WHY DATELINE DEHRA DUN ?
Dehra Dun, together with Pune and Bangalore had once formed an holy trinity of sorts as the favourite destination for the retired. Though situated at great distance from one another, and in different geographical directions, the three cities had much in common right from those early British years. For one, their salubrious and moderate climate was enticing; another attraction was their green and clean environment. Such attributes were also compelling enough for the British to set up their cantonments there.
These favourable factors also served as magnet, and gradually attracted schools and several establishments and departments of the Central government. Dehra Dun, in particular, was twice blessed with numerous establishments and schools, that were to later acquire international reputation, proudly made Dehra Dun their “Home”.
Among those were RIMC, Forest Research Institute, Indian Military Academy, Survey of India, Col. Brown School, the Doon School, Welham Boys School, St. Joseph’s Academy, St. Thomas College, AP Mission School, Mahadevi Kanya Pathshala (MKP) and of course the DAV College. However, Dehra Dun’s face and fortune changed overnight of when the headquarters of Oil & Natural Gas Commission, then in its embryonic state, were set up here in 1956.
In a way, 1956 became a watershed year when a large number of veteran geoscientists from Geological Survey of India, a few from Oil India Ltd. (then known as Aasam Oil Company) and over two score staffers recruited in Calcutta arrived in Dehra Dun to join a fledgling ONGC. Town’s cosmopolitan character received a further boost when over 130 young geoscientists recruited by UPSC in a fast track mode arrived here in the spring of 1957 to join ONGC.
It was thus in such a melting pot of diverse cultures that these young men, at the threshold of promising careers, came. That they themselves were from the various parts of India, with different mother tongues, made it easier for them to adapt to and adjust in Dehra Dun’s catholic crucible.
They found this town of 100,000 people both quaint and exotic, but more “modern” than they had imagined. It was much neater than most other towns in Uttar Pradesh as also in other states.
Prior to 1956, Dehra Dun was a small, sleepy town; it was renowned, to use a much clichéd expression, for its green hedges and grey heads, in a manner of speaking.
Green hedges were the lush foliage that dotted its landscape and made the Doon Valley one of the greenest in the country. The grey heads symbolized the retired senior civil and defence officials; they chose Dehra Dun as their “Last Refuge” because of its salubrious climate and peaceful ambiance. They built beautiful bungalows in Dalanwala, Kalidas Road and at Rajpur amid orchards of litchis, mangoes, guavas and other fruits. Instead of ugly brick or stone boundary walls, their houses were fenced with green hedges. The green then was Dehra Dun’s distinctive badge.
The town had also attracted, in the pre-independence era, a score of rulers from the erstwhile princely states; they built mini palaces on large plots of land as their summer retreats. Two such palaces, were to become an integral part of ONGC’s history. The Patiala House became its headquarters and renamed as Tel Bhawan. The expansively built Nabha House on East Canal Road was turned into a “little Russia”, and housed the earlier expat Russians and their families, it now houses, the Hill Grange School.
What, however, gave Dehra Dun an endearing characteristic was its cosmopolitan face. The influx of migrants into Dehra Dun had begun nearly two hundred years ago; it varied from trickle to torrent. The “exiled” Sikh heretic Guru Ram Rai settled here with his disciples and followers. Then came the “Gorkhas” Among the earlier settlers were also the hillfolk from Garhwal and Kumaon; they too stamped their imprint on the town’s variegated hues. Many more people from other parts of the country came and settled in Dehra Dun; they immigrated for different reasons, but once they settled here, the town gradually grew on them, and they stayed settled.
The first influx of Bengali bhadralok was in the later part of the eighteenth century when the Geodetic Branch of Survey of India shifted here in 1767 from Calcutta. Much, much later, some more Bengalis came with the setting up of the ordnance factory in Raipur and Map Publication Division at Hathibarkala. There were large enclaves of Bengali community in Hathibarkala estate and Karanpur area near DAV College; Refugees from the Punjab and North West Frontier Province of Pakistan immigrated in large numbers to Dehra Dun in the wake of country’s partition in 1947. Though many of them came in a state of penury, soon enough they stood on their own feet and added a robust look to town’s multicultural collage.
The following fifty years saw much churning in town’s cultural pot. More and more schools, mostly residential ones, were established in Dehra Dun and Mussoorie, attracting students not only from the various parts of the country but also from abroad. It is said that the school education has become the highest foreign exchange earner in the state. One estimate puts the number of students in these schools at around 40,000.
Later, technical, business management and coaching institutes started coming up even before the formation of Uttarakhand in 2000. The rush of such educational institutes has continued unabated, and today they are found in every nook and corner of the district. Though there are no accurate figures available, it is estimated that more than 20,000 students from many parts of country, as far away as Andhra Pradesh and the north-eastern states, are on the rolls of these institutes.
Even though some of the better organized educational institutes have their own hostels, many private students’ hostels and paying guests digs have also mushroomed all over the city and in suburbs in order to meet the huge demand. This is a new and lucrative business, and flourishing and expanding by the day.
A large number of residents of now submerged town of Tehri too were rehabilitated and settled in and around Nehru Colony and the outskirts of Dehra Dun towards Jogiwala, Dharampur, Jolly Grant areas where modern homes and shopping centres have replaced basmati and sugarcane fields. Thus, there is a demographic change in Dehra Dun’s landscape.
Simultaneously, with the information technology revolution sweeping across the country, a large number of young men and women from Dehra Dun found attractive jobs in other parts of the country in BPOs and Call Centres at places like Noida, Gurgaon, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Pune et al. Also many others got admission into prestigious IIMs and IITs, and found cushy jobs in major national and multinational corporates.
Thus thousands of these young men and women left their homes and parents in Dehra Dun for greener pastures elsewhere in India or abroad, undoubtedly with the blessings of their parents, and for brighter prospects. Many others went away to countries like the USA, the UK, Australia, New Zealand for higher studies and later opted to work and live there. Thus, ironically exodus of these bright young people in such a large number make their lonely parents pine for the company of their children. It is where the internet has come into play.
It was under these circumstances that some of us felt the need for creating an online domain, a common platform of sorts, that would bring together on its podium separated and scattered Doonites wherever they might be, in India or in distant lands. It promises to present an encyclopedic information and knowledge about Dehra Dun, in all of its diversity–historic, cultural, spiritual, educational and political. Mussoorie, Rishikesh, Haridwar, Roorkee, Nainital, Char Dham and some place of tourists’ interest will be important parts of the new domain.
It is with this laudable objective that datelinedehradun.com has been launched.