The prestigious lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (lBSNAA) has completed fifty six years of its existence in this hill station.
On April 15, 1958 the then Home Minister announced in the lok Sabha a proposal to set up a National Academy of Administration, where training would be given to all the recruits of the Civil Services. The Ministry of Home Affairs decided to amalgamate the IAS Training School, Delhi and the IAS Staff College, Shimla to form a National Academy of Administration at Mussoorie. The Academy was set up in 1959 and was called the 'National Academy of Administration'. Its status was that of an 'attached office' of the Government of India under the Ministry of Home Affairs. In October 1972, its name was changed to "lal Bahadur Shastri Academy of Administration" and in July 1973, the word "National" was added and the Academy is now known as the “lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration"
It was on September 1, 1959 that the academy was established in Charleville, the first hotel to have been built in this hill station, around 1870. Over the years, many new buildings have been added to the old ones of the hotel. The academy was shifted from Metcalfe House to Charleville acquired by the government.
September 1959 was indeed a very special time for Mussoorie, especially for the picturesque Happy Valley just a few kilometres away from the busy library Point (Gandhi Chowk).The Tibetan Government in exile was just settling down in Happy Valley. The young Dalai lama with his followers had arrived in the summer. As for lBSNAA , its address of Charleville, at the Happy Valley end of The Mall Road holds a strong sense of history going back to the mid-nineteenth century. Charleville was a grand landmark of Mussoorie and has been mentioned in several old accounts of foreign travelers to the Queen of Hills.
The main building of the hotel was built by General Wilkinson in 1854 on the Chajauli Estate. In 1861, the property was purchased by Hobson, a retired manager of Mussoorie Bank who started the hotel.
In March 1905, the Princess of Wales (later Queen Mary) visited Dehra Dun and Mussoorie. In Mussoorie, she stayed at the Charleville Hotel,the only hotel in India to be so honoured.
In the year 1984, the main block of the academy was gutted in a fire, destroying the historic building of Charleville. Some historic records were also destroyed in the fire. A former probationer, who is now a senior officer, says “We had great times in the lounge of the old Charleville building. It had a small balcony outside from where you could see the valleys beyond with the view of a temple on top of a hill. Below the lounge was a lovely old library. It had a nice place for sitting and reading with a lovely view on the other side”.
The Dalai lama, in his autobiography titled “Freedom in Exile”, has described the year from March 1959 to March 1960 as his “ desperate year” in Mussoorie. He stayed with his mother at the Birla House in Happy Valley. In September , the Dalai lama went to Delhi from Mussoorie to meet then Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru and Jayaprakash Narayan. It was in the spring of 1960 that the Government in exile was shifted to Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh. The Dalai lama left Mussoorie on April 29, 1960 with 80 officials of the Government in Exile. The Tibetans who had started working here remained here. The Dalai lama came here in March 1959 and left in April 1960.The autumn of 1959 was the only one he spent here.
But the most fascinating story linked to the Charleville Hotel is that of famous author and poet Rudyard Kipling’s stay at this hotel in the summer of 1888, when he was twenty three years old.
Among Kipling’s unpublished papers in the library of Congress, there exists an album of photos which has two of Charleville Hotel.
On a photo of the hotel’s office, Kipling has written “And there were men with a thousand wants/And women with babes galore /But the dear little angels in Heaven know/That Wuzzler never swore”. Wuzzler was the patient, long-suffering manager of Charleville.
The academy in the Happy Valley area is a place worth seeing. Its campus is picturesque and the entire ambience has a sense of history as well as grace. The lBSNAA has lent dignity and prestige to the beautiful hill town of Mussoorie.