The Shillong Cathedral

The Shillong Cathedral

On 27 February 1890, the first Catholic Missionaries came to the Khasi Hills, in the shape of the Salvatorians Fathers from Germany. It was not long after that they bought property in Shillong for what was then a princely sum of Rs.5,000.
The land then belonged to General Hopkinson and was known as ‘Hopkinson’s Wood’. The locals, however, knew it as Lum Tyngkong – the platform hills. The Catholic Salvatorian Missionaries started a small school in 1891.

In 1890, Bernard O'Shea of the Bombay Uncovenated Civil Service, passed through the region[1]. He recalled the following:

"At Gauhatti we stayed for one day in the Traveller’s Bungalow and having arranged for dak to Shillong, a distance of 70 miles, started the next morning at about 7 o’clock. The conveyance was a small tonga with seats in front for the driver and one other and behind seats for two. The latter we occupied and the one servant, who accompanied us, took the seat beside the driver. The ponies were too smart little Manipur ponies, about 12 hands high, one harnessed in the shafts and the other to a splinter bar. The pace was good, too, but the springs of the cart, alas, were none too springy. Every little inequality in the road sent us into each other’s laps and jolted our heads against the hood or sides of the cart.

Shillong is over 5,000 feet above sea level, but for the first few miles the road runs over perfectly level country with rice fields and swamps on either side. The first stage at which a change of ponies is made is some height above Gauhatti, but from this point the real ascent begins. As we rose higher the air grew keener and the character of the vegetation changed. For the most part the road runs through dense jungle of great forest trees, but occasionally we catch glimpses of the most beautiful scenery. Only glimpses, alas, for the jolting of the tonga going at full gallop nearly the whole time compelled us to cling on to the sides to prevent our being maimed or pitched out. This, I need hardly remark, though not merely a “traveller’s tale” is slightly exaggerated, and let it be remembered that our “notes” were written after the journey when we felt like the battered figure-head of an old man-of-war.

It was 5 o’clock when we reached Shillong, but, tired and weary as we were, we could not but admire this charming little hill station. We saw hill-slopes covered with pine trees, pretty English cottages in the midst of gardens full of English shrubs, rosy English children wrapped in real winter clothing as in the far off English home, real chimneys with real coal smoke issuing such as we never see in our Southern Indian homes. We had been sated with wild forest scenery and Shillong came upon us like an oasis in a great desert. We stayed there four pleasant days.

It is the head-quarters of the Chief Commissioner of Assam, and, besides a civilian community, a regiment of goorkha sepoys is quartered at Shillong. There are some pretty walks and the climate is all that could be desired, but a holy calm rests on Shillong, the most sanguine could not call it lively. The Khassias come into the station with market produce and other articles for sale. There is an old tradition in Shillong, which we give for what it is worth, that a Khassia woman once carried on her back by stages, from Gouhatti to Shillong, a distance of 70 miles, a grand square piano.”

William Erskine Ward (1891–1896) was the Chief Commissioner of Assam (second stint). 

On 2 April 1891, a plot of land was leased out from the Syiem of Mylliem for the establishment of Regimental or Gurkha village in Shillong[2]. It was mainly because of the British encouragement that Gurkha settlement started in the northern pheriphery of the Cantonment adjoining the Gurkha lines and land immediately to the north of Umshyrphi. The land mentioned here is perhaps the present day Jhalupara area in Shillong which is evident from the fact that the area is still under the Shillong Cantonment Board and consists of civilian population mostly belonging to the retired army personnel.

In 1894 there was a cart road from Mawsmai to Shillong covering a distance of 35 miles[3]. Another cart road was projected between Cherra and the Sylhet plains covering 13 miles. A bridle road was also opened from Cherra to Shella in 1895. 

In 1895, the Laban Bengali Girls High School was opened.

