Bygone Doon
By Pradeep Singh
While mountains and hills have defined the geography of a region, the passes in these barriers have played a significant part in the anthropology and history of the area. These passages, not necessarily the most convenient, provided the available access for animal species and later for human beings with different quests and compulsions. Thus, invaders, explorers, settlers and trade entrepreneurs or exile seekers all sought the passes to their imaginary space.
Spiritual solace seekers and wisdom sharers often travelled before many others. Guru Nanak Dev and, later, Ram Rai, the elder son of the seventh Sikh Guru, an Udasi Guru, established his Darbar Sahib in the Doon Valley, while Guru Nanak Dev traversed the valley to go to Haridwar. Both these luminaries came into the valley through the longer route along the Yamuna, fording it at Paonta. The other options were considered remote and risky for life.
Dehradun was secure from its northern boundary made by layers of Himalayan mountain ranges deterring any invasions from the north. Only bridle paths were there between the valley and Tibet, for which reason a few centuries later, Uttarakhand became embroiled in international strategic moves detrimental to it but not without some gains. Gartang Gali was an epic route in Uttarakhand to reach Tibet.
Dehradun’s development was largely influenced by the role played by Mohand Pass. The other three passes in the Siwaliks, Haridwar, Kansrao and Timli had a minor part, as Mohand was logistically the shortest route to Saharanpur and Delhi even though it was particularly challenging till the British decided to make Mohand a feasible project.
The Doon Valley became British dominion in 1815-16 as an outcome of the Anglo-Gurkha War. In January 1823, a young civil servant, Frederick John Shore was posted permanently to Dehradun. An energetic and determined officer, he decided to open up the Mohand Pass for traffic of bullock carts, which till then was only possible to cross by an arduos steep footpath from Saharanpur side, while the descent into Doon Valley was a gentler one.
In 1824, Shore took up the making of a navigable all season path from Dehradun across Mohand. The major challenge was, first, no manual labour was ready to come forward as they had become scared by ‘begaar’ – forced free labour by shikaar lovers, usually English army officers. Shore made a jail house across the Kuchehri (court) and transferred 120 convicts from Saharanpur and prepared them to undertake the road work for Mohand. Shore found no ironsmiths in Doon and sourced a few from outside and they crafted the tools for the road work and their frequent repairs. These convicts laboured devotedly and were rewarded a small monetary sum. But, on the steep slopes of Siwaliks, especially as their feet were chained as per jail rules, they were of no further use.
Around the start of 1824-25, crops failed in neighbouring Saharanpur and many starving peasants came for work and food which Shore provided along with a make-shift camp. This helped the project further but he needed an assured work force to ensure steady progress. He then enrolled 40 beldars (spademen) at three rupees a month and managed to make a causeway through the steep Mohand incline. He was soon joined by a civil engineer, Lieutenant Henry DeBude, who monitored to enable the project be more stable as the torrential monsoons would sweep away the stone work on the road as it did in 1824.
The foresight of Frederick Shore was visionary. The Dehradun district, spread out from Jaunsar Bawur to Rishikesh, because of its isolation was a reason for the common people to do only subsistence cultivation as no produce could be exported. Importing wheat and other products too was prohibitive. Shore realised the commercial value of the Mohand causeway to develop the economy of the district, important for the East India Company, while he cared for the welfare of the people.
Being the son of John Shore, the Governor General of East India Company at Calcutta, Frederick Shore enjoyed the confidence of the Directors of the Company. Thus, he was able to manage the cost escalation of the Mohand Causeway and road maintenance as the Company realised the rationality of the project.
By the time he handed the charge of administration in 1829 to Col Frederick Young, Shore was just thirty years old. Besides the Mohand Pass project, Shore created the foundation of the town which since 1676 was seen only around the Guru Ram Rai Darbar Sahib Complex. Shore, in his six years at Doon, made a pucca court house, his bungalow, jail and the best of pucca roads with side drains. He demonstrated that, with determination wells could be dug in the valley despite the low water table.
In a few months’ time, Shore’s initiative to integrate the Doon with the rest of the country will be completing two hundred years. It’s time to remember him and his Mohand Pass legacy which sadly will physically vanish. The expressway project to connect Doon with Delhi will be ready by 2024 and send the Mohand Pass causeway to oblivion. The lessons taught by nature’s fury in the recent past in the fragile Himalayas will repeat in the even more geologically unstable Siwaliks which are made of Himalayan debris over millions of years and not yet stabilised.
(Pradeep Singh is an historian and the author of the “Suswa Saga: A Family Narrative of Eastern Dehra Dun” (2011) and the “Sals of the Valley: A Memorial to Dehradun” (2017). He can be approached on: chpradeepsingh@gmail.com)