Fruit Experiment Station,
Upper Shillong
In Upper Shillong, since 1903,
the farm had been worked in conjunction with the Fruit Experiment Station. The
main objective of the farm was the
introduction of superior varities of potatoes, the cultivation of fodder crops,
the preservation of fodder in silos, and the encouragement of fruit culture.
In addition to work on these lines, attention had been given to the breeding of cattle and sheep, with the objective of improving the local breeds.
In addition to work on these lines, attention had been given to the breeding of cattle and sheep, with the objective of improving the local breeds.
The Military Stations in 1904 were Dibrugarh,
Kohima, Manipur, Sadiya, and Shillong[1]. After the
partition of Bengal in 1905 by Lord Curzon, Sir Joseph Bampfylde Fuller
(1905–1906) became the Lieutenant Governor of East Bengal and Assam.
In 1905, Alfred Newcombe
wrote that one of the three Gurkha regiments located in Assam, and the Mess of
the British officers were stationed in Shillong[2].
The garden-parties at Government House, the very pretty scenery, and the
perfect climate, made Shillong one of the most enjoyable of hill stations.
However, it was far from India proper, and was not much frequented by Europeans
from outside Assam. Newcombe noted that the scenery was like that of some parts
of Scotland.
Interestingly, he mentions
that there was a unique way of travelling by English ladies in the hills of
Assam. They sat in a basket-chair called a thoppa,
and this was strapped to a man's back. The men who carried them went steadily
for hours, and even up steep hills. The lady traveled backwards and it was
awkward when she got isolated from the rest of her party, and the thoppa-man met an acquaintance and
stopped to have a talk. It was difficult in her position to make the men hear
and understand, or even to listen to what she said. When on a rock-cut path,
the man stopped with his back to the precipice, the feelings of the lady
sitting in full view of it close to the edge, and quite unable to get out of
her thoppa, could well be imagined.
The first Motor Service was
introduced on the Gauhati-Shillong Road in 1905[3].
The credit of introducing the first Motor Service between Shillong and Gauhati
belonged to Khan Bahadur Kasimuddin
Molla, son of Golam Hyder who was a pioneer in many fields. Wajed Ali and Sajed
Ali from Sylhet operated the bus service between Sylhet and Shillong.
Another Muslim family, from
Bara Tazpur in Hoogly was the founder of a big business concern, Jamat Ullah & Sons which followed
the Golam Hyder family. Abdul Gafur, also from Hoogly, established a pioneering
medicine supply company. The R.B. Store, is run
by his descendents. Jumma Khan of North Western Province came to Shillong as an
employee of the Survey of India and settled in Harisabha
area in Jumma Compound, later known as Lum Kartik.
Amjad
Ali the poet, surprisingly, also took a leading role in building roads, bridges
water works, and hospitals. He is credited with the Laban Dispensary - the
first of its kind in 1905, electrification,
evening market (Batti Bazar) and burial and
cremation ground. In recognition of the yeomen services, a road in Laban was
named after him during his lifetime.
[1]The Gurkhas,
settlement and society : with reference to Shillong, 1867-1969 / Sanjay Rana.
New Delhi : Mittal Publications, 2008.
[2]Village, town, and jungle
life in India, by Alfred Cornelius Newcombe, Published 1905 by W. Blackwood and
Sons in Edinburgh, London. Cornell University Library, Pg. 289-290.
[3]Sengupta,
Sutapa. & Dhar, Bibhash. & North-East India Council for
Social Science Research. 2004, Shillong:
a tribal town in transition / editors, Sutapa Sengupta, Bibhas Dhar
Reliance Pub. House, New Delhi:J.N. Choudhury, Khasi Canvas (pg.32),
Meghalaya District Gazette, Chapter 7.
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