A correspondence Extolling KOTGARH - 1860

A correspondence from The Memoir of George Edward Lynch Cotton, D.D., Bishop of Calcutta, and Metropolitan.

To Mrs. Arnold.

Kotgur, near Simla, September 1860.

. . . The place from which I am now writing is about fifty miles from Simla, on the Thibet road, and therefore quite in the interior of the mountain land. We came here partly because it is a mission station which wants a good deal of organising and stirring up, partly to get a little more knowledge of the Himalayas and health from their breezes, before we go down again into the plains. I have often tried to compare this Himalayan scenery with that of other mountain countries; but the result has been an increased conviction of the proverbial odiousness of comparisons, and a determination to enjoy what is before me without hankering after the unattainable. Doubt- less one may miss here the lakes of Italy, the glacier scenery of the Bernese Oberland, and the peculiar repose, freshness, and mountain streams of Westmoreland. But nowhere have I seen such foliage and vegetation ; the forests are of a grandeur and solemnity which remind me of the effect of a great cathedral, and from any height the enormous scale of the green land- scape, the vast ranges of hill-sides clothed in verdure and rich cultivation, the lines of mountain rising one behind another and terminating with the distant snow, give you the impression of a ' mountain country ' far more than any other scenery, and realise the fact that you are in the loftiest mountain range of the world. On Saturday morning we went up Hawathoo, 11,000 feet high, in this country of course a mere dwarf, but famous for its beautiful view. In the Alps at this height we should have been in the midst of ice and bare rock: here we sat down to a breakfast of coffee and mutton chops! on a greensward covered with potentillas and other flowers un- known to us, but some like anemones and others like China asters, with oaks and pines all around us and the ruins of an old Ghoorka fort to lean our backs against. The lichens and ferns are of great beauty, and the trunks of trees are clothed with the Virginia creeper which now has turned red, just as we have seen it against an old English manor house or a college in Oxford or Cambridge.


Read it @ http://bit.ly/BishopCotton

Cuisine of the OLD Kotgarh Hills

Ever wondered what the people of the Kotgarh Hills ate before dal-chawal-subzi-roti took over. Most ate food which was quite plain and dull but provided high heat and energy to see them through the day of hard work in their fields. The vegetables preparations were almost non existence except for the ubiquitous tubers. The different forms of bread cooked in different styles formed staple with rice and milk based products and a few homegrown pulses and cereals were also used in some main course preparation. Meat was always a luxury as one had to loose his livestock for dinner nonetheless the people of the hills ate sheep, goats and lamb.

Enter any Kotgarh kitchen (rasoi) today; the traditionally chulla (fed by forest wood) has made way for more convenient and modern ovens, microwave, and LPG fed stoves. The layout and the utility have also changed with time. Most of the fare has been renegaded to special occasions primarily because of the availability and affordability of the seasonal vegetables, pulses and cereals. Today an average kitchen churns out all sorts of meat, lentil and cereal preparations.

I have put together a list of dishes and preparations from the Hills. Some of them have been long forgotten but some still retain their popularity.

Breads:
Baturu - Leavened bread cooked on a griddle
Lauta - Wheat flour pancake (thin and soft)
Patanda - Wheat pancake (large and thick)
Chalaudhi - Unleavened maize bread cooked on a griddle
Seegdi - Leavened bread with stuffing - steamed
Zarigra - Like seegdi of Barley (smaller in size)
Panigri - Stuffed dumplings bread - poached
Bathodi - Unleavened Millet bread
Kadraudi -
Mashroudi - Unleavened black gram (urdh) bread
Pakain - Wheat flour leavened bread - fried

Main Course:
Baadi - water+ghee+ salt or sugar +wheat+ cook
Gadani - water + Jagger + wheat
Khatta - curd accumulated in a clay urn over time and whey discarded each day; cooked with spices
Bada - black gram fried dumpling
Churah - buckwheat flour sweet fried bread
Sanshe - suju or maida pancakes (sun dried) and fried
Khobdru - atta dumpling
Katrari - rice + lassi (cook)
Aaalo le bhazi
Indra - kolth + aloo
Dhandra - arbi leaves
Lapphi - coarsely ground maize + roasted millet = cooked (accompanied my chas)
Daauna - wheat flour+maize flour bread stuffed with jaggery etc and cooked in warm ash/amber (It was a favorite with the folks who had to wait for their turn at the gharat) and another favorite delight was roasted potato (bhozena adho) - roasted in the warm ash.
Sattu - grounded rosted dried corn or barley dried accompanied by buttermilk

