Fredrick 'Pahadi' Wilson was a man of the mountains. A soldier of fortune, after deserting the British armies, he sought refuge in the mountains of Uttarkashi. There, he began his business of lumbering, supplying the timber hungry railway industry with the Himalayan woods. Wilson would soon acquire the epithets of Pahadi (highlander) and Raja of Harsil, minting his own coins, marrying two women from Mukhba village and fathering three sons that would run through the family fortunes as quickly as they were acquired. Let us trace Wilson's life through some sights in the mountains connected with this enigmatic character.
One can begin to retrace Pahadi Wilson's journey from the heart of Dehradun at Saint Thomas Church. The church, which stands with beautiful Gothic architecture on the Rajpur Road, once witnessed one of the most important events of Wilson’s life. Wilson first married Raimatta and then Gulabi, both from Mukhba village in Uttarkashi, in the 1840s. While respected for his wealth, Wilson wanted more social recognition and he sought to legalise his marriage with the Mukhba girl, Gulabi, according to English custom. It is at this Church in 1874 that Gulabi was baptised in a private ceremony and took on the name Ruth. However, neither she nor her husband ever used this name, sticking always to Gulabi. The next year, in 1875, Gulabi and Frederick Wilson got married here with the bride being listed as a spinster of forty-four years and the groom as a fifty-seven year old gentleman.
Close by is Astley Hall, a property reminiscent of the power of Frederick Wilson. A two storied building, Astley Hall has remained a bustling shopping complex. Wilson acquired it in 1847 from Miss Elspeth Astley, the spinster daughter of a retired colonel. Behind it was a palatial bungalow, a perfect residence for the Wilsons.
Wilson moved his family from Harsil to the bungalow near Astley Hall during the revolt of 1857 in order to ensure their security. Gulabi moved from Harsil with two of her three sons. It was also at Astley Hall that Wilson kept receiving important news about the progress of the revolt leaders like Nana Saheb, from local informers.
One may drive for about 30 kilometres to Mussoorie, the hill station founded in 1823 by Major Frederick Young, a close friend of Wilson. It is at the Himalayan Club in Kulri that Wilson often spent time with fellow soldiers over drinks and food, always living with the fear of being identified as a deserter. It was on one such night that the three Fredericks—Frederick Wilson, District Superintendent Frederick O’ Wells and Major Frederick Young—were sharing a conversation at the Himalaya Club, that Wilson falsely introduced himself as the nephew of one Reverend Wilson of Calcutta. O’ Wells recalled that the reverend had no descendents. Suspicious, O'Wells stalked him to the Camel’s Back Road, and soon both got into a scuffle where O’ Wells was accidentally pushed down a deep gorge, and died. The deserter had also become a murderer. It was after this that Wilson escaped from Mussoorie to Uttarkashi via Suwakholi and Chamba. Later, when Wilson had to bring his wife, Raimatta, to a doctor at Landour, he had to travel incognito in the guise of a native villager with side-whiskers and kohl, to avoid getting caught.
A walk up the steep path on one’s right from Kulri transports one to the serenity of Landour. It was at Landour that Wilson purchased a house for his second wife Gulabi, naming it Ivanhoe. The house still stands at Landour. Rokeby Manor was also his residence for a significant period. Purchased in the 1850s, Rokeby Manor was named after Sir Walter Scott’s romantic poem. In 1859, Pahadi Wilson suffered his first attack of gout and retired to Rokeby for a few months with his family. His youngest son, Henry, preferred Rokeby to all his other homes since he could sit in silence besides his father and gaze at the fireplace. Henry was baptised at the Saint Paul’s Church close to Rokeby and a huge celebration followed. It was also at this church that Wilson’s second son Charlie, married an English woman named Clara, with whom he had one daughter. He was the only son of Wilson to have married and it is believed that Wilson wanted him to rather marry a local girl.
A two-hour drive from Landour takes one to Suwakholi, a stopover en route Dhanaulti. It was this route that Wilson used to travel between Dehradun, Mussoorie and Uttarkashi. The drive from Suwakholi to Uttarkashi is about 90 kilometres and takes one through breathtaking forests. Wilson built a guesthouse at Uttarkashi and Bhatwari, both of which do not survive today. He introduced cash economy to this region minting his own coins, which intrigued the local people. It was at Harsil, about 70 kms from Uttarkashi, and neighbouring Mukhba that Wilson spent most of his life. While on a hunting expedition here, the priests at the Someshwar temple of Mukhba wished to know his intentions. Not very convinced, the chief priest Kamlesh Semwal kept a strict eye on him.
When Wilson requested to be led till Nelong and Gangotri to catch two Russian spies that he suspected might have used the same route, Mukhba appointed Mungetu Chand to do the job. Mungetu and he struck a friendship and subsequently, he married Mungetu’s 13-year-old daughter Raimatta Chand. Raimatta and Wilson lost three of their babies in her womb and Raimatta was soon declared medically unfit to bear a child. It is for this reason that she lived separately from her husband and did not accompany him like his second wife Gulabi. A visit to the Raimatta House at Mukhba is a journey into her life. It is said that Wilson loved his first wife and gifted her a copy of the Holy Bible in Urdu, which until today lies in the custody of Prem Chand and his successors, the descendents of the Chand family. Adorned with a long wooden corridor Raimatta's is one of the biggest, gable-roofed houses in Mukhba. It is decorated with splendid arches very typical of architecture in the mountains.
Wilson’s second wife Gulabi was Mungetu’s sister and Raimatta’s aunt who was made to marry Wilson to bear him children. The couple soon became inseparable partners, in life as in business also and Gulabi learnt not only English from Major Young but also English customs. It is said that her palanquin was one of the richest in Mussoorie and would be an object of envy whenever she arrived from Harsil.
It had been Wilson’s dream to build a house for himself at Harsil and by the end of 1843, his forest mansion was ready. It had ten gables and a covered veranda supported by ten handsomely sculpted lotus columns running the entire length of the front facade. The massive double entrances, each four feet in width, were made from a single Deodar. The ground floor, in keeping with practice in the mountains, contained storerooms while the first floor contained living quarters. A tiled cookhouse was a part of the mansion, the first in Tanganore. Wilson later added a granary, bakery and water mill for grinding grain. The post office at Harsil reminds one of the times in which the Raja ruled over this area.
One can drive from Harsil for a distance of 11 kms to reach Lanka, the last stop before the turn to Nelong Valley. In a gorge beneath Lanka, Jadganga, a rapid flowing river that descends from the mountains bordering Tibet, joins the Bhagirathi.
It was while camping in the nearby Bhaironghati that Wilson realised the need for a bridge to cross the gorge. He got a bridge constructed here.
In 1844, a rupture in the Nelong glacier caused one of the bridges built by him near Jadganga to collapse. He then decided to build the bridge spanning the top of the Jadganga Gorge. It was when he achieved the construction of this bridge, that the headman of Mukhba gave him the epithet, Pahadi.
However, within the passing of a generation, the family had squandered the benefit of Pahadi Wilson's meteoric rise.
(The writer is an anthropologist, author, traveler & activist who also runs a public walking group called Been There, Doon That?)
