DHARMALINGAM VENUGOPAL
The evolution of the Nilgiris in the 200-odd years since it was “discovered” by the British makes a fascinating read.
The Neilgherris, as it was originally spelt, was a British colony for nearly 150 years from 1800. The idea of a European settlement started with the exploratory journey of John Sullivan, the Collector of Coimbatore, to the Dimhutty valley in 1819, his “discovery” of Ooty two years later and his instant love affair with the hills.
The early days
But the settlement started taking shape only after 1827 when the practice of the upper strata of British Indian society moving to the hills for summer vacationing began. By 1829, the Nilgiris had a small European population of 500 against a native population of about 6,000 according to the 1825 census.
Soon after, in the 1830s and 40s, the Protestant missionaries came marching in to set up missions, churches and schools. Among the pioneers was Rev. G.U. Pope, who was to later make a lasting contribution to Dravidian literature. Two institutions established then, St. Stephens Church, Ooty, and the Lawrence School, Lovedale, are now 175 and 150 years old respectively.
The new settlements which sprang up on the hills were nostalgic imitations of “back home”, the settlers having brought with them “English” cottages, flowers, plants and even fish. Lord Macaulay, who was carried all the way from Madras to Ooty in a palanquin in 1834 to draft the Indian Penal Code, noted in his letters, “It (Nilgiris) has now very much the look of a rising English watering place… Altogether the coolness, the greenness of the grass, the character of the houses both without and within is quite English”.
Ideal climate
In the same year Dr. Baikie, who was sent to assess the agreeableness of the Nilgiri climate on the English constitution, believed that, “the great value of the hills lay in the life-saving properties of the climate, their fertile soil in which European fruit and vegetables could grow and possibly as a European and Eurasian colony from which future recruits to the Company’s army could be drawn”.
The administration too chipped in to make the settlers feel at home. Richard Burton, the great explorer, visiting the hills during the monsoon of 1847, noted, “A bazaar has been added by the Collector…Rice, barley and gram and poultry are sold in limited quantities… Bakers are about to be settled on the spot. Mutton is killed daily and frequently of good quality…”
Class divide
It was all not, however, bonhomie within the European society, divided as it was by “class” differences. “There was an almost caste-like discreteness, a separate lifestyle and a minimum of intercommunication between the administrative officials, the army officers, the planters, the tradesmen, the teachers, the Protestant missionaries, the Catholic priests, the retired and the tourists, altogether a dozen hermetically sealed units only briefly to be united when and if they sat in a church together”, observed a writer.
The Nilgiris in the first half of the 19th century was basically a sanatorium for the sick and convalescing, mainly for pensioned off Europeans. “Respectability and a life of relative ease beckoned on the hills” says researcher Morrison (2000). Life was, therefore, routine and leisurely and revolved around long walks, pony rides, reading and visits to the club.
Leisurely life
The routine of life was only broken by outdoor activities like a game of polo, tennis or cricket or excursions and picnics to scenic sites or indoor activities like dinners, theatricals and balls. For the elite, there was the Ooty hunt to which horse racing was added later. For the game lovers there was plenty to be had, in and out of season, as the natives were never inclined towards hunting either for meat or skin.
The pace and purpose of European life on the Nilgiris changed markedly as the administration of the hills changed hands from the East India Company to Her Majesty’s government after 1857. Europeans of various hues opened up vast plantations of coffee, tea, eucalyptus and wattle in the 1860s. From 1870s, the government of the Madras Presidency moved up to Ooty for six months of the year to escape the summer heat. In the 1890s, the mountain railway was commenced between Mettupalayam and Coonoor and extended to Ooty in the next decade.
Development era
The turn of the 20th century saw the first hydel power plant in the country and an ammunition factory coming up on the hills. The hills were also becoming intellectually vibrant with the early theosophists, retired teachers, civil servants and judges taking permanent residence on the hills.
For all their power, influence and growth, the European population on the hills remained small and compact. The European population, including Eurasians or Anglo Indians (who numbered 800) numbered 2,000 out of a district total of 49,501 in 1871. Shortly before the end of the European era, their population rose to 5,000 out of a district population of 2,09,709 in 1941. Eurasians were 1,800 by then.
A varied contribution
Was the European era a boon or a bane to the Nilgiris? As Prof. Paul Hockings, the leading Nilgiriologist says, “The impact of the European settlers was an extremely varied one. As missionaries they made an ecclesiastical, if not a spiritual change, in a small minority of native population; as soldiers and planters they introduced new generic material to the local people; as planters and administrators they developed and greatly expanded the cash economy; as military and retired people they brought in new standards of etiquette and new types of public entertainment and as officers and administrators they built towns and roads”.
Dharmalingam Venugopal is the Director of Nilgiri Documentation Centre and can be contacted at >dvenu@vsnl.net.