It is the India of the mid-1800s and Lord Dalhousie is appointed Governor General. He introduces India to its first railway, lays out its first telegraph line, establishes its postal system and starts the Public Works Department. Amidst all this reformation, he anoints Shimla the Summer Capital of the East India Company.
Not much later, thwarted by climate-induced ill-health, he is forced to move camp to Chini (present day Kalpa in Kinnaur) upstream of the Sutlej. Its strategic location in the then princely state of Bushahr, on an offshoot of the ancient Silk Route widely used by traders from Central Asia and China, does not escape him.
Soon after, he orders the construction of the… Read more...
