The lost legends of Doon

In the year that went by, Valley of Words lost three of its patrons – scholars, professionals, columnists who were engaged in reading, writing, and fine conversations. In this year’s edition of VoW, we pay our tribute to the grand old man of letters of Dehradun, Raj Kanwar, the ONGC management professional and historian Pradeep Singh, and scholar-administrator cum conscience keeper of the bureaucracy SK Das. Their erstwhile colleagues will recall their life and times, which we shall archive for posterity.

On October 31 last year, we bid farewell to Raj Kanwar, a prolific journalist and writer who came to Doon as a partition refugee, and began his journey as a ‘stringer’ for national news agencies before writing regular articles for leading English publications. He joined the ONGC as a PR professional, but the spirit of enterprise led him to set up his own firm in the field of oil exploration. Later, he was commissioned to write ‘ONGC-The Untold Story’. He wrote Dateline Dehradun on the celebrities who had contributed to the cultural, social, and business life of Dehradun, and yours truly was privileged to be part of this selection. He was in the process of completing a unique book ‘Writer of Obituaries’. He was generally referred to by one and all as the ‘walking-talking – encyclopaedia of Dehradun’. He had joined the preparatory meeting for VoW which was held in the lawns of Madhuban Hotel in March of 2017. He kept a very rigid schedule for his writing, and often said that he lived to see his name in print – this was the first love of his life. He would advise the young women and men who wanted to take up writing as a profession that “writing was a very jealous mistress”: other interests had to take back seat if one was serious and committed to it.

In June this year, we lost Pradeep Singh, a chronicler of the history of Doon, whose first book Sals of the Valley was launched at the Valley of Words in the very first edition of VoW in 2017. The sal forests symbolize the strength and permanence of the virtues of the Dehradun Valley, forming the dramatic backdrop of the seven stories in this anthology which are set in the idyllic hamlets and villages along the Suswa River and recreate the atmosphere of yore. He also wrote a regular column on The Bygone Doon — a celebration of the life and times of the people of the Doon Valley in popular articles. These included the history of the Guru Ram Rai Darbar, established in 1676 during the reign of Aurangzeb. He calls it the first phase of urban settlement in the Valley. The next significant step towards the gentrification of Dehradun took place in the first half of the 19th century when the British defeated the Gurkha soldiers and took possession of this ‘clement town’. He wrote about the Mohand Pass, the early administrators, the foundation schools of Mussoorie and Dehradun, of the race course and the rendezvous points of the British and the Anglo Indians, and the Indian elite which came to the valley and the hills to seek refuge from the heat and dust of the plains during the difficult months of the sweltering summers. Last year, he helped curate a session on the role of the freedom fighters of Dehradun in the liberation of the country. The Governor Lt Gen Gurmit Singh acknowledged him as one of the leading chroniclers of the history of Doon, and often publicly commended his work.

September 28 saw the demise of the former Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand, Surjit Kishore Das (popularly known as SK Das) — an officer who played a significant role in giving shape to the administration in the formative years of Uttarakhand. When I joined the state on deputation, he along with Madhukar Gupta, RS Tolia, NS Naplachayal S Krishnan, Indu Pande and N Ravi Shanker (all of whom became Chief Secretaries) comprised the key functionaries, and the camaraderie of those days was unparalleled. I have had the occasion to record some of it in my memoir on the industrialization of Uttarakhand, under the title Ten Thousand Crores. I also had the privilege of accompanying him and the then CM ND Tiwari on an investment promotion tour to South east Asia. He was the fifth Chief Secretary of Uttarakhand and, after his retirement, was also appointed as Chairman of Uttarakhand State Public Service Commission (UKPSC) and had earlier served as the District Magistrate in Dehradun as well as the Commissioner of Garhwal. But these were positions which many bureaucrats would hold. His signal contribution to Doon was the establishment of the Doon Library & Research Centre which is now one of the most important repositories of knowledge, and the centre for many literary and cultural activities in the state.

Before closing the column, I must share with the readers an aspect of his life which was revealed during his memorial meeting on September 29, a day after his death, by Col Vijay Dougall. This was his decision to install the statue of Sardar Patel at a time when he had lost political currency, and no politician was willing to lend his name to the Sardar. The statue had been literally gathering dust in a gunny bag in one of the garages of the Town Hall till it was resurrected by SK Das. He was the true bearer of the legacy of Sardar Patel who had said that you will not have a united India unless you have a good all India service which has the ability to speak out its mind.

The writer, a former Director of LBS National Academy of Administration, is currently a historian, policy analyst and columnist, and serves as the Festival Director of Valley of Words — a festival of arts and literature.