Reporting for Dickens

Jaskiran Chopra

One may well ask what could Charles Dickens ever have to do with Mussoorie? The answer is: a lot.

Writer Ruskin Bond, who has been living here since 1963, has brought into focus this hill town through his stories as well as descriptions of the long years he has spent in Landour (old Mussoorie). Stephen Alter and his cousin, the late Tom Alter, both from the town, are very well-known names in writing. Bill Aitken resides in Mussoorie. Anita Desai was born here. However, the town had established its relationship with writers and writing much before this — in the times of the world famous Victorian author, the great Charles Dickens.

A correspondent living here in the nineteenth century wrote for two magazines edited by Dickens; these were Household Words and All the Year Round. This correspondent was John Lang, a brilliant Australian writer and lawyer. He spent his last years in Mussoorie and it is here that he died of bronchitis on August 20, 1864, at the age of 48. He was buried in Mussoorie.

The story of his life in Mussoorie is an integral part of the hill station’s almost 200-year-old history. During his stay in the hill town, Lang married Margaret Wetter and a record of the wedding can be seen in the record book of Landour church. This was his second marriage. Writer Ruskin Bond says he left everything to his second wife, whom he married in Mussoorie in 1861, after his death. “However, what happened to her after his death remains a mystery,” he says.

When the news of the 1857 revolution (called “mutiny” by the British) broke in Britain, Household Words responded slowly and cautiously. Not until the publication of John Lang’s series Wanderings in India, which appeared from November 1857 to February 1858, did the journal produce a consistent reaction to the revolution.

In the travelogue, Lang gave vivid descriptions of the natural splendour that Mussoorie was endowed with. He wrote a long article on the famous Himalaya Club, which was then the centre of all social activity and is now a hotel in Landour. Balls, carnivals, gambling and music marked the social life, of which this club was the centre. Lang described how God Save the Queen was sung on the Mall Road and a march past conducted to the accompaniment of a band. The article appeared in the March 21, 1857 issue of Household Words. Lang wrote: “This is the first time that the Himalaya mountains have listened to the joyous sound of music. We have danced to music within doors, but never, until this day, have we heard a band in the open air in the Himalaya mountains. How wonderful is the effect!”

During his travels across the country, he met many people. In Delhi he met Mirza Fateh Ali Shah, son of Bahadur Shah Zafar, Peshwa Hindoo Rao and James Skinner. He also met Nana Sahib Peshwa and Tantia Tope before the First War of Independence. 

Lang, an illustrious lawyer too, is also famous for fighting the case of Rani Laxmi Bai of Jhansi against the British and army contractor Ajudhia Pershad; he received large fees and rich presents in both the cases.

In his book, Mussoorie Medley: Tales of Yesteryears, Mussoorie-based author Ganesh Saili says that Lang was “a gifted person who was forced out of Australia for his anti-establishment views. Arriving in India, he defended the Rani of Jhansi in her litigation with the John Company”, just before the uprising of 1857.

Lang published at least 11 novels, short stories, two plays and a travel book. He launched a newspaper, Mafasilite (as originally spelt) from Meerut, which later shifted to Mussoorie. Under his guidance, it became one of the most important newspapers in India.

Lang’s grave in Mussoorie was discovered by Ruskin Bond about a hundred years after Lang died. It is located on the “C” terrace of the Camel’s Back Cemetery. Candles are lit here and prayers said by the people of Mussoorie on his birth and death anniversaries, but the grave cries for government attention and upkeep.