Non-Veg Delicacies
Meenz bedhau- (fat of goat/meat used for stuffing in seedgi)
Tongra shooruo - soup of animal totters
Bhozena shkar - meat roasted in warm ash and amber (viz. chalza-liver, buktu-heart, bhash-lungs)
(-------------- )- Sheep/Goat intestines stuffed with blood (palach) and wheat flour mixed with spices and boiled (just like blood sausages)
Dalkhi - stewed meat

Relish/Chutney:
Pudina Chutney
Delle ke Chutney (apricot kernel)
Till ke Chutney
Chas (buttermilk)

Sweet Dishes:
Meetha bhat (branz)
Seera - sweet dish cooked in ghee from the extract of the wheat grain (endosperm)
Atta Halwa - ghee+atta+Jaggery

Wild Ingredients:
Kungshi (Nettle) - used as stuffing (bedho) or for broth and as veg
Balaltu (Field grass) - used for veg
Rachi (Wild mushroom - Chanterelle)
Chauen (Morels)
Lengude (Fiddlehead Fern)
Chaulai (Amaranth)

(I have tried my best to get the name and ingredients right. I would build and fix the recipes in due course. In case correction need to be made please drop a mail at admin@kotgarh.in)

Photographic print & Lithograph - Kotgarh/Narkanda

From the archives of British Library :


Photographer: Bourne, Samuel Medium: Photographic print Date: 1860

View of the dak bungalow overlooking the smaller village houses at Narkunda, from the Elgin Collection: 'Spring Tours 1894-98'. This is a late print of a Samuel Bourne photograph, Bourne's original negative number (1426) has been scratched out and replaced by a later reference. Narkanda is a small village situated high in the Himalayan Mountains. The bungalow in this view provided accommodation for travellers on the old Hindustan-Tibet caravan route. Narkanda has awe-inspiring views of the snowy peaks as it is located on the ridge of the last watershed before the Himalayan range. Below Narkanda, to the north is the Sutlej Valley and beyond it is the snowy massif. The ridge on which Narkanda stands is the watershed between the Sutlej on the north and the Giri river. The sleepy town of Narkanda sits astride the watershed between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.


Photographer: Bourne, Samuel Medium: Photographic print Date: 1863

Photograph of a view on the road to Narkanda, Himalayas from the 'Strachey Collection of Indian Views', taken by Samuel Bourne in 1863. Samuel Bourne, the bank clerk and amateur photographer arrived in India in 1863 during the early years of commercial photography. Photographs taken during three expeditions to Kashmir and the Himalayas between 1863 and 1866 demonstrate his ability to combine technical skill and artistic vision. These views display a compositional elegance which appealed to Victorian notions of the ‘picturesque’; strategically framed landscapes of rugged mountain scenery, forests, rivers, lakes and rural dwellings. What gives Narkanda its awe-inspiring view of the snowy peaks is the fact that it is located on the ridge of the last watershed before the Himalayan range. Below Narkanda, to the north is the Sutlej Valley and beyond it is the snowy massif. The ridge on which Narkanda stands is the watershed between the Sutlej on the north and the Giri river. The sleepy town of Narkanda sits astride the watershed between the Arabian Sea and Bay of Bengal.


Artist: Scott, Mrs WLL Medium: Lithograph Date: 1852

This lithograph was made from plate 14 of 'Views in the Himalayas' by Mrs WLL Scott. It was sketched from the verandah of the staging bungalow at Kotgarh in the Himalayas, at sunset. In the middle distance is the village of Kumarsain, and on a high hill behind is the Ramgarh Fort of Kulu. Providing background are the Kangra mountains and the snow ranges of the High Himalayas.

Mrs Scott wrote of the light in the mountains, which changed hourly and transformed the appearance of the region radically. She confessed to finding it difficult to convey the beauty of these changes on paper.

Artist: Scott, Mrs WLL Medium: Lithograph Date: 1852

This lithograph is taken from plate 13 of 'Views in the Himalayas' by Mrs WLL Scott. In 1850 Scott sketched this view at sunset at the staging bungalow in Kotargh. She wrote that the mission here was run by a German sent by the Chuch Missionary Society. There had been initial mutterings about him "taking his hire when his labours were so unfruitful, but he has lately had such good cause to be satisfied and thankful, that he has requested of the Society a fellow-labourer to assist him." The river Sutlej runs between the hills in the two nearest ranges.

