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| .Nainital old secretariat building (high Court) jagran.com |
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| Uttrakhand High Court building, Nainital, financialexpress.com |
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| Nainital, Uttrakhamnd state. Maps of India com. |
The High Court Of Uttarakhand state at Nainital is a heritage building. The Uttarakhand State was carved of erstwhile State of Uttar Pradesh in Nov. 2000. The composite state of Uttar Pradesh was the most populous and the largest in terms of land in the Indian union. When the new High Court of Uttarakhand was established in 2000 to deal with civil and criminal cases of the newly formed state, since that time at Nainital the court has been functioning in an old building located in Mallital, Nainital. Built in 1900 during the British Raj, it was known as the old Secretariat and this government office building was active when this hill station became the summer capital of the United province ( after 1947 Uttar Pradesh and other states were part of it.).
In the colonial period, during the hot summer season, unable to bear the intense heat and scorching sun there used to be an annual migration of almost the entire government machinery - British staff both senior and officers of other ranks headed by the state Governor along with important government files, etc. This had been a tradition among the Presidencies across India for a pretty long time. This is true of the British India's head Viceroy and his government staff based in Kolkata (Calcutta), West Bengal who would move over to Shimla (elevation 7467 feet), now in the Himachal Pradesh state. Shimla was the summer capital of the Raj and the most favorite hill station of Lord Curzon. In the case of Madras Presidency, the British Governor would shift his office, his staff and files from Madras (now Chennai) to Ooty ( elevation 7350 feet; original name: Otagamund) in the Nilgiri hills of the Western Ghat, Southern India. There is a Raj Bhavan building in Ooty built in 1888 by the British
As for Nainital, the secretariat building was exclusively built to house various government offices during the summer season to carry on the administrative work without any delay. The congenial climate on the hill in the Himalayan region provided them with pleasant ambiance to get on with their official work without getting fatigued, as they had experienced on the hot plains of India. At Nainital High Court - building is in front of a park facing the Naina Peak, the highest in Nainital; in the backdrop of the tall mountains, the old building looks impressive and picturesque.
As the building was inadequate for the High Court staff and justices, additional court rooms, Chief Justice Court Block and a Block of Lawyers’ Chambers, etc were built later.
Tit-bits:
A brief information on Nainital:
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| Nainital hill station, Uttrakhand, India.traveltriangle.com |
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| Nainital hill station, Uttrakhand, India..yatra.com |
The British East India Company soon after the Angelo-Nepalese war in 1814- 1816 took possession of the region mostly made of Kumaon hills (Kumaon means black out due to poor sunshine in this location) ). Nninital founded in 1841 is named after Sati ( God Shiva's consort) where the eye of Sati fell; Nain (eyes) tal (lake of the eye ). There is a Shakti temple called Naina Devi on the north shore of the present lake. There used to be 250 Shiva and 35 Vaishnava temples in the Kumaon area controlled by the British, according to Historian Atkinson. Of them, there were 64 Shiva temples and 8 Vaishnava temples dedicated to Shakti. The prevalence of Shiva and Shakti worship was and is common through out the Kumaon Himalayan region, part of the reason is the proximity of Mt. Kailash and the Lake Manasharovar. Besides, there are many folk gods and Goddesses in the interior region. As for Nainital and its surrounding area, Shakti worship is common.
Nainitai, is a famous hill station located in the picturesque valley ( altitude 6837 feet/2084 m) part of the Kumaon Hills on the outer Himalayas; the present population is more than 38500. In1841, first European house (the Pilgrim Lodge) was built by a sugar merchant P. Barron from Shahjahanpur. In 1846, on a visit to Nainital, Capitan Madden of Bengal Artillery recorded many houses on the hills.
With the construction of St. John's Church in the wilderness, lots of colonial officials and British soldiers moved in large numbers as they liked the pleasant weather and the hill, far removed from the plains, where the summer heat was horrible. Soon it became a famous health resort for them. The added advantage was the presence of lot of wooded areas nearby where they could go hiking and do some exploration. Soon a summer residence of the Governor of United provinces came up in the early part of the 20th century.
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| Raj Bhavan, Nainital, Uttrakhand. en.wikipedia.org |
In the early 19th century, Europeans schools for boys and girls came up and most of the students were from the families of officials and soldiers of the English company and some traders. Sherwood college and St. John's college ( .started in 1888; completed 125 years in 2013 ) well-known colleges in Nainital. Even today some European boarding schools are famous. In the 1880s Nainital became, after its founding in 1842 became an exclusive preserve of the Europeans and the natives- Indians were confined to service industries. The population grew up to 6700 by 1906 and every year more people took refuge on the cool hill leaving the hot plains and an hilly town surrounded by wooded areas. Their choice fell on Nainital a growing hill town with more European population. Included in these groups were retired higher-ups, workers and others from the United province. The annual migration of the British officials slowly stopped in the 1925, as the British govt. offered concessions, etc., to those who opted for summer vacation in England. Toward the days of active Independence struggle and later freedom from the British, the English population declined over a short period taken by the slowly swelling Indians.
https://www.nainital.info/culture-of-kumaon/
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