It took just four months for the then Governor General of India, Lord Hastings, to decline the gift given by a military paymaster, Major Gilbert Waugh, in 1819. The gift in question was Bangalore's Lalbagh. Santhe Narayana Swamy explains why the British preferred Saharanpur's garden to Lalbagh.
While documenting the history of Lalbagh, correspondence between the Governor General of India and the British Resident at the Mysore court, regarding taking over of Lalbagh by the East India Company, comes to light. It reveals that in 1819, Lalbagh was gifted by Major Gilbert Waugh, a military paymaster and the keeper of Lalbagh for 12 years (from 1807 to 1819), to the Governor General of India, Marquis of Hastings.
The Governor General, in his letter dated April 24, 1819, accepted the gift and the superintendent of the Calcutta Botanical Garden, Wallich, was directed to supervise and maintain Lalbagh with the expenditure borne by the Imperial Government. The Resident, Arthur Cole, took over the garden on July 2, 1819.
With the technical guidance of Wallich, a plan was chalked out and necessary measures were taken for the preservation of the plant wealth at Lalbagh. Wallich concurred with the measures, but he could not pay frequent visits to Lalbagh, stationed as he was at erstwhile Calcutta.
Surprisingly, after a period of four months, the acceptance of the gift was declined and the garden was returned to the government of the Maharaja of Mysore. The reason cited was that "the estimated value of the garden is so considerable that the acceptance of it on the part of the government would be a serious injury to Major Waugh".
Eye on profits
In retrospect, it was an absurd but calculative decision on the part of the Governor General. The reason for not accepting the garden was different—the East India Company was always a profit-making entrepreneur. The Governor General, Lord Hastings, perhaps felt that garden at Bangalore was an extra burden on the exchequer of the imperial Government. Commerce, it seems, was the main motive of the British government.
The strategy of the British government was that any garden managed by the government should serve as an intermediary nursery for introducing and acclimatising in India, the trees and plants of Europe and of China for commercial ventures.
Perhaps, Lalbagh did not fit into their strategy of fulfilling the role as an intermediary nursery.
'Farhat Baksh'
The government found another garden suited for the said purpose. It was none other than 'Farhat Baksh', the garden at Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh. Saharanpur garden, located at about 1,000 miles west of Calcutta, the imperial capital of British India then.
George Govan was the superintendent of the Saharanpur garden in 1823. The British tried to grow medicinal plants, but after being unsuccessful, they made it a trial ground for tea cultivation. It was the second important garden in India then, next only to the famous Calcutta Botanical Garden.
These factors induced the East India Company to prefer it to Lalbagh of Bangalore.
Thus, Lalbagh remained with the Mysore government since then. Also, because of the British plan, Saharanpur Garden is now a lack-lustre and ill-maintained garden devoid of any landscape or botanical wealth.
Poor shadow of Lalbagh
This author, having been involved in documenting Lalbagh's history, visited the Saharanpur garden some months back, only to come back dismayed over its present condition.
This, in spite of the government taking steps to initiate research on the problems pertaining to fruit cultivation by declaring it as a fruit research station, post-Independence.
The presence of the so-called plantation crops such as cinchona, eucalyptus, mahogany, tea, coffee, etc are dwindling except for a few old trees such as mahogany, sterculias, diospyros, etc, which are nearly 200 years old. They stand as mute witnesses to a glorious past.
Considering its past plant wealth, it has been raised to the status of full-fledged Horticulture Research Institute since 1957. Now, it has further been upgraded as Horticultural Experimental and Training Centre under the Department of Horticulture & Fruit Utilisation, Uttar Pradesh. It caters to the needs of the farmers of the state.
The area of the Saharanpur garden is 160 acres. It is referred to commonly as 'Company Garden' by the locals. It is not recognised as 'Saharanpur garden' or as the 'Government garden'.
A parallel cannot be drawn between the Company garden of Saharanpur and the celebrated Lalbagh of Bangalore, as Lalbagh, then (in 1819) of 40 acres, now spreads over an area of 240 acres possessing everything a botanical garden must have, from the arboretum, vine garden, orchard, pinatum, indoor garden, outdoor garden, orchidarium, topiary garden, shade garden, Dutch garden, Japanese garden, and above all, the celebrated Glass House built in 1889 as a conservatory, now a venue for two flower shows annually drawing thousands of plant lovers across the globe.