Information on Dalhousie History
Dalhousie belonged to the erstwhile state of Chamba, but did not have
a position of great importance by itself. It shot into fame only in
the modern times when the British set their eyes upon it. It all
happened this way. In 1853 the tired and overworked Lord James Ramsay,
the Marquess of Dalhousie, was looking for some days of idleness when
he came upon this beautiful unexplored spot ona ridge overlooking the
plains.
He immediately bought the land from the Raja of Chamba. and with
careful attention, Dalhousie began to be prepared for the British who
were ever ready to flee to the cool hills in summer.
¤ The City Had Its Name From Governor-General Lord Dalhousie
Lord Dalhousie, it should be added here, was one of the most
controversial governor-generals of the country. He dreamt of a
westernized and united India under British rule, and so he
methodically set out to ‘rationalize the map of India’ by
annexing previously independent states. One of the prize feathers in
Dalhousie’s cap was the wresting of Punjab from its Sikh rulers
in 1548. His policy of expansion, however, did not go down well and
was partly responsible for the Uprising of 1857. But the guy did some
very good deeds at the end of the day: he built the railway and postal
systems in India.
By 1867 Dalhousie reached the level of a ‘sanatorium-town’.
The high point in its career came in the 1920s and 30s, when more and
more British officers and their families started pouring in. However,
Dalhousie never really became a glamour-spot like Shimla
where all the who’s who of the British regime spent their
summers, nonetheless the elite from the Punjab capital of Lahore
flocked here to their neat bungalows and well-laid out gardens. The
district army headquarters was also shifted to Dalhousie in the
summer. With the army now in Dalhousie, some of the leading families
of the district could not be far behind. The Khannas were first-class
canteen contractors who built their own empire in Dalhousie. Today
they run the Aroma-n-Claire hotel.
¤ The Main Hills
Anyway, four hills – Kathlog, Portreyn, Tehra and Bakrota –
were transferred to the British against an annual payment of Rs 2,000
to Chamba State. Naturally the settlement was named after Dalhousie.
In 1866, a fifth hill, Balun, was acquired for a cantonment, as were
Banikhet and Bakloh lower down the mountainside. These are all
cantonment towns till today.
After Independence Dalhousie was forgotten for some time. But
gradually it picked up momento and became quite a spot for people
looking for a green and serene getaway in these high mountains.
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