Hill Station Research Articles

Dane Kennedy. <italic>The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj</italic>. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1996. Pp. xiii, 264. $38.00

Journal Article Dane Kennedy. The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1996. Pp. xiii, 264. $38.00 Get access Kennedy Dane. The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1996. Pp. xiii, 264. $38.00. Francis G. Hutchins Francis G. Hutchins Brookline, Massachusetts Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar The American Historical Review, Volume 102, Issue 4, October 1997, Pages 1214–1215, https://doi.org/10.1086/ahr/102.4.1214 Published: 01 October 1997

The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj.

The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj.

Hill stations: Pinnacles of the Raj

Hill stations: Pinnacles of the Raj

The magic mountains: hill stations and the British Raj. By Dane Kennedy, pp. xv, 264, 14 figs., 2 maps. Berkeley etc., University of California Press. 1996. US $38.00, £30.00.

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The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. By Dane Kennedy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xvi, 264 pp. $38.00 (cloth).

The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj. By Dane Kennedy. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996. xvi, 264 pp. $38.00 (cloth).

The Magic Mountains: Hill Stations and the British Raj

Perched among peaks that loom over heat-shimmering plains, hill stations remain among the most curious monuments to the British colonial presence in India. In this engaging and meticulously researched study, Dane Kennedy explores the development and history of the hill stations of the raj. He shows that these cloud-enshrouded havens were sites of both refuge and surveillance for British expatriates: sanctuaries from the harsh climate as well as an alien culture: artificial environments where colonial rulers could nurture, educate, and reproduce themselves; commanding heights from which orders could be issued with an Olympian authority. Kennedy charts the symbolic and sociopolitical functions of the hill stations over the course of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, arguing that these highland communities became much more significant to the British colonial govern-ment than mere places for rest and play. Particularly after the revolt of 1857, they became headquarters for colonial political and military authorities. In addition, the hill stations provided employment to countless Indians who worked as porters, merchants, government clerks, domestics, and carpenters. The isolation of British authorities at the hill stations reflected the paradoxical character of the British raj itself, Kennedy argues. While attempting to control its subjects, it remained aloof from Indian society. Ironically, as more Indians were drawn to these mountain areas for work, and later for vacation, the carefully guarded boundaries between the British and their subjects eroded. Kennedy argues that after the turn of the century, the hill stations were increasingly incorporated into the landscape of Indian social and cultural life.

A comparative study of differences in the averages of temperatures and rainfall over the Indian stations during the periods 1931-60 and 1961-90

ABSTRACT. The differences in the averages of surface temperature and rainfall during the periods 1931-60 and 1961-90 are studied for 166 individual stations covering major parts of India. To test the significance of the difference, student’s ‘t’ test has been applied. The fall in air temperatures in the north Indian stations is mainly due to the significant fall in minimum temperatures and rise in air temperatures in the south Indian stations is due to the significant rise in maximum temperatures. No significant change is observed in rainfall. However, over hill stations the rainfall has decreased and over urban/industrialized cities the rainfall has increased.
 
 

The Strike That Became a Land Rights Movement: A Southern 'Do-Gooder' Reflects on Wattie Creek 1966-74

In August 1966 a group of Aboriginal people working for the Vesteys-owned Wave Hill Station in the Northern Territory went on strike. By the end of the ‘Wet’ in April 1967 it had become clear to sy...

Dictionary of the British Empire and Commonwealth

This is a companion to the political, cultural, religious, military and economic events that have shaped the transformation of a Victorian empire into a world community, still linked in free association. The dictionary looks back to the beginning of British maritme expansion but concentrates specifically on 1800 and onwards. As well as providing outline histories of member states it offers guidance to the many organizations which link them in cultural, scientific and economic co-operation. It includes sketches of politicians and administrators, missionaries and explorers, soldiers and seafarers, pioneers of the air routes, engineers and inventors, and many others who contributed to the arts, to physical and medical science and to literature. There are entries on cinema and theatre, on sports, on nationl disasters, and on the relics of Empire - railways, hill stations and even hotels.

