Bantony Complex’s rich history and Shilp Mela

Shriniwas Joshi

The entire property of Bantony Estate measuring 18,193 square metres was acquired by the government in the beginning of 2017 for Rs 27.84 crore. It has been acquired by the Language and Culture Department of the State Government with the objective of setting up of an urban museum for the use of general public

The first function that was held in Bantony Castle Complex after its acquisition by the Himachal Pradesh Government through the Language and Culture Department was Shilp Mela (Crafts Fair). The entire property of Bantony Estate measuring 18,193 square metres was acquired by the government in the beginning of 2017 for Rs 27.84 crore. It has been acquired by the Language and Culture Department of the State Government with the objective of setting up of an urban museum for the use of general public; for promotion of Art & Tourism in the State besides conservation and preservation of heritage properties of the State for posterity, which will also be helpful in creating a larger awareness among the society. 

A survey was conducted prior to the acquisition of the property in which the three points mentioned above, viz, 1. Establish an urban museum, 2. Promotion of Art and Tourism, and 3. Preservation of heritage properties, were also placed before the respondents. Out of the total respondents, 58 per cent stated positively viewing that it would add another attraction to the tourists and the residents; 26 per cent found in it duplication because a State Museum already existed at Inverarm in Chaura Maidan and did not favour the proposal while 16 per cent of them had no opinion. An important point raised by the respondents was that a public park for the children and the elderly be created here in the complex so that they could stroll here. The Mall, therefore, may have parks on its two ends, the other being Rani Jhansi Park. But would it be possible if an urban museum is established here because of the safety requirements of the museum?

The government went with the 58 per cent of the people and acquired the property from Ramkishen and Sons. 

Bantony Estate is at a prime location of Shimla lying between the Scandal Point and Kali Bari and has history painted on its every brick. There was one Captain A Gordon, an amateur actor taking part in plays on the Gaiety stage also, who owned a rickety cottage that was located here. It was purchased by the Raja of Sirmaur in 1880s to have his summer palace here. The building remained with Sirmaur till 1946 when Maharaja Darbhanga purchased it and sold it to Ramkishan and Sons in 1968.

Bantony, as we see it today, is a reconstructed version of 1901-02 on the designs of TEG Cooper, CE, consulting engineer and architect. It has ‘hybrid architecture, combining the features of an English county-house and Sirmauri baroque design’. Besides a block each of the cook houses and outhouses, it has the main house or villa called Bantony Castle and a double- storeyed cottage on the flank towards the then Delhi and London Bank (DLB), which was where the Union Bank of India existed today. Since 1957, the castle building remained occupied by the State Police Headquarters and was vacated around 2009 after the government lost the case in the courts. The Bantony cottage was the office of the Employment Exchange and remained there till the building was declared unsafe by the government. The exotic cast-iron railing with coat-of-arms of Sirmaur state at every span of six feet (mostly vandalised) and the original gate outside the building built in Nahan Foundry was erected in 1902-03. Permission to erect this was given by the MC on the condition that five deodar trees in the complex were not cut. These trees still exist. Only a couple of the coat-of-arms of Raja Sirmaur can still be seen. These actually were destroyed in the year 1972 when certain activists had raised protest against anything that reminded them of the British Raj, not knowing that these belonged to Sirmaur state. They had also forced the Municipal Corporation to remove all water taps having the lion crests.

Somerset Playne, in “Indian States”, has praised Raja Amar Prakash of Sirmaur who lent Bantony to the government for the Military Works Office in 1914 till the end of the First World War and again during the Second World War for the establishment of the Prisoners of War section under the aegis of All India Radio. The section handled all to and fro messages of the POWs. Veer Vikram Singh, commander of the Sirmaur State Forces, the hero of the World War, had died in Bantony. It also functioned as a guest house for the Maharajas of other states. Maharaja Scindia of Gwalior stayed here in the summers of 1928.

Bantony also had the privilege of accommodating the office of The Tribune from September 25, 1947 to May 12, 1948 on its dislocation from Lahore owing to the 1947 Partition. Rana Jang Bahadur Singh and J Natarajan were its editors during that period of its publication from Shimla at Liddell’s press. 

The amount of its purchase, Rs 27.84 crore, has been given to Ramkishen’s sons Vishwa Nath Sood and his four brothers or their families by the government which intends to spend another Rs 25 crore on it to bring back its lost splendour.

Tailpiece

“Whatever good things we BUILD end up building us.”