August brings back memories of an extremely talented writer and lawyer who spent the last years of his life in this popular hill station.
It is amazing but true that the person who once wrote from Mussoorie for Charles Dickens' Household Words was the same who fought the case of Rani laxmi Bai of Jhansi against the British rulers. He was John lang, who passed away in Mussoorie on August 20, 1864 at the age of 48.
A brilliant writer and lawyer, he was an Australian who spent the last years of his life in this hill town. The story of his life in Mussoorie is an integral part of the hill station's almost two hundred-year-old history. One always gets the feeling that the man never got his due.
In his book, Mussoorie Medley: Tales of Yesteryears, Mussoorie-based author Ganesh Saili says that lang was “a gifted person who was forced out of Australia for his anti-establishment views. Arriving in India, he defended the Rani of Jhansi in her litigation with the John Company” just before the 1857 war of independence. lang published at least eleven novels, one/two volumes of short stories, two plays and a travel book Wanderings in India. He launched a newspaper, Mafasilite (as originally spelt) from Meerut, which was later on shifted to Mussoorie.
lang's grave was discovered here by renowned writer Ruskin Bond about a hundred years after lang died in Mussoorie. The grave is located on the “C” terrace of the Camel's Back Cemetery.
lang lived here for five years, wrote about many places, including Mussoorie, and was also reporting from here for Charles Dickens' weekly journal Household Words. Says Gopal Bhardwaj, who has maintained a record of lang's life and times in Mussoorie, “Many of us go to his grave on August 20 every year to light candles and pay homage to his memory”.
In Wanderings in India, his travelogue, lang has given vivid descriptions of the natural splendor Mussoorie was endowed with. He has written a long article on the famous “Himalaya Club” which was then the centre of all social activity and is now a hotel, located in the landour area of Mussoorie. Balls, carnivals, gambling and music marked the social life of which this club was the centre. During his stay in the hill town, lang married a spinster of Mussoorie called Margaret Wetter and a record of the marriage can be seen in the record book of the landour Church.
This was his second marriage. lang died of bronchitis. Says Ruskin Bond, “When he died, he left everything to his second wife, whom he married in Mussoorie in 1861; but what happened to her after his death remains a mystery.”
Saili says that the novels written by lang about his Indian period — Too Clever By Half and Too Much Alike — were published in london in 1853 and 1854 respectively. “They painted a satirical picture of the British period in India, which did not go well with the die-hards of the British Raj.”
He came to Calcutta in 1842. From Calcutta, he went to Meerut where he founded The Mofussilite, becoming sole proprietor and editor in 1849. Under his guidance, it became one of the most important newspapers in India. lang also continued his legal practice and appeared for the army contractor, Ajoodia Pershad, and the Rani of Jhansi; in both cases receiving large fees and rich presents.
His contributions to periodicals included Charles Dickens' Household Words and All the Year Round, and to Fraser's Magazine and Globe. He met many people and visited many places in India during his travels in India. In Delhi, he met Mirza Fateh Ali Shah, son of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Peshwa Hindoo Rao and James Skinner. He also met Nana Sahib Peshwa and Tantia Tope before the first war of independence.
His grave in the old cemetery on Camel's Back Road, where candles are lit and prayers said by some people of Mussoorie on his birth and death anniversaries, needs to be well preserved by the authorities concerned. That is the least deserved by the memory of the man who was always willing to lend a helping hand to Indians during the British regime.