Shillong Subdivision

Shillong Subdivision

 

In 1906, the Shillong sub-division was part of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills District, in the Province of East Bengal and Assam[1]. The sub-division contained one town, Shillong (in 1901, the population was 8,384) which was the Head Quarters of the Administration and contained 1,199 villages.
In 1901 about 88% of the population were still faithful to their tribal religion.  

Almost the whole of this country was outside the limits of British India, and consisted of a number of petty Native States under the political superintendence of the Deputy Commissioner. The Jaintia Hills, with Shillong, and 34 villages in the Khasi Hills, were British territory. The rest of the Khasi Hills was included in 25 petty Native States, which had treaties or agreements with the British Government. The two Native States relevant to Shillong are Khyrim and Mylliem.  

In 1906, Shillong was the Head Quarters of the Officer Commanding the Assam Brigade, of the heads of all the departments of Government, and the Welsh Presbyterian Mission[2]. The garrison consisted of a Regiment of Native Infantry and volunteer corps. There were volunteer corps, with head quarters at Silchar, Dibrugarh, Lumding and Shillong. Assam was then part of the Lucknow Division of the Eastern Command. 

With fresh migration and expansion of Shillong, the presence of Nepali herdsman rearing buffaloes in the neighbourhood of Shillong (since the last century, as stated in the Assam District Gazetter 1906) signified the expansion of the Gurkha settlement to other areas than that of initial settlement[3].  

In 1906, Shillong town was described by Gurdon as being the Head quarters of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills District, and summer Capital of the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam. It was connected to Gauhati by a metalled road, 63 miles in length, on which there was a daily tonga service, and which continued to Cherrapunji, a village overlooking the plains of Sylhet. 

Shillong was the summer Capital (Dacca was the winter Capital) for almost 7 years from 1 October 1905 to 7 April 1912 due to Lord Curzon’s decision to partition Bengal and create the Province of Eastern Bengal and Assam. Assam was reconstituted into a Chief Commissioner's Province and Shillong regained its status as the sole Capital, the restoration being the result of intense agitation against the partition of Bengal.

 

In 1906, Gurdon reported that an excellent metalled cart road ran from Gauhati to Cherrapunji, via Shillong, a distance of 97 miles. The gradients between Shillong and Gauhati had been most carefully adjusted, and a tonga and bullock train service was maintained between these two towns. Except in the immediate neighbourhood of Shillong, few roads were suitable for wheeled traffic. In 1903-04 there were altogether 356 miles of bridle paths in the district.

In 1906, B. C. Allen also reported that a cart road ran through the district from Gauhati, on the Brahmaputra, to Cherrapunji[4]. From here a bridle path connected the high plateau with the plains of Sylhet. The road entered the district at Barnihat 16 miles from Gauhati. There were dak bungalows at Barnihat, Nongpoh (30 miles from Gauhati) and at Umsning or Naia Bungalow (45 miles). Shillong itself was 63.5 miles from Gauhati. The road had been carefully aligned, and was metalled and bridged throughout. Pony tongas plied between Gauhati and Shillong, the journey being usually performed in between 8-9 hours. By 1906, the introduction of a service of motor cars was under consideration. 

In 1906 Kasimuddin Molla obtained the Government permit to introduced the first motor service and placed a fleet of 7 Albion cars which ran on solid tyres, on the road and also a daily passenger tonga service between Shillong and Guwahati. The advent of motor cars brought further improvement to the Shillong-Gauhati road and to the comfort of travellers. In those days number plates were not in use, two of the cars were named ‘Maharani’ and ‘Ranee’.

 

The tonga service continued side by side with the motor service till 1910. The Planters Stores took over the motor service in 1911 and still later in 1921, the Commercial Carrying Company came into the picture and maintained the service till independence in 1947.

 

The first automobile transport - the first fleet of motor cars, branded Albion was inaugurated in 1906. The Khasis called it gadu. The car had solid rubber tyres and six seats. On the inaugural day, the car named Maharanee, a doorless Albion driven by Harihar Banerjee of Utterpara in Calcutta, had two passengers one of whom was Haji Mowla Baksh, son of Haji Kasimuddin Mollah, the owner.  

"The lone passenger at the back seat could be mistaken for a bundle of clothes. The bundle was (none) but a little girl of about nine years wrapped up in a 5 meters long sari, a large shawl and a heavily padded blouse meticulously stitched by the famous tailors of Metiaburz. She was none other than Akhtarunnesa, the newly married child bride of Mowla Buksh".

She was the first Indian lady to travel from Guwahati to Shillong by a motor car. The vehicle being doorless, after some distance Akhtarunnesa slipped out and fell on the ground. Her heavy dress, however, saved her from any injury, Mowla Buksh was perhaps the first to appoint two Khasi, two Anglo Indian and three Bengali Hindu drivers for his transport fleet.

 

The distance from Shillong to Cherrapunji was 33.5 miles[5]. There were dak bungalows at that place, and at Dumpep 17.75 miles from Shillong. Six miles south of Shillong a driving road branched off to the westward to Maoflang, 9 miles further on. There was a dak bungalow at Maoflang, and the place was connected by a bridle path with the Cherrapunji cart road, which it joined 1.75 miles north of the rest house at Serrarim, and 10 miles north of Cherrapunji.

The scenery through which these roads passed was extremely picturesque. Forty-two miles from Gauhati the road emerged from the forest, and wound its way through the rolling grassy hills. The Umiam was crossed 9 miles from Shillong, and the road then mounted the Shillong plateau, through fragrant pinewoods from which a magnificent view was obtained of the gorge of the deep ravine of a tributary of the Therria river. The bridle path from Maoflang to Serrarim traversed the beautiful gorge of the Bogapani, and crossed that river by a suspension bridge.

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[1]The Khasis,By Major P.R.T. Gurdon, I.A. Deputy Commissioner Eastern Bengal and Assam Commission, and Superintendent of Ethnography in Assam.Published under the orders of the Government of Eastern Bengal and Assam, 1906.

[2]The Gurkhas, settlement and society : with reference to Shillong, 1867-1969 / Sanjay Rana. New Delhi : Mittal Publications, 2008. 

[3]Ibid.

[4]Assam district gazetteers, Volume 10, B.C. Allen, Baptist Mission Press, 1906, Harvard University. http://www.archive.org/stream/assamdistrictga00allegoog#page/n48/mode/1up.

[5]Assam district gazetteers, Volume 10, B.C. Allen, Baptist Mission Press, 1906, Harvard University. http://www.archive.org/stream/assamdistrictga00allegoog#page/n48/mode/1up.