Simla: The Summer Capital Of British India

As the summer capital of the Raj, Simla came to be known as the workshop of the Empire. An awed visitor wrote, Every pigeonhole contains a potential revolution, every office box cradles an embryo of a war or death… The heady mixture of hill air, political power and social snobbery held an irresistible allure. Ambitious careerists, calculating matrons with daughters to marry off, enigmatic adventuresses, bored young wives, and dashing roués flocked here. Often with disastrous result. In a letter home, a correspondent lamented  the pure atmosphere and foul rumours ruined prospects, guilty passions, frivolity, intrigue… jealousy, madness… remorse unmitigated…Husbands went into debt to send their families to summer in Simla. A breath of scandal scented these holiday sojourns-a consequence of a social climate which thrived on pleasure seeking and gossip…