In the early 20th century, an American missionary imported apple seeds to Kotgarh and today Himachal Pradesh is a renowned apple-growing region of India, with Kotgarh at the heart of its orchards.

St Mary Church and the Gorton Mission School Kotgarh

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Legacy to cherish The CMS church in Kotgarh stands as a symbol of the early missionary work in Himachal Pradesh. Though the town does not reflect strong Christian characteristics, the legacy is depicted in the church and the school, says Manpreet Kaur

KOTGARH, a small hamlet in the state of Himachal Pradesh, is around 10 km from Narkanda. Surrounded by the Himalayas, the town is famous for its apples, but a less known fact is that Kotgarh was one of the earliest mission stations of North India, the history of which is gathering dust in the mission archives. A visit to the place rekindled my interest on this neglected topic.

The compound of the missionary school (right); and the CMS church, which stands out for its Gothic architecture

Kotgarh, in the 19th century, was a part of the province of Punjab. Going back to the early establishments of mission centres, the Presbyterians from America led by Rev John C. Lowrie were among the early missions to establish their headquarters in Punjab at Ludhiana in 1834. But after a decade in 1844, it was Church Missionary Society (CMS) from England that opened its centre at Kotgarh. It became a mission station along with Simla, Kangra and Dharamsala. Kotgarh was ideally situated in terms of Christianisation.

To comment on the impact it would have, Robert Clarke, a pioneer of CMS — when he came to Kotgarh after almost 40 years of its establishment — called it as a mission on a hill "to give light to the whole country between China and the plains."

Kotgarh grew with references like these, and by the early 20^th century, the field work as described by Rev HFT Beutel comprised an area of about 2000 sq miles. In 1911, there were around seven male native Christian agents.

Kotgarh was not alien to the British establishment at the time of the ecclesiastical invasion. It had already become a station of the British army during the 1814-1816 Gorkha war. A two-storey building was erected to serve as British officers’ mess. In the coming years, the British army withdrew from Kotgarh. Some time later the missionary spirit took root. CMS at Kotgarh worked in close connection with the Berlin Ladies’ Society. Unfortunately, I couldn’t trace any literature on the latter society with regard to their activity in Kotgarh.

What draws attention while one visits the place is a church that stands in the middle of the town. Built in 1872, the CMS church is near the Army mess. Set in the rugged mountainous site, it stands out as an example of the Gothic architecture. The church, a not-so-tall building, has an apse and a tower bell. The front window has a painting of Christ. The exterior is a combination of austerity and simplicity. It was used for daily morning and evening services.

The church — now filled with mature shrubs and apple trees in its backyard — enhances the settings of what is one of the historic buildings of early mission work. Along side the church, a school was opened, and was named after Gorton, a distinguished servant in Simla. Later, it came under the mission control. The school grew gradually, and in 1886 it could boast of a substantial figure of students studying here — 13 boys and two girls.

Interestingly, some medical work was carried at Kotgarh, too. A hospital that comprised only four beds was highly beneficial to the natives and the mission societies alike. Though the hospital was not a missionary enterprise, the latter through its "care and cure" policy spread the message of gospel to the patients. They believed it would facilitate conversions .The mission reports do throw light on incidents that showed interest of the indigenous population towards Christianity.

For instance, a Brahmin, who brought his son for treatment, expressed a desire to learn about Christ. Similarly, a young man in government service with a small salary regularly gave one Re 1 a month as a thank offering for the benefit derived at the mission school. Such descriptions were pronounced but baptism was rare. There are no figures available that tell the exact statistics of the indigenous Christians of that time.

Kotgarh, with its picturesque location, soon became a summer retreat for the missionaries in the plains. Books written during the early 19^th century have travelling experiences of missionaries on ponies. Dr Brown of Women’s Christian Medical College and Hospital from Ludhiana was a regular visitor who spent her early summer holidays here. A stay at Kotgarh for her meant time for learning a language like Urdu. Despite the Christian credentials of the place, Kotgarh witnessed a partial process in the spread of Christianity.

Towards the later decades of the 20th century, there was little impetus of mission work here. From this standpoint, ironically, when Samuel Stokes settled in this part of the country, he found his missionary image "unsatisfactory," and became a Hindu to establish a rapport with Indians.

