Coorg.The way to an Englishman's heart
The following is an Excerpt from Hilton Brown's article "The Astonishing Land Of Coorg ". The article was first published in Blackwood's Magazine in the November of 1922. Hilton Brown was the District Magistrate of Coorg district in the 1920's. His views on Coorg hold good even today.
" I have called Coorg an astonishing land ; so it is astonishing in the respect that, being considerably smaller than Aberdeenshire, it is ranked as a fully and separately constituted province in a country where mere districts run to half the size of Scotland. that fact, in itself, should lead one to expectations. But it is astonishing in many ways and, principally because, being situated in the heart of the South Indian Peninsula, it contrives to be what it is. As a solitary island somewhere in the South Seas, it would at least be credible ; wedged in between Tellicherry and Hunsur, it is scarcely that ".
" We could solace ourselves with the water meadows of Fraserpet, or climb to the windswept grass plateau of the Brahmagiri's, where the sambhar walk in open solitude ; and in the end descend into Malabar by the Saratabbi falls, which are four hundred feet high, and the great gorge of the Barapole River which must surely be as fine a piece of scenery on the grand scale as there is on Earth. And I hope that, on the way, we should foregather with a planter or two and share their sport ; or again we should come to a Coorg house nestling among the Coconuts and Areca palms on the edge of the green valley of rice, and there we should be invited to take off our shoes and come inside and seat ourselves near the Southwest pillars of the inner court (which is a place of honor), and partake of that different hospitability which is all friendliness and neither self-interest nor ostentation. I know I should enjoy every minute of it, and venture to predict that so would you ".
Most of the places that Mr. Hilton Brown describes so eloquently, remain unchanged and still possess the enduring aesthetics which inspired the author to pen this article. The Kodavas are still very well known for their hospitality and have managed to preserve most of the tenements of their rich culture and traditions. Some aspects of life have changed, since everything cannot withstand the inexorable passage of time.
Hunting, which Mr. Hilton Brown so subtly describes as the planter's sport, is now banned and the only thing you can shoot legally are wild pigs. Coffee has justified it's being classified a cash crop by making lots of people very rich ; being helped in no small measure by government deregulation and of course, frost in Brazil !
Coorg, through coffee exports and such is providing a substantial portion of the State Exchequer's revenue, which is wholly disproportionate to it's size and population I might add, has been been given the raw end of the stick by the babus in Vidhana Soudha for a long time. This has lead to calls for reinstating Kodagu as a separate State.
When you do decide to pay Coorg a visit, please remember that it's natural beauty and cleanliness has remained largely unspoiled until now only because it hasn't become a major tourist destination. Try to leave it cleaner than it was before. This would apply to any place you go to.
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