Darjeeling recently faced heavy rain and landslides, leaving hundreds of tourists and local residents stranded. If you are from Bengal, you probably know that Darjeeling is a favourite holiday spot, especially during the Durga Puja season. This tradition actually goes back to the colonial days.
The quiet town that once had only a few local eateries and small hotels has completely transformed to welcome and impress more tourists. Today, you see tall luxury hotels and famous places like Flurys standing proudly across the hills. But how did Darjeeling first attract visitors, and what’s the story behind its growth?
How Darjeeling Became a Gift to the East India Company
During the colonial period, the British created hill stations across India as part of their bigger imperial plan. They wanted cooler and cleaner places that felt more like Europe so they could escape the heat and diseases of the Indian plains. These hill towns also helped them stay physically and culturally away from Indians.
In his book Darjeeling: The Colourful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea (2016), author Jeff Koehler explains that after the 1857 rebellion, the British became even more distant. He writes that “hill stations were a physical rendering of such aloofness.”
The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 made travel between Britain and India much faster. A journey that earlier took six months now took only a few weeks. Because of this, British women and children could join their families in India during the cooler months, which increased the need for hill stations.
When British officials in Calcutta searched for a hill station in the east, they finally chose Darjeeling. In 1835, the king of Sikkim gifted Darjeeling to the East India Company. The deed, quoted by academic Amiya K. Samanta in Gorkhaland Movement: A Study in Ethnic Separatism (2000), states that the Governor-General wanted Darjeeling for its cool climate so sick government officers could recover there. Out of “friendship,” the king offered Darjeeling to the Company.
However, Suman Mukherjee in Darjeeling: In Search of People’s History of the Hills (2022) explains that the British interest was not only about the weather. Darjeeling also gave them an important route to expand trade into Tibet, China and Central Asia.
How Darjeeling Became a Sanatorium and Got Its Famous Toy Train
“But hill stations were not meant to be tourist spots like they are today. They were built as sanatoriums where East India Company employees could rest and recover,” says Koehler. Some of the important sanatoriums were the Eden Sanatorium and the Louis Jubilee Sanatorium. Along with being Bengal’s sanatorium, Darjeeling also served as the summer capital for the regional government based in Calcutta.
In the early days, the British travelled to Darjeeling in bullock carts and palanquins. The difficult journey encouraged the idea of building the toy train. In 1878, Franklin Prestige, an agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway, created a plan for a train line from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The first toy train journey took place in 1880.
The Loop, ‘Agony Point’, on Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 1880s (Wikipedia)
Mukherjee writes that Darjeeling became a well-known hill station in colonial India after 1880. More than one hundred European families built homes there between 1835 and 1852. The town also attracted wealthy Indians and local princes. For example, the maharaja of Cooch Behar built a grand summer home in Darjeeling.
To make the town feel like Europe, the British built Gothic mansions, Anglican churches and wooden cottages. Mukherjee notes that Darjeeling soon became the summer home for royal families from lower Bengal.
During the Durga Puja break, British officers and their wives travelled to Darjeeling and enjoyed music, dancing and celebrations. Over time, they set up many clubs, race courses and sports facilities across the hill town.
How Darjeeling Grew with Clubs, Hotels and Schools
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, Darjeeling saw the rise of many hotels, clubs and social organisations. The Darjeeling Golf Club opened in 1905, and the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club followed in 1909. Some of the well-known hotels at the time included Rockville Hotel, Woodland Hotel, Grand Hotel and Windermere Hotel.
Koehler writes that the Darjeeling Planters’ Club, established in 1868, stood on land donated by the maharaja of Cooch Behar. He was the only person allowed to park his rickshaw in front of the club. This club became a major social spot for the British working on tea estates. Drinks also played a key role there, and people followed an informal rule: beer after 11 am, gin in the afternoon and whisky only after sunset.
Darjeeling also became known for its European-style boarding schools that followed models like Eton and Harrow. St Paul’s School was the first. It began in 1823 in Calcutta and opened a branch in Darjeeling in 1864, which Koehler notes was the highest school in the world at the time.
By 1911, when India’s capital shifted to Delhi, Darjeeling had one of the highest concentrations of Europeans in the country. This number almost doubled during summer. But this dominance did not last long. From the 1930s, the European population dropped quickly, and wealthy Bengali families began buying European properties at good prices.
After the Second World War, as the British left India for good, Darjeeling grew into a centre of cultural and political life for the Bengali upper class. Mukherjee notes that the process of decolonisation changed the character of Darjeeling in a big way.
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