Come September and memories of some historic developments that took place in Mussoorie and the Doon valley over half a century ago come alive and evoke nostalgia among old residents.
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). While the Tibetan Government-in-exile was just settling down in Happy Valley, India’s premier institute for training its administrators was shifted from New Delhi’s Metcalfe House to the old Charleville Hotel, acquired by the Government of India.
The young Dalai lama with his followers had arrived in the summer. The establishment of the National Academy of Administration which was later renamed lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration (lBSNAA) was done on September 1 in Charleville, the first hotel to have been built in Mussoorie, around the middle of the nineteenth century. Over the years, many new buildings have been added to the old ones of the hotel.
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.
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 travellers 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 Mr Hobson, a retired manager of Mussoorie Bank who started the hotel.
In March 1905, the Princess of Wales (later Queen Mary) visited Dehradun and Mussoorie. In Mussoorie, she stayed at the Charleville Hotel, the only hotel in India to be so honoured. Among the souvenirs she took home with her were landour Bazaar’s walking sticks for her father- in-law, King Edward V11, as he used to collect them.
In the Doon valley, the month of September also holds great significance as it saw the beginning of the famous Doon School in the Doon valley. In September 1935, the first student joined the school, followed by many more.
Athar Hussain was the very first student to join the school and he arrived on the picturesque Chandbagh (garden of the moon) campus on September 9, 1935. On September 10, the first 72 students of the school entered the beautiful ivy-covered, red brick buildings memories of which are part of every Dosco’s life and consciousness.
The story of the Indian Military Academy (IMA) in the Doon valley also began in September, in 1932. All of the first batch (‘Pioneers’) of GCs, Sam Manekshaw among them, reported for duty on September 30, 1932. This autumn month is indeed a time to recall all these milestones in the regions’ rich history.