by Lai Kwok Kin

OTACAMUND, India, Reuter: Beatrice Wapshare, 73, shares a house near “Ooty? with her sister-in-law, a collection of English silver and 13 dogs.

Forty years after the Bnitish raj came to an end, Wapshare is ‘among a handful of Britons who have made their homes in the rolling Nilgiris Hills in South India’s Tamil Nadu State,

“Being a woman on my own in India isn’t casy. But I am old-fashioned and don’t want to live ‘Without a butler”, she said in an interview at her home 30 km (20 miles) from Ootacamund.

“And I wouldn’t be able to afford such a garden in Britain or Keep all these dogs”.

There are now about 100 British planters or former planters, ex-soldiers and their wives or widows living in the Nilgris.

Britons numbered in the thousands during colonial days but most left in the years after independence, complaining of new taxes and restrictions on foreigners owning businesses or property.

The British first planted tea and ‘Coffee in India in the 19th century ‘and built hill stations to escape from the oppressive heat and humiditiy of the jungles or plains,

North Indian hill stations, such a as Simla, the summer capital of the British Raj which looks out to the Himalayas, have become crowded ‘tourist resorts.

But those such as Kotagiri, Ootacamund  Ooty and Coonoor in the Nilgiris have largely been spared the tourists and retain much Of their old world charm,

Only about 20 Britons, mostly aged 60 and above, remain in the hills around Ooty, the largest Sonth Indian Hill station. Many, like Wapshare’s in laws, were born in India and spent all their lives here,

Their houses set among hills rising more than 2,300 meters (7,500 feet) show the English love for gardens, dogs, long walks in the woods and lazy afternoon tea sessions.

Wapshare still runs 20 hectare (50 acre) tea plantation and lives with Violet, elder sister of her husband Edward, and the dogs in a house which she has turned into a comer of old England,

She was a widow running a restaurant in London when she re married and came to India in 1953.

Relaxing on a sofa next to a long fireplace, she recalls the day when’ Edward, on long leave from India, proposed marriage,

“agreed. But I’m not the sort of person who has one foot here and another foot elsewhere, So I sold ‘off my restaurant in Kensington and came to India,”

She faced a difficult choice when Edward died 13 years ago =to return to Briton or to stay on amid the picturesque hills and tea plantations of Nilgiris.

“Tasked myself — should I pack up, be miserable and go home or should I stay? Being of Yorkshire blood, I’m tough. I stayed”, she said.

“I’ve got no job in England and would probably be on the dole if I went back. Besides, how could I give up this life”.

Like Wapshare, 73yearold Richard Radcliffe loves dogs and gardening and stayed behind because he could not bear the thought of returning to Britain after being in India since 1934,

 

Radcliffe, who arrived from Kent, spent most of his life on South Indian coffee plantations, rising to become chairman of several firms before retiring in 1976.

“I’ve been here so long I don’t wish to change. Why do I like it? The climate, the living conditions, It is difficult 1o define.” the silverhisired bachelor said.

His English style house, built in 1840 for one George Oakes, is set ‘on 2.5 hectares (six acres) of land surrounded by Acacia trees.

His two dogs run around a garden ablaze with the myriad colors of Fuschias, Gazanias and other flowers.

Inside, Tiger and Panther skins and other mementoes from younger hunting days in India jostle for space with grandfather clocks, bookshelves and a shortwave radio, tuned to the British Broadcasting Corporation.

Article extracted from this publication >>  October 2, 1987