Colonization of the Highlands: the Rise and Growth of Hill Stations in Bengal Province (1828-1947)

Abstract

The origin and the development of the hills station of the British Raj were closely associated with the climatic factors of alluvial plains of the Bengal. Vertical sun on the equator became quite unbearable for the ruling class who ‘were born and bred in the cool maritime climate of British island’. The colonial official documents, travel guides, memoirs and the contemporary British medical journals are the major sources to study the fact that how the fear of the climate and deadly diseases directly contributed to the development of the major hill stations in colonial Bengal province. This paper is aimed to study the ways through which the colonizers observed and conceptualized the climatic condition of the entire Bengal plains and started the urbanization in the hills.