Stephanie G. Mathis In the mid-1820s, Mussoorie was the first sanatorium in British India. It was founded by Captain Frederick Young, founder of the Sirmour Rifles Regiment, who also sowed the very first potatoes in the valley.
The Victorian writers Emily Eden, Fanny Parkes, and John Lang, as well as Andrew Wilson, wrote many literary, epistolary, and other writings about Mussoorie.
Some of them turned into characters in the growing folklore of this valley. Some of them became the beloved ghosts who are said to haunt this region.
The past and its apparitions
The Doon’s literary legends and historical figures emerge from time to time to assume posthumously the role of guardians of the valley’s most intimate secrets. The Doon writers of today have preserved these secrets in the glut of literature produced by the hill station in the last two decades.
In 1964, Ruskin Bond discovered John Lang’s grave in Camel’s Back Cemetery. Lang was an Anglo-Australian-Indian barrister who had opposed the Doctrine of Lapse in the Indian courts.
The Doctrine Of Lapse is a policy of British annexation that was promulgated in 1857 by Lord Dalhousie. It stated that any Indian state with a ruler who died without leaving a male heir or was led by a leader who was incompetent would be annexed. Lang’s presence in Doon’s writings has become a staple since the discovery of Lang’s grave.
John Lang and Nana Saheb. Lang’s book “Wanderings in India, and other sketches of Hindostan” (1858).
Frederick (Pahari) Wilson was another legendary character. He is also known by the name of the Raja Harsil and his second spouse, Gulabi. These are some of the most frequent ghosts in this hill station.
Wilson’s 1883 obituary was published in the Pioneer and described his journey to the valley.
Wilson, armed only with a five-rupee gun and a few rupees, began his long journey to the Himalayas. He survived for years on the sales of the game he had shot and then embarked on forest timber contracts, where he eventually amassed an impressive fortune.
Wilson was not an author, but he did build the Wilson Bridge over the Jadganga River, which is still visible today. Kipling met Wilson and was intrigued by the legends that surrounded him. He used his biography in his story, The Man Who Would Be King.
It is said that the ghosts of Gulabi Wilson and Pahari Wilson still haunt Doon. This is largely due to one of Bond’s supernatural stories, Wilson’s Bridge.
Sisters Bazaar today in Mussoorie. Paul Hamilton/Wikimedia, CC BY-SA
Young’s Ghost also allegedly frequents the Mullingar flat. Ganesh Saili lives there with his family. Saili said that:
[Young] on a white horse arrives at the old Mullingar Lodge, ties his steed up to the remains of the old iron railings, and… awaits the parade of Redcoats.
Young was also a writer of sorts. He may not be a writer, but he did help build St. Peter’s Church in Mussoorie and the area surrounding the Sister’s Bazaar. This helped shape the literary personality of Mussoorie.
Unexpected architectural heritage
Doon’s literary works are also influenced by architecture. Giriraja explains this when he writes about India’s mountain-station architecture.
Many historical monuments are more famous for the way they present antiquity, romance, and myths than their visible splendor.
The buildings in the writings of the region represent the ghosts, a sort of ghostology where the literary landscape becomes a ghostly simulation.
The Savoy Hotel is an iconic landmark of the Doon Valley with its haunted hallways and famed Writer’s Bar. Nick Kenrick/Flickr, CC BY-SA
Mussoorie is not known for its architectural complexity, even though the buildings there are descendants of the Swiss Gothic style that was praised in the Himalayas during the colonial period. The Savoy Hotel and Mussoorie Library are examples of old buildings in the township that have typical spires and roofs. They also feature pilasters and balustrades. These features are not nearly as important as the state in which these buildings find themselves.
The renowned architect-turned-scholar Bernard Tschumi once gave an “Advertisement for Architecture” with an old photograph of the Villa Savoye, with the caption: “The most architectural thing about this building is the state of decay in which it is.”
Above Bothwell Bank Paul Hamilton/Flickr
Mussoorie and Landour, in literature as well as in reality, are in a state of aesthetic decay.
Their names evoke a landscape in another time zone. Mullingar is one of the many names that are used to describe houses. Others include Companybagh (Cloud End), Shamrock Cottage (Killarney), Scottsburn (Scottsburn Castle), Hampton Court, and those from Sir Walter Scott novels, such as Kenilworth or Ivanhoe.
Landour is a place where the Anglo-Indian ghosts that refuse to die are remembered. The literary ghosts of the town lure in tourists. Every once in a while, a normal night’s tranquility is disturbed by the paranormal intervention of a deceased memsahib, such as Frances Garnett Orme, a spiritualist.
It is believed that her Ghost lingers in the valley and the corridors of Savoy Hotel, where she was poisoned over 100 years ago.
