iv] I owe my gratitude to Mrs. L.Tshering, the Head Clerk, Loreto College, Darjeeling, for heiping me with my fellowship papers, Mrs. Amrita Darnal for helping me in typing the draft of my research work and also Mrs. Kanta Pradhan. My sincerest thanks are also expressed to Prof. Sadanand Singh, Head of the Department of Hindi, Presidency College, Calcutta, and his family for their hospitality during my stay in Calcutta. I also thank Mr. Chhetri and his staff of the Gorkha Welfare Centre, New Delhi, who made my stay comfortable. Friends like Rev. Mother Francis Michael can never be forgotten whose sincere prayers and words of encouragement coming from as far as Ireland have been a source of strength and support through the arduous months. I sincerely thank her for the same. I am also thankful to Miss Rene Rozario from St. Paul's School for her help and good wishes, and my brother. Dr. G.P. Ojha for his help and good wishes. Last but not the least I wish to express my heart-felt thanks to my wife Neelam and my son Prateeq who managed the home-front leaving me alone to complete the work. I owe a great deal to both of them for all the moral support they gave me. [V] PREFACE There is one argument other than those which the text has augmented to sustain the research that has resulted in this dissertation. All the major hill stations of India with the exception of Darjeeling have had their historians who had expended labour to record their annals and antiquities. It has been largely through their enquiries that the hill stations emerged not only as a concept of Colonialism but in the distinctiveness of each of them in the exotic urban phenomenon of imperial India. Shimla, Ootacmund, Mhahabaleshwar, Nainital, Mussoorie, in spite of their superficial similarities, have had their urban personality being delineated in the objectives for which they have been set up in as much as in the manifestations of their cultural traits. Darjeeling has been singularly unfortunate not to have its Todd to write its annals and antiquities. Barring a few gazetteers and a couple of tourist guide-books, none of which had presumably travelled beyond the display of impersonal statistics and the cosmetic surgery performed on it by Capt. Lloyd and Dr. Campbell, Darjeeling had no history. Although it had enjoyed an important place as the 'queen' in the British pantheon of hill stations and had been a part of the mythology of the local people, it sadly remained more mystified by it not being felt in the throbs of its urban heart than by the mists which often embrace it beyond public gaze. Once it was born, Darjeeling appears to have become autonomous both in the shape it has assumed prompted convincingly by its topography and in the hybridization of its culture. Anglicisation had penetrated far deeply in the British encounter with the Indians of Darjeeling than perhaps in any other hill station, which obviously makes it into an important underpin. The Indianization of Darjeeling too was not devoid of a cultural specificity having had Nepalese, Lepchas, Tibetans, Eurasians, vagabonds, North Indian peddlars, Bengali bureaucrats and a host of Bengali baboos being thrown in the urbanization process. Despite all of them struggling to remain within their diverse and competitive cultural universe they had developsd-a common cultural dialect in their survival interest, [vi] While anglicization as the surface cultural current was articulated by the language of the British which became the Lingua franca, its other cultural icons were flaunted by the commodities which the British consumed and in the quiet pursuit of the mannerism which they brought in their lives to differentiate them. The Indian culture flew as an undercurrent not being felt at the surface but very stable in its being able to weave all the streams of local cultures into a pattern of common respect and adulation. All these aspects of Darjeeling not being thoroughly explored suggest the idea for this research and justify it to be drawn to a conclusion. CHAPTER URBANIZATION IN INDIA : PRE - COLONIAL EXPERIENCE The city defies a universal definition which would be acceptable to everyone. Is it a physical conglomeration of streets and houses ? Or is it a centre of exchange ? Or is it a kind of society ? Or even a frame of mind ? Has it a certain size or specific density ? Some countries adopt a simple numerical value. A town or city is bigger than a village community and if we are dealing with very large settlements there is often little doubt. But at the lower end of the scale, if size is the criterion, who is to say what the size of the town is ? In Denmark a settlement of 200 people constitutes a town as it does in Sweden and Finland. In Greece a settlement must have over 10,000 inhabitants before it can be called a town.