Darjeeling was recently hit by severe rain and landslides, leaving hundreds of tourists and local residents stranded. A favourite holiday destination among the people of Bengal, Darjeeling sees a huge footfall during the festive season, particularly Durga Puja. Interestingly, this tradition dates back to the colonial era.The quiet town, which once had only a handful of local eateries and modest hotels, has since transformed to accommodate and impress the growing influx of tourists. Towering almost as high as its hills are Darjeeling’s sprawling luxury hotels and iconic establishments such as Flurys. But when did Darjeeling first capture the attention of visitors, and what is the story of its development?A gift to East India Company Hill stations in colonial India were established as an integral part of the broader imperial project. The British, seeking respite from the scorching heat of the plains and the prevalence of tropical diseases, envisioned these towns as colonial emblems designed to resemble Europe in both appearance and climate. Beyond their climatic appeal, the highlands also allowed the British to remain physically and culturally aloof from the native Indian population. In Darjeeling: The Colourful History and Precarious Fate of the World’s Greatest Tea (2016), author Jeff Koehler notes that the 1857 uprising further discouraged interaction between the colonisers and the colonised, observing that “hill stations were a physical rendering of such aloofness”.The opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 catalysed the development of hill stations. The journey from Britain to India via the Cape, once taking six months, had now been reduced to just a few weeks, and women and children could join the men during the cooler months on the subcontinent.The search for a hill station in the east, for officials based in Calcutta, concluded with the founding of Darjeeling. In 1835, the king of Sikkim gifted Darjeeling to the East India Company. The deed, as cited by academic Amiya K Samanta in Gorkhaland Movement: A Study in Ethnic Separatism (2000), notes, “The Governor-General having expressed his desire for the possession of the hill of Darjeeling on account of its cool climate for the purpose of enabling the servants of his government suffering from sickness to avail themselves of its advantages, I, the Sikkim-Patti Raja, out of friendship…hereby present Darjeeling to the East India Company.”However, Suman Mukherjee in Darjeeling: In Search Of People’s History Of The Hills (2022) notes that the British pull towards Darjeeling was also because of the pathway it provided to expand business throughout Tibet, China and up to Central Asia.Sanatorium and toy trains“But hill stations were not intended to be tourist resorts as they are today. Rather, they were built as sanitariums for East India Company employees to rest and recuperate,” says Koehler. Prominent sanatoriums included the Eden Sanatorium and the Louis Jubilee Sanatorium. Besides being Bengal’s sanatorium, Darjeeling also acted as the provincial summer capital for the regional government whose seat was Calcutta.Story continues below this adInitially, the British travelled to Darjeeling by bullock carts and palanquins. However, the discomforting experience led to the establishment of toy trains. In 1878, Franklin Prestige, an agent of the Eastern Bengal Railway, sketched a plan for the toy trains running from Siliguri to Darjeeling. The first journey commenced two years later, in 1880. The Loop, ‘Agony Point’, on Darjeeling Himalayan Railway, 1880s (Wikipedia)Mukherjee writes, “Darjeeling emerged as a prestigious hill station in colonial India after 1880. More than 100 European families constructed their houses in Darjeeling between 1835 and 1852.” It also attracted some wealthy Indians and a few local princes. The maharaja of Cooch Behar, for instance, built a luxurious summer home there.Creating towns that resembled Europe entailed the construction of Gothic architectural mansions, Anglican churches, and wooden cottages. “Within a very short time,” notes Mukherjee, “Darjeeling became the summer residence of the royal family members of lower Bengal.” During the Durga Puja vacation, Britishers, along with their wives, flocked to Darjeeling and engaged in dance, song, and merriment. Over time, they built an extensive number of clubs, race courses, and sporting arenas across the hill town.Clubs, hotels, schools come upIn the late 19th and early 20th centuries, hotels, clubs and other social organisations were established across Darjeeling. The Darjeeling Golf Club was established in 1905, and the Darjeeling Gymkhana Club was established four years later. Among the notable hotels were Rockville Hotel, Woodland Hotel, Grand Hotel and Windermere Hotel.Story continues below this adAlso read | The rise of India’s premier boarding schools: From Empire to Independence and after“Established in 1868, the Darjeeling Planters’ Club was built on a parcel of land donated by the maharaja of Cooch Behar, who was the only one allowed to park his rickshaw on the main porch of the Club,” writes Koehler. It was a hub of social life for British working on Darjeeling tea estates. Interestingly, liquor played an important role at the club, but it was governed by an unwritten rule: beer from 11 am, gin in the afternoon, and whisky not before sunset.At the time, the town also became famous for its European-style boarding schools modelled on Eton and Harrow. “St Paul’s School was the first. It started in 1823 in Calcutta and opened a branch in Darjeeling in 1864 as the highest school in the world,” writes Koehler.In 1911, the year the Indian capital shifted to Delhi, Darjeeling arguably had the highest concentration of Europeans in the country. During the summer months, this population nearly doubled. However, this dominance was short-lived. From the 1930s onwards, the European population in Darjeeling declined rapidly. At this juncture, the wealthy and aristocratic Bengalis seized the opportunity to purchase European properties at affordable prices.After the Second World War, as the British made their permanent return home, Darjeeling emerged as a centre of socio-political and cultural activity for the Bengali upper class. “The process of decolonization changed the very character of the hill station of Darjeeling immensely,” notes Mukherjee.