Viceregal Lodge

"...Despite its modest size and toy-town appearance, Simla was [once] one of the most powerful places on the face of the earth. For seven months out of every twelve, this cool Himalayan eyrie replaced sweltering Calcutta, and later Delhi, as the capital of the mighty British Indian Empire. [...]

Every year, as the heat on the plains below became unbearable, a mass migration of Europeans took place up to the many hill-stations built along the southern slopes of the Himalayas. But one particular exodus, which has been likened to Hannibal's army crossing the Alps, was quite different from all the others. This was the annual departure for Simla of the Viceroy and his Council, together with their senior advisers, aides and families, not to mention cohorts of retainers. Towards the end of March or the beginning of April they made their way there from Calcutta, 1,200 miles away, by train, tonga, rickshaw and pony. Hot on their heels followed a small army of civil servants, Indian clerks and other functionaries, while behind them toiled a long baggage-train laden with filing cabinets and other official paraphernalia. 'Government out of a suitcase,' one Viceroy called it. Then, every October or November, the caravan rolled once more, bearing the Great Ones back to their splendid offices and residences in the winter capital, and their minions to more humble ones. And so it went on, year in and year out, from 1864 to 1939, when the practice ceased, though in 1911 the great trek was considerably shortened when Delhi replaced Calcutta as the new imperial capital."

- Peter Hopkirk
Quest for Kim - In Search of Kipling's Great Game

Pictured above is the old Viceregal Lodge in Shimla. Difficult to imagine that an entire sub-continent was once ruled from this august but isolated edifice... Here too, away from the throng and bustle of the plains, was where Partition was decided.