The Nilgiri Documentation Centre (NDC) on Sunday launched Kotagiri History Group to “promote and preserve the natural, social and cultural history of this celebrated hill station in the Nilgiris,” a press release said.
Inaugurating the group, Dharmalingam Venugopal, director of the NDC, said that historical awareness was the first step in preserving hill stations.
Falling under the traditional Porangadu division of the Badagas, modern day Kotagiri is nestled at an altitude of 6400 ft on the Blue Mountains of the Western Ghats. Abundantly spread over pre-historic sites of Dolmens, Cairns, Menirs and Rock Arts bear witness to its antiquity, he said.
Mr. Venugopal said the modern history of Kotagiri began in 1819 when the first colonial expedition, led by John Sullivan camped at Kotagiri and established the first European settlement on the hills. The development of Kotagiri since then was scripted by the Coburn clan, who were contemporaries and companions of Sullivan, he said.
“M.D. Coburn and his son, James, were both former Collectors of Salem district. They introduced coffee and tea plantations in Kotagiri besides building schools and churches for the locals. Coburn’s daughter, Margaret pioneered Kotagiri paintings and ornithology,” he added.
“From the 1900s, Kotagiri became the centre of missionaries, intellectuals and writers. The Kotagiri Club attracted the best of intellectuals in the Madras Presidency. It was in Kotagiri that the sacred Hindu scriptures, the Vedas, were first rendered into English by Rev. R.T.H. Griffith, between 1880 and 1899.The Theosophical movement had a base in Kotagiri from its inception in 1875.
The role of Kotagiri in the freedom movement was no less significant. Gandhians, including C.F. Andrews and Marjorie Sykes, carried on Swedeshi activities from Kotagiri. The Mahatma himself graced the place in 1934 during his anti-untouchability tour of the South,” the press release said.
