The Shillong Club

What was Shillong like in later years?

By this time, residents of Shillong were forming associations. The Shillong Indian Club was a literary institution established in 1876 and had ever since been catering to the literary tastes of the Indian public of Shillong[1]. Satyendra Kumar Bose was the joint Secretary of the club.

In 1898, with a view to attract the Indian public to Theosophy, a Theosophical section was added to the General Library, through the efforts of some members. The institution was a properly constituted one, and its status was recognised by the Assam Government, which supplied it regularly with the Assam Gazette and other official publications, free of cost. The Club was located in the "Quinton Hall," the only public hall of this town. 

During the year 1876-77 hooping-cough and small-pox were prevalent in an epidemic form[2]. Some fatal cases of hooping-cough occurred among the Khasi children in the village of Maokhar, near Shillong.

In 1876, Major H.H.Godwin-Austen noted that at the village of Nougshai, near Shillong, were to be seen some very striking monoliths[3]. They stood on the open spur just above the village, and had been worked out of the beds of Shillong sandstone. Many of the slabs in the adjacent monuments had been overthrown and broken quite recently, perhaps by Sepoys and camp followers from the military station close by.

At one time a mountain battery of Eurasian Artillery was quartered there, and Godwin-Austen attributed the overthrow of so many of the stones in the neighbourhood to their handiwork, who would look on such amusement as a “great lark.” According to him, the Sepoy was not of a mischievous disposition, however the Europeans and the half-Europeans (helpfully he suggests that they were ‘uneducated’) were markedly so.

 

The Shillong-Guwahati motor road was opened in 1877 and tonga carts were the first wheeled vehicles to be used on this road for fast travel. For more leisurely travel, there were bullock carts and buffalo carts to choose from.

 

The cart road was made in 1877 on the third approachable bridle path via Nongpoh. The Guwahati-Shillong road was levelled carefully in 1887 and metalled bridges were constructed across some of the streams that intersected these hill paths. The journey performed by pony tongas took between 9-10 hours. A 64 mile Guwahati-Shillong road was being constantly improved and maintained in excellent order. The pony tonga service, under the government supervision and helped by a postal subsidy, became quite satisfactory and regular, and passengers were able to reach Shillong in 8 hours from Guwahati.

James Johnstone was appointed as the Political Agent to Manipur in 1877. From him, we get a glimse of the mode of travel that existed at the time. As Colonel Keatinge, the Chief Commissioner of Assam, wished to see him before he went to Manipur, Johnstone was ordered to join at Shillong[4]. He proceeded by rail to Goalundo, one night’s journey from Calcutta, and from there by river steamer to Chuttuk, on the Soorma, where he changed into country boats, and proceeded up a smaller river and across great jheels or shallow lakes.

Often passing for miles through high grass growing in the water, he reached a place called Bholagunj, situated on a river rapidly becoming narrower. Here he again changed, this time into small canoes, the only conveyances that could take his party up the rapids, with which the river abounded. 

“From Chuttuk we had come through a country mostly covered with grass jungle, twelve to fifteen feet in height; now we passed through forest scenery, very lovely fine trees, with festoons of creepers and flowers overhanging the stream. At last we reached Thuria Ghat, where the ascent of the hills commenced, and there we halted for the night in the Dak Bungalow, or rest house. Most places situated as Thuria Ghat is, would be deadly on account of malaria, but it seems to be an exception, and, as far as I have seen, healthy.

It was fortunate that we had servants, as there were none at Thuria Ghat rest house; as it was, we managed very well, and were prepared to march in the morning before the coolies were ready to take up our luggage. We had a tiring march up the hill to Cherra Poonjee; my wife and the children were in baskets on men’s backs, but I was on foot and felt the march in the intense heat to be very fatiguing, though we halted to rest half-way. However, when we reached the plateau of Cherra Poonjee, 4000 feet above Thuria Ghat, the cool air speedily se me right, and we all wnjoyed the scenery, hills, plains, waterfalls in abundance, deep valleys, and lowlands of Sylhet, covered with water, as far as the eye could reach. We had a comfortable bungalow to rest in, and a cool night at last.

Next day we marched to Moflung, 6000 feet above the sea, and then to Shillong, where for the next few days we were hospitably entertained by the Chief Commissioner, Colonel (now General) Keatinge, who kindly sent a carriage to meet us on the road.”

 

The Rev. P. Nicolas described his journey between Guwahati and Shillong which he had experienced on 12 July 1878, in the following words:

"The return journey from Gauhati was a difficult one owing to want of proper subordinate supervision in the Tonga service, as well as to the state of the road. The tongas were broken and the ponies removed from two stations. Other travellers having been three or four days on the road, and having had to sleep in the jungle and in stables. I was much upset by the sun at Barni owing to the roof of my tonga having followed the example of its floor and broken away from the cart."[5]

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[1]The Theosophist, Theosophical Society (Madras, India), New York Public Library, 1901, Page xxxi.

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

[3]Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Volume 5, 1876, University of Michigan. Further Notes on the Rude Stone Monuments of the Khasi Hill Tribes. By Major H.H.Godwin-Austen, Deputy Superintendent Topographical Survey of India.

http://www.archive.org/stream/journalroyalant14irelgoog#page/n517/mode/1up.

[4]My experiences in Manipur and the Naga hills, by the late Major-General Sir James Johnstone, K. C. S. I. With an introductory memoir. Published 1896 by S. Low, Marston and company, limited in London. Pg.57-X. http://www.archive.org/stream/cu31924024089744#page/n101/mode/2up.

[5]Philemon, E. P. 1995, Cherrapunjee: the arena of rain - a history and guide to Sohra & Shillong / E.P. Philemon  Spectrum Publications, Guwahati. Taylor, S.B ; "Ecclesiastical Report of Lower Assam for the Year 1880", One Hundred Years, A short account of the Anglican Church in Assam, 1930, pg. 7-8.