Presently, Kotgarh does not reflect strong Christian characteristics. However, the legacy of the missionaries is depicted in the domain of the church and the school.

Revive the glory! (KOTGARH)

Perhaps you are not new to the debate of decline in the apple production and thus the income in Kotgarh notwithstanding looking for new oppertunities to showcase Kotgarh's natural wealth and history and in the process making some money.

A well documented discussion from the people of Kotgarh Hills cutting across boundries of wealth, experience, education and social standing.

It would leave you richer and thinking. In case you have something to say; you could join the discussion.

Visit the below listed links for the complete Discussion.
Revive the glory! (KOTGARH)
Prospects of tourism in Kotgarh

Samuel Stokes: India’s Johnny Appleseed

- by Raaja Bhasin

In the late 1920s, my father as a small boy took the train from Lahore to Shimla with his uncle, Bihari Lal who had become an admirer and something of a friend to an American who had settled in Kotgarh, one of the poorest pockets in the Shimla tract. Beyond Shimla, the Hindustan Tibet Road as it existed then was adapted only for horses, pack animals and plain old foot-slogging.

It took them three days to get to Kotgarh from Shimla where Bihari Lal was helping the Quaker from Philadelphia, Samuel Evans Stokes set up a school. The journey now takes a couple of hours along a road along which huge lorries cart equipment to Nathpa- Jakhri, one of the largest hydro-electricity projects in the world that is located in the valley of the Satluj river that flows in the valley below.

The journey of Samuel Evans Stokes was a far longer one. It was in the years that my father moved up the dusty path to Kotgarh that the apple plants which Stokes had imported from the United States were taking root. While the school which had taken uncle and nephew there in the first place died quietly without a fuss, the ‘Delicious’ varieties of apple which had been developed by the Stark Brothers of Louisiana went on the transform the economy and much of the landscape.

Today, the apple-based economy of the contiguous villages of Thanedar and Kotgarh have given it one of the highest per-capita incomes in Asia. Around these villages, signs of the time may be there – hoardings that announce the latest cell-phone plan or advertise call-centres and air-hostess training institutes. But while they may be there, they do not dominate the landscape nor do they hustle people off to explain why a CD drive cannot function as a coffee-cup holder to a caller from the American mid-west. If modernity is there, these places still speak of tradition – and as an example, the odds are that you will see most of the women still wearing rejtas, long flowing –almost Victorian – gowns and dhatus, headdresses.

Born on 16th August 1882, the son of a Quaker millionaire from Philadelphia, Stokes arrived in India on 26th February 1904. He was coming to help in a leprosy home that had been established at Subathu in the foothills below Shimla, the ‘summer capital’ of British India. He had barely settled in when in April, 1905 a devastating earthquake rocked the area and nearby Kangra was severely hit.

Entire towns were levelled and things were much worse in the isolated villages. Samuel Stokes moved there to help in whatever way he could. The administration assigned him the work of going from village to village to assess the losses and indemnify the affected persons. Though assured of payment of personal expenses, his conscience could not accept this and he did not take a paisa for this arduous work.

Sapped of strength, from Kangra, Stokes moved to Kotgarh beyond Shimla and to the end of his days, this was to be his home. Long before he built that remarkable house ‘Harmony Hall’ at Thanedar, above Kotgarh – and named after the family home in New Jersey – Stokes, howsoever briefly, even lived in a cave.

Here, he married a local Christian girl, Agnes and worked ceaselessly to uplift the local people from the host of problems that beset them – including the custom of ‘begar’ where labour would be pressed in service for little or no remuneration and often worked under inhuman conditions. He took recourse to ‘passive resistance’ which had been used by his Quaker ancestors in the past for the sake of their ideals.

Backed by the whole of Kotgarh which bravely responded to his call, the government ultimately gave in and the system of ‘begar’ was abolished. Stokes’ action on behalf of the hill people commended him to Mahatma Gandhi who wrote in Young India: “No Indian is giving such battle to the Government as Mr. Stokes. He has veritably become the guide, philosopher and friend of the hill men.”

Soon after the repressive Rowlatt Acts were passed in 1919, Stokes became an active associate of Mahatma Gandhi and was even jailed for his role in India’s struggle for freedom. This gave him the distinction of being the only American to be imprisoned in the cause of India’s freedom.

