Buck buckled, and Shimla got its book
A hundred years ago, in 1925, perhaps one of the finest town chronicles to have been written about any part of the world was published. This was the second edition of ‘Simla Past and Present’, where 340 pages were packed with details and anecdotes. The first edition was considerably slimmer and had been written in 1904 — at the express command of the British Governor-General and Viceroy of the time, Lord Curzon. The author, Edward John Buck (1862-1948), was the Agent — as the Correspondent was called — attached to the colonial Government of India for the news agency, Reuters.
One of his tasks, at the outset of the First World War in 1914, was to distribute telegraphic messages to other parts of the British Empire about how India was helping in Britain’s war effort and ‘…to contradict the baseless reports circulated from German and other anti-British sources!’ In turn, for around a century, Reuters was the primary news agency of the British Empire. Despite being mainly dependent on British sources, Buck’s book, however, remains largely — and pleasantly — free of political commentary or prejudice.
As Buck recounted, the writing of ‘Simla Past and Present’ began, as it often does, with no intentions of becoming a book — and even now, a century later, this remains a standard and valued text. This started with a conversation he had with his friend, Sir Arthur Milford Ker, manager of the Alliance Bank of Simla. Ker had taken one of Shimla’s iconic homes, Chapslee, as his residence. He told Buck that he had come across some papers that pertained to the Auckland House estate and its adjoining property, Chapslee.
Auckland House had served as the residence of the Governor-General, Lord Auckland, between 1836 and 1842. It went on to become a boarding house and then, a girls’ school — which it still is. Partly based on these papers, Buck wrote a couple of articles for the popular, and now defunct, newspaper, The Civil and Military Gazette. The Viceroy, Curzon, learnt about these articles and invited Buck and his wife to lunch at Naldehra — where he would camp for weeks on end as he disliked the opulent and often overpowering architecture of the Viceregal Lodge in Shimla. After lunch, the Viceroy took Buck for a stroll and told him in no uncertain words: “Mr Buck, I’ve asked you here to tell that you are to write a book on Simla.”
Buck tried to get out of the situation, but Curzon would have none of it. And, Buck, buckled. For that, we, of later generations, may well be grateful to Curzon, whom we do not remember kindly as he was responsible for the partition of Bengal in 1905 and the invasion of Tibet in 1903. As a side note, it may be added that Curzon established the Archaeological Survey of India and undertook the restoration of the Taj Mahal — as well as set up the country’s first wildlife sanctuary, which is now the Kaziranga National Park. Curzon was influenced by his stay in India and impressed by Hindu thought and noted: “India has left a deeper mark upon the history, the philosophy, and the religion of mankind than any other terrestrial unit in the universe.” Gandhiji was to note that he was the first Viceroy who was sympathetic to the fate of indentured labourers.
Three days after obtaining a formal consent, Curzon agreed to allow Buck to dedicate the book to him. He asked to see the chapter titled ‘Residences of the Governors-General and Viceroys’ and made several corrections and observations in a red or blue pencil — and even added a few pages. Twenty-one years later, the far more comprehensive second edition came along. Outstanding in scope and detail, the 1925 edition had 21 chapters that ranged from the origins of the town, to what was perceived to be its future. In its substantial scope, it covered history, society, theatre, nature, buildings and swept in the suburbs and local customs. This, again, with permission, was dedicated to the Viceroy of the time, Lord Reading. But, of course, there is a downside. There is but little mention of Indians and those too are mostly of the princely families that took residence in the town or were visitors. That course correction would come only after Independence and with other writings.
In Shimla, Buck’s residence was Northbank. The house had been briefly occupied by the writer, Rudyard Kipling. Then, it became the property of the neighbouring hill chief, the Rana of Koti. In the suburbs, Buck’s residence was ‘Dukhani’, a property that was close to today’s Presidential Retreat. Buck was a man of many roles and often accompanied Reading on various shooting expeditions in the Shimla Hills. The now-famous author’s catch after a shoot would find its way to a dish named by his hapless guests as ‘Bucky’s Poultice’, for it often left them with upset stomachs.
One of Shimla’s most respected citizens, Edward Buck also served as chairman of the Associated Hotels of India, whose controlling share, which belonged to Spencer and Company, was bought out by MS Oberoi in 1943 and became the precursor of the East India Hotels, which remains the holding company of the Oberoi group of hotels.
— The writer is an author based in Shimla
