Simla – Summer Capital of India

Alice Shamsi (nee Holmes) a Scion of third generation English colonial family was rummaging through her late mother’s box of neatly cataloged letters & collectibles at her trophy Duplex’s at London’s Hyde Park.

Letter after letter were wistful reminiscences about the days of the Raj, particularly on the summer capital of British India ‘Simla’.There is one place that remains entrenched in colonial nostalgia, Simla. Once the Summer Capital of the British in India, from where one-fifth of humanity was once ruled, only exists because the British couldn’t cope with the heat.

In yearning for cooler climes where they could enjoy pursuits such as riding, racing and croquet, Simla became their idyll. The mass migration of viceroys, military attachés and nearly 5,000 imperial clerks and staff, not to mention wives, children and servants, had been taking place for decades. 

For a century, the viceroy of India directly ruled a larger population than the British monarch. Modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka were governed from Simla amid a whirl of colonial picnics, garden fetes, balls, plays, hunts, cocktail parties, races, polo games and cricket tournaments.

Simla combined the idyll of England with the entire resources of the Indian subcontinent. This tiny little village was solely for the elite and their servants, and it had a steamy social life.

Simla, dubbed the “Queen of Hills,” has colonial styles of architecture. It is like walking into a Victorian novel and losing yourself in a time warp as you explore the places to see in Simla.

One letter gushed, like so, “There is no other shopping street in India that is more beautiful than the Mall Road of Simla. The Tudor Style structures make it look like an old English Town. The Norman Gothic building of Gaiety theatre adds another jewel in Simla’s crown.”

Another one of her mother’s letters states “Last night I went to a ball given by the German Consul who is the richest man in Simla and gives the best entertainments. The narrowness of the space rather prevented me from showing off my fine stride but I did not get very much bored, which is generally the best I can say of a ball. Thursday I am going to Viceroy’s for a dance and I am afraid I shall get entrapped for several others.” 

There are various tales as to how the town drew its name. According to a legend, the town got its name from Shyamala, the dark Goddess of power, widely worshipped in these hills. The story of the Gerad Brothers is also talked about. They were on their way on an official survey, when they saw a fakir (ascetic) near Jakhoo Hills, the highest amongst the seven hills of Simla. The fakir, who it seems, could understand the language of the animals, provided drinking water to weary travellers. The thatched cottage he lived in was named as Shyamala.

Kipling, who visited Simla frequently in the 1880s, wrote of the intense flirtation, trysts and debauchery for which it was infamous.

Scores of young British girls, in search of husbands, turned up in Simla ready to impress, only to find they had stiff competition from the “grass widows”, more experienced ladies in their 40s visiting without spouses, and often more popular with the bachelors.

Kipling wrote:

“The young men come, the young men go,
Each pink and white and neat

She’s older than their mothers,
but They grovel at Her feet.

They walk beside Her rickshaw-wheels

None ever walk by mine;

And that’s because I’m seventeen And she is forty-nine.”

Alice who had married Kabir Shamsi one of the interesting cast of characters introduced in our earlier columns, made a home in London but had inherited homes at New Delhi as well as Simla. Yes, the Simla mansion originally had been owned by the German Council General.  

Alice had been besieged by friends and acquaintances to pioneer a nostalgic visit for the colonial diaspora to India and thus this search of collectables. She had tied up with a progressive ICPB, Sita travels and the Oberoi hotels to debut her first group of British India lovers the following spring and plans were underway. 

London itself and many parts of UK had become quite a hub for Indian food lovers, but Alice found an absence of colonial favored cuisine, which she gleaned from the Chefs of the Old colonial homes in the English country side as well as colonial era clubs in India like the Gymkhana, Green Room, Kasauli club and of course her father’s Alma mater, Bishop Cotton School, Simla, a legendary Anglican institution favoured by the colonial and Indian aristocracy.

The Current principal, OV Goldstein was a family friend and would be happy to host the group of nostalgia seekers at the School’s historic dining room. 

The colonials favored Rissoles, Jhalfarezi, puddings etc. and thus the culinary experiences were tailor made to compliment the nostalgia visit, which essentially was ‘A passage to memories of India’.