A hotbed of political, social and romantic intrigue set amid rolling hills, no place encapsulates the global ambitions as well as the parochial desires of the Raj better than Shimla.
Modern-day India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma and Sri Lanka were governed from Shimla amid a whirl of colonial picnics, garden fetes, balls, plays, hunts, cocktail parties, races, polo games and cricket tournaments. “Shimla combined the idyll of England with the entire resources of the Indian subcontinent,” said Bhasin. “This tiny little village was solely for the elite and their servants, and it had a steamy social life.”
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