In 1895, U Hain Manik, Syiem of Mylliem gave his consent to the inclusion of the estate of La Chaumiere (“The Cottage” in French) within the Shillong Station. The administrative area of Shillong Station was limited after inclusion of Mawkhar and Laban and it was felt that the area should be extended for the development and growth of Shillong. Since the Assam-Bengal Railway Company was utilising the free water supply service with the permission of Deputy Commissioner, it was felt that the area of Lachhumiere, where the Company was located, should be included so that the Company might be taxed for taking water. Accordingly the Syiem of Mylliem agreed and Lachhumiere was annexed to the Shillong Station in 1896.  

Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton[4] (1896–1902) was the Chief Commissioner of Assam. 

In 1896, Jabez Sunderland, a Unitarian, spent 2 weeks in the Khasi Hills. To him Shillong had been one of extraordinary interest, partly because of the fine hill and mountain scenery through which it had taken him - 150 miles on horseback and 130 miles in a cart[5]. To reach the region required a day and night’s ride by train, with four or five “ugly” night changes. This was followed by a ride of a day and a half by steamer on the Brahmaputra, with the mighty Himalayas dimly in view on the left, 70-80 miles away. And finally a day’s journey by tonga (pony cart) from the Brahmaputra, by a road as picturesque as anything in the White Mountains or in the Alps, to Shillong, the mountain sanitarium and political capital of Assam, five thousand feet above sea level.

By 1896, Shillong had a population of about 6,000, and Sunderland estimated that perhaps 5,000 were Khasis. The rest were Bengalis and English, drawn there by the fact that it was the headquarters of government. The place was one of very remarkable natural beauty and attractiveness. Indeed, Sunderland gushed that he had seen no other in India that seemed to him to equal it.

At Shillong the road for wheeled vehicles ended. Consequently, he was obliged to engage a pony for the rest of his journey. But a pony was not enough, he also required a cook and men to carry his luggage, bedding, food, as well as grain for the pony. He was informed that he would find no hotels or accommodations in his journey except every 10 miles or so an unfurnished Dak bungalow, or rest house, erected by the government, into which he could go, and have the privilege of cooking his own food and making up a bed of his own for the night.

In the latter part of the 19th century, a large number of Babus went to Shillong to work for the British government from the adjoining states of eastern India. It was the Bengalis who up to 1897 dominated the 'native employees' of the government. The leading provision and department stores, book stalls and so on tended also to be owned by Bengalis.

On 28 April 1897, Richard Dixon Oldham wrote to LaTouche from Calcutta[6]:

“...I had a long letter from Mr. Smith at Shillong this morning, asking me some conundrum about coal in Assam, and about fishing.  They have been at Shillong about a week.  I hear that Mrs. Smith had a very bad time of it with leeches in the jungles.  I don't think she cares much for camping...”

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[1]A Winter Tour in India and Ceylon with a Kathiawar Prince, F. Bernard O'Shea, 1890, University of Michigan. Published 1890 by Printed at the Times of India Steam Press. http://www.archive.org/details/awintertourinin00oshgoog.

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

[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.

[4]Sir Henry John Stedman Cotton, (13 September 1845 – 22 October 1915) was a British Liberal Party politician. He was Member of Parliament for Nottingham East from 1906 to January 1910. Cotton joined the Indian Civil Service, rising eventually to be Chief Commissioner of Assam. Cotton College, Guwahati was established by him in 1901. Cotton supported Indian Home Rule and served as President of Indian National Congress in 1904, being one of the few Englishmen to do so. As such, he led the opposition to Curzon's invasion of Tibet and partition of Bengal. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_John_Stedman_Cotton.

[5]The Unitarian, Volume 11, Jabez Thomas Sunderland, Brooke Herford, Frederick B. Mott, Boston, 1896. http://www .archive.org/stream/unitarian06unkngoog#page/n179/mode/1up.

[6]Page 6 of 11. An Electronic Supplement to Bilham, R.,Tom LaTouche and the Great Assam Earthquake of 12 June 1897: letters from the epicenter. Seism. Res. Lett. 79(3), 426-437, 2008. doi: 10.1785/gssrl.79.3.426.