In 1921, in his booklet National Self-Realisation, Stokes wrote: “Our immediate object is to make the Government of this land representative of the will of the people.” In the same booklet he wrote: “…ultimately Complete Swaraj, independent of the British Empire is the only goal for India.” For another one of Stokes’ booklets, Awakening India, Gandhi Ji wrote the foreword. Characteristically, he sought his own guidance and way with religion and it was in these years that Stokes converted to Hinduism and changed his name to Satyanand.

Harmony Hall, Stokes’ old home, still stands on top of the hill, surrounded by the apple orchards that he first planted. This unusual piece of architecture speaks worlds for the man that built it. This draws from the local style of interlocking horizontal wooden beams packed with dressed stone, and is combined with elements of the ‘western’ architectural experience - high chimney-stacks and large windows; in more ways than one, two entirely different backgrounds that were merged into a single entity.

A lotta history - KOTGARH

- Millie Thakur Vanjape

The Nalwa family legend passed down through the ages by word of mouth from father to son, dates back probably to medieval India, the time of the Muslim invasions. Raja Nal was the ruler of a Kingdom in Bharat Varsh, in the Indo - Gangetic plains. He lost his empire in a gambling session. Unable to bear the ignominy of his folly Nal sought refuge in the Himalayas. During the course of his wanderings he reached Narkanda.The locals adopted and offered him land & built him a house at Marni, below Narkanda (batnal), and the Hatu peak, facing Kotgarh. The rani gathered her valuables and decided to follow her husband. They had two sons the elder Bhim Singh and the younger Dhian Singh. Dhian Singh and the rani, perished in a flash flood caused by a cloud burst. A grieving Bhim Singh moved and settled down at Baghot, a place above village Bhareri.The ruins of the house he built are still there. However, in recent times the forest department has built a range hut & damaged the ruins considerably.

Bhim and his descendants lived at Baghot till the onset of the Gurkha invasions. The invaders were called 'Garhias'. Fed up with the daily looting, the lone descendant of Bhim sought the advice of 'Kot Guru', a rishi revered both by the locals and Garhia's alike. The rishi advised him to move down from Baghot to a spot below the ashram, where Gorton High School and the post office is located. This is where the descendant of Nal set up his abode and raised his family.Guru Ka Kot, the rishi's ashram, was situated in Pichla Danthala. The people were in awe of him and feared his wrath. With the passage of time the area of ' Kot Guru ' came to be known as Kotgarh and the residents are till date referred to as ' Kotguru ' The family members have adopted different surnames as Bhaik, Thakur, Kaith and Nalwa. The Mehta's of village Kirti in Kotgarh are also from the Nal Gotra.

Sometime in 1998 my grandpa had met Mr. Anil Bhaik, a petition writer at Rampur Bushahar and learnt from him that several Bhaik families were living beyond Rampur in 15 Bish and he is one of them. Nobody knows from where and when they migrated. Ram Singh Kaith was the Patwari of Outer Siraj in Kullu District. The Deputy commissioner was pleased with his services and rewarded him with the huge piece of land known as Village Koel.

The Bushahar State boundary extended from Kinnaur to Kalka. Raja Shamsher Singh, grandfather of Virbhadar Singh the state congress president,was the ruler during the 19th.century.The state was further parcelled out into small pricipalities governed by local Rana's. Kotgarh and Kotkhai was ruled by one such Rana.The Rana spent most of his time at Kotkhai and just a couple of summer months at Kotgarh. In his absence his representative the 'Mukhia' or chief,looked after Kotgarh.

It is believed that THALADU or his son PALLU ( Dada's grand father) was the Rana's Mukhia at Kotgarh in 1845 AD. During his annual visit that year the Rana saw a young beautiful woman carrying a pitcher of water from the 'khobli ba' to her house in Laptari. The Rana ordered his guards to bring the woman to his chamber that night. The guards immediately went to the womans house and ordered her father in law, Mhashu, to send his daughter in law to the Rana. The woman was the newly wedded bride of Mhashu's son and this proposition was unacceptable. The old man went to the Mukhia and sought his advice. The Mukhia assured Mhashu that he will persuade the Rana to desist from his desire.

However,when the Rana refused to listen to reason the Mukhia asked Mhashu to arrange a feast at his home that evening and invite all the male members from near by villages. The Mukhia had a plan. That night when the woman did not turn up the Rana was furious and ordered his guards to go and bring her immediately. The Mukhia was waiting and when the guards came they were caught and killed. The villagers then attacked the Rana but he managed to flee and reached Kumarsain via Chimla during the night and requested the Rana for help.