The magic mountains: hill stations and the British Raj

The magic mountains: hill stations and the British Raj

Climate, Race, and Imperial Authority: The Symbolic Landscape of the British Hill Station in India

Abstract Nostalgia for home is quite natural among expatriates. The English country life recreated in the hill stations of India, however, was elaborated on by the greater prestige of an imperial people. This paper examines the hill station as a landscape type tied to nineteenth-century discourses of imperialism and climate. Both discourses serve as evidence of a belief in racial difference and, thereby, the imperial hill station reflected and reinforced a framework of meaning that influenced European views of the non-western world in general. Because the hill station was seen as a resource to be protected for use by the British ruler, the standards used in colonial settlement planning are framed in these discourses of privilege and difference. Primary attention is given to the high imperial age from 1870 to 1914 when construction activity was greatest. Ootacamund, the summer capital of the Madras presidency in southern India, serves as the case study for evaluating this landscape type.

Precipitation chemistry at sinhagad-a hill station in India

The chemistry of precipitation in remote sites such as mountain tops is of interest in the study of atmospheric pollution and acid rain. The chemical composition measured at mountain site which is away from industrial and urban areas is useful as a reference level and it allows to determine the extent of anthropogenic contamination. Hence, rain water samples were collected at Sinhagad (18°21′N, 73°45′E, 1450 m asl during the monsoon season (June-September) of 1992 and were analysed for major ions. The precipitation samples collected at Sinhagad were alkaline in nature and pH values ranged between 5.9 to 6.76. The ionic composition was dominated by soil dust The concentration of Ca2+ was highest among all the ions. The concentrations of excess SO3 2− and NO4 − were small (23.8 and 15.2 μeq l−1 respectively) compared to the values of polluted regions in India. The correlation coefficient between the ions and pH values was calculated and it was found to be maximum in case of Ca2+. Precipitation samples collected at Sinhagad were alkaline owing to higher concentration of Ca2+ and lower levels of acidic pollutants (SO4 2− and NO3 −).

The accuracy of ionogram-derived N(h) profiles

At the Millstone Hill station the Incoherent Scatter Radar (ISR) and a Digisonde 256 are simultaneously operating. Some characteristic true heights determined by both instruments are compared with each other, possible reasons for observed difference are indicated.

Diurnal variation of Southwest monsoon rainfall at Indian stations

The paper presents the patterns of rainfall behavior brought out by the diagrams depicting the diurnal variation of SW monsoon rainfall at selected Indian stations. The stations in different geographical locations are found to exhibit different patterns of diurnal variation of rainfall. In general, coastal and island stations show enhanced rainfall from midnight to morning hours and below average rainfall during day time. Many inland stations show rainfall maximum towards afternoon / evening hours. Some hill stations show the same behavior as inland stations. However, at the heavy rainfall station of Cherrapunjee, the rainfall behavior is similar to that at the coastal stations. Possible physical mechanisms responsible for the diurnal variation of rainfall at stations under different categories, are briefly discussed. Harmonic analysis of hourly SW monsoon rainfall data of 33 stations show that for 19 stations, the first harmonic accounts for more than 50% of the variance of the rainfall series. These consist of (i) inland stations for which the maximum of the first harmonic, is reached between 16 hours IST and midnight, and (ii) coastal / island stations for which the maximum is seen between 03 and 07 hours IST. At most of the coastal and island stations, the first harmonic alone accounts for 75% or, more of the variance. For the heavy rainfall station of Cherrapunjee, the first harmonic which attains its maximum at 3.8 hours IST (∼4.4 hours LT), is able to account for 96% of the variance of the rainfall series. It is hoped that the information contained in this paper about the pattern of diurnal modulation of monsoon rainfall may serve as background material to monsoon precipitation climatology.

Book reviews

Book reviews

Photo hierarchicus: Signs and mirrors in indian photography

The Indian hill station of Mussoorie in northern Uttar Pradesh has an astonishing range of photographers and photographic practices. This diversity can be seen as a direct cultural manifestation of Mussoorie's class structure and history, including a recent upsurge of middle‐class Indian tourism. But it also reflects desires and contradictions in Indian attitudes towards photographic representation which have parallels in Indian art, religion and popular culture. Although the example is Indian, these issues are by no means unique to India and are relevant to how photographic meaning is constructed and confronted in many other societies.

Film review

Photo Wallahs Photo Wallahs, an encounter with photography in Mussoorie, a north Indian hill station. Directed by David and Judith MacDougall; camera: David MacDougall; sound: Judith MacDougall; editor: Dai Vaughan. Distributed by Fieldwork Films, 12 Meehan Gardens, Griffith, Canberra, A.C.T. 2603, Australia. 1991, 58 minutes, color, 16 mm. and PAL.

