3 Review(s)

On Mullinger Hill recounts oral histories and personal narratives of shopkeepers in Landour Bazaar, Mussoorie, whose families have helped create the culture and heritage of the Himalayan hill station. The book expands who ‘counts’, beyond colonial actors, in the making of histories of India’s hill stations. While many shopkeepers or their ancestors—some of whose fathers the author knew growing up in Landour—have migrated from across northern South Asia, others continue to move to the bazaar from Garhwali mountain villages for economic opportunities. At the same time, many shopkeepers’ descendants are now moving off the mountain for similar reasons; as a popular proverb observes, ‘Pahar ka pani pahar ki javani—the waters of the mountain, the youth of the mountains’, both go downhill. The continual movement in and out of the bazaar has created a unique local cosmopolitanism. Each shopkeeper’s narrative offers perspectives on agency, identity, home, and belonging—issues relevant beyond the hill station. On Mullingar Hill suggests that ‘belonging’ is continually re-created through rituals and everyday interactions; ‘home’ is multiple, gendered, and context-specific; and movement itself is part of Mussoorie’s heritage.