The Rana of Kumarsain only helped him to reach Kotkhai. A humiliated and furious Rana plotted and set out to take revenge in early 1846.The Mukhia was prepared and ambushed the raiding party at Hatu and repulsed the attackers. Another attempt met a similar fate. The Rana went to Kalka and asked the British Political Agent for help. The British were always on the look out for such opportunities and immediately dispatched soldiers under the command of a captain to help the Rana. The captain ousted the Mukhia who moved to Danthla. Three months later when the political agent visited Kotgarh and learnt the truth he apologised to the Mukhia and offered him back his land but was not accepted. The Agent then made out a document according to which the British would run a charitable school and hospital on the land.

If ever these institutions were closed down the property would revert to the descendants. Thus a hospital, church and Gorton Mission High School came to be set up - and are still there.

This was narrated by my grand father (Late Shiv Ram Thakur) to my father (Avninder Thakur) on the 1st of January 1999.


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Christianity in Kotgarh

On 22nd February 1910, at the Cathedral Church of the Resurrection in Lahore, Bishop George Alfred Lefroy (1854-1922) inaugurated the Brotherhood of the Imitation of Jesus. Reverend Samuel Stokes (1882-1946), an American missionary, became the provisional Minister-General of this Franciscan Brotherhood. Reverend Frederick Western (1880-1951) of the Cambridge Mission to Delhi and Reverend C. F. Andrews (1871-1940) possessed loose personal associations with the Brotherhood. Its intent embraced service to the sick and education for the young.

The Brotherhood was located at Kotgarh in Punjab. It had ties with the Church Missionary Society and the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. The Brotherhood collapsed in 1912 when Stokes left it to marry an Indian woman; the later phase of Chritistian religious and missionary activities started to take on a dramatic turn their on.

Samuel Evans Stokes (Satyanand Stokes)

Kotgarh valley is famous for its world class quality apples. The apple cultivation of the place was initiated by Satyanand Stokes who was an American missionary.

Samuel Evans Stokes, an American Missionary landed in Kotgarh in 1904 as a young man of 22 to spread the message of Christ and also with the objective of helping the hill people. He worked at the leper home in the Shimla hills of Himachal Pradesh for two years. Then becoming disillusioned with the missionary way of life, he severed links with missionary organisations and became a sort of a hermit, giving up all material comforts and living for some time in a cave.

Samuel Evans Stokes was involved with the spreading of Christianity however the beauty and the culture of Kotgarh had an effect on him and he converted to Hinduism and took a Hindu name Satyanand Stokes and made Barobag his abode. He found the climate and soil conclusive to apple cultivation (the apple production was at its peak in America) and in 1919 he planted trees on his 200 acres and they began bearing apples in 1925.The natives took to growing apples soon and today it has spread all over the Shimla hills. The Apple boom in Kotgarh improved the economy of the place.

He is the only American to have served in the All-India Congress Committee of the Indian National Congress. He passed away on 14 May 1946, having spent more than 43 years of his life in the country which he had come to change but which changed him instead.

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

A BLAST FROM THE PAST

Reg letter - kotgarh - 1a QV perfin on 2a QV Registration Envelope 1902 Simla Registered to Kotgarh.

HISTORY of KOTGARH

Originally called Sandoch and later Gurukot, little is known about its past before the Gurkhas came to world sway over the region during the early 19th century. The Gurkha rule ended in 1815 when British forces defeated Gurkha armies and retained a few pockets of land in the hills. Kotgarh was one of them and it became a British territory wedged between autonomous hill states.

The British government retained it as a military post and over the years it became a trading centre as well, probably the farthest in the north. But soon the cantonment was wound up and the buildings and property handed over to missionaries. The British government encouraged missionary work in Kotgarh to enhance its influence in the area.

St Mary’s Church was built in Kotgarh in 1873 and schools were opened in Kotgarh and the surrounding villages. Murry’s Handbook of Punjab, 1883, described Kotgarh as a "pretty little place with a post office, a pretty church and a missionary station". Little has changed since then.

Unlike Shimla that grew from a tiny village to become the summer capital of British India, Kotgarh has remained almost frozen in time. The pretty wooden church with its old graveyard, the Gorton Mission School and other buildings that survive today hold lingering images of a bygone era.