Electrical, microphysical and dynamical observations in summer monsoon clouds

Electrical, microphysical and dynamical conditions in ground-based clouds were studied using the observations carried out at Mahabaleshwar (17°56′N, 73°40′E; 1382 m ASL), a hill station, during the summer monsoon season of 1977. There is a significant correlation between the rain intensity and the corresponding atmospheric electric potential gradient. The diurnal curves of rainfall and negative electric potential gradient exhibited two peaks. The peak in rainfall during the morning hours and the afternoon peak in electric potential gradient were statistically significant. The early morning peak in rainfall was attributed to the enhanced convergence caused by the radiational imbalance in the cloud and cloud-free regions during active monsoon conditions. The afternoon peak in the electric potential gradient was attributed to the cloud formation due to convection. The atmospheric electric potential gradient showed sign reversal from its normal fair weather positive to negative at the time of the onset of rain. The reversal of the electrical potential gradient and the incidence of positively charged raindrops at the surface were almost simultaneous. Positive raindrop charges were recorded 1–2 minutes prior to the occurrence of negative electric potential gradient showing a steep increase during heavy rain spells. The raindrop charges were predominantly positive. The possible physical mechanisms for electrification of monsoon clouds have been discussed. The cloud condensation nuclei and surface temperature also showed peaks during the morning hours. The microphysical observations suggest that the rain formation takes place in monsoon clouds both by the collision-coalescence and ice crystal processes. A simple 1-D model was used to compute different cloud physical parameters. For a cloud with its top at 9 km the precipitation efficiency is in the range 60–70% of the adiabatic liquid water content. It has an average rainfall rate of 15 mm hr −1, vertical velocity of 3–5 m s −1 and average life time of 30 minutes.

Three Colonial Port Cities in India

Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta share a distinctive pattern of urban morphology that is part of their colonial past. Basic features are a nucleus with a Europeanstyle fort and open esplanade, segregated, residential areas for Europeans and Indians, a central business district, and peripheral military and manufactural zones. Evolution of these features varied in each city, and they survived largely intact until the early twentieth century. \M ADRAS, Bombay, and Calcutta are distinctive because they share similar morphological features that are a mixture of past European and Indian influences but that are not found in other Indian cities. British colonial influence on the Indian subcontinent was manifested in various settlement types, each of which was shaped by the circumstances of its origin and subsequent evolution. During the period of initial contact between England and India in the seventeenth century, the English East India Company, like other European trading enterprises, maintained commercial stations, called factories, in the preexistent Indian cities along the coasts and inland waterways. The early factories comprised warehouses enclosed in compounds together with dwellings for merchants and other facilities.1 Their effect on Indian urban structure was minor and ephemeral. In Madras and later in Bombay and Calcutta, fortified factories were erected at relatively undeveloped village sites, accessible to seagoing vessels and completely controlled by the East India Company. Hybrid towns arose at these three sites where Indian and other merchants, attracted by the commercial opportunities to be found under English protection, lived in a segregated fashion in or adjacent to the original European settlements. The three port towns served as the principal seats of English economic and military power on the subcontinent and were the bases for expansion inland.2 With the extension of British rule inland, other forms of colonial urbanism appeared during the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. The most common types were the military and civil stations, known as cantonments and civil lines, that were usually established near indigenous urban centers but were administered separately.3 Hill stations were another new settlement ' A Historical Atlas of South Asia (edited by Joseph E. Schwartzberg; Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978), plate VI.B.5, 53, 209. 2 John E. Brush, The Growth of the Presidency Towns, Urban India: Society, Space and Image, Duke University Program in Comparative Studies on Southeast Asia, Monograph 10, edited by Richard G. Fox, Durham, N.C., 1970, 91-114. 3 Anthony D. King, Colonial Urban Development: Culture, Social Power and Environment (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1976). * DR. KOSAMBI is a reader in sociology at the University of Poona, Pune, India. DR. BRUSH is an emeritus professor of geography at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey 08903. This content downloaded from 207.46.13.111 on Tue, 09 Aug 2016 04:19:34 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

熱帯アジアのHill Stationにおける農業的発展

熱帯アジアのHill Stationにおける農業的発展