Schools of Shillong

Schools of Shillong

 

The Brahmo Samaj and the various Christian missionaries had a significant role in the formation of the educational institutions of Shillong. Soon after the Head Quarters was shifted from Sohra to Shillong, Babu Jeebon Roy worked for the establishment of a High School in Mawkhar area of Shillong.
It started functioning on 2 September 1878 in the name of Shillong Zilla High School and later, it was renamed as Shillong Government High School.

In 1879, the population consisted almost exclusively of aboriginal tribes and races[1]. The only other dwellers in the Hills were the European officials and military officers at Shillong and Cherra Punji with their native servants and followers, a few Bengali officials, and the sepoys of a regiment of native infantry. The classification of the inhabitants according to religion showed 141,283 aborigines, 365 Hindus, 62 Muhammadans, and 128 Christians - including 35 Europeans, 8 Eurasians, and 85 native converts.

During the period 1869-1872, the mean temperature of Shillong was 62 degrees, which was about the same as that of Constantinople, Barcelona, and Oran[2]. In fact, it was an average Mediterranean climate, and the July temperature of the south of Ireland and the more northern midland counties of England. The winter temperature was nearly the same as that of Lisbon and Palermo, and the July temperature lower than that of either. In December and January, the most serene months of the year, the mean difference of the early morning and afternoon temperatures was 19 or 20 degrees, which was as great as that of Simla in April and May, and was that of the south of England in July. While in respect of temperature, the climate of Shillong much resembled that of places in the south of Europe, in the dampness of the atmosphere and its rainfall, it was eminently tropical.

According to the Census of 1872, Shillong had only 1363 inhabitants. The population of Shillong had entirely altered since the date of the Census[3]. The Chief-Commissioner resided there, and also the heads of all departments in the Administration. The area of the Station was 7 miles in length by 1.5-1.75 miles in breadth. A considerable native population was already settled, and was increasing from day to day.

One of the largest weekly markets was held in the Bazar; and with a view to facilitate access to the Station, which was the sanitarium for the Province of Assam, a cart road had recently been completed to Gauhati on the Brahmaputra, which would tend to make the place more and more important. An excellent water supply was introduced into Shillong through an aqueduct which has its source in the neighbouring hill streams, and sanitary measures were carefully enforced. Large sums of money had annually been expended on the erection of the public buildings necessary for the offices of the administration.

A printing-press had been established, from which issued all the official documents and reports of the Province. The climate was excellent, the temperature being more equable than that of any other hill station in India, and therefore admirably suited to the constitution of Europeans. There was a church at Shillong, and a chaplain on the Bengal establishment officiated both there and at Gauhati. The cantonments were occupied in 1875 by the 43rd Regiment of Assam Light Infantry, with three outposts. The strength was 9 European officers, 16 native commissioned officers, 80 non-commissioned officers, 77 fighting men, and 58 paid camp followers and non-combatants; grand total, 935.

The few Hindus to be found in the Hills were temporary residents, engaged in civil and military employment, who always contemplated returning to their own homes. The traders were for the most part natives of the Hills; for the Marwari merchants, who had penetrated into every other corner of Assam, had been unable to obtain a footing in the face of Khasi competition. A certain number of both Khasis and Syntengs proceeded southwards every year to work on the tea gardens of Silchar and Sylhet, but such absence from home was only temporary.

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[1]A statistical account of Assam, Volume 2, 1879, William Wilson Hunter, Trubner & Co., London. University of Michigan, Pg.214-264.

[2]A practical guide to the climates and weather of India, Ceylon and Burmah and the storms of Indian Seas, Henry Francis Blanford, Macmillan, London, 1889, pg. 112-113. Based chiefly on the publications of the Indian Meteorological Department. http://www.archive.org/stream/practicalguideto00blanuoft#page/113/mode/1up.

[3]A statistical account of Assam, Volume 2, 1879, William Wilson Hunter, Trubner & Co., London. University of Michigan, Pg.214-264.