Swami Vivekananda's Visit To Shillong

Poet Rabindranath Tagore immortalized the picturesque, misty landscape of Shillong in his novel Shesher Kabita, written around 1928- 29; he was there earlier in 1919 for three weeks and then again in 1923 for about two months.

- Asim Chaudhuri

Shillong—The Scotland of the East

But long before that, in 1901, the quintessential monk Swami Vivekananda had sanctified the town of Shillong with his footprints. Situated in the cradle of the Khasi and Jaintia Hills (in what was then Assam, a northeastern province of India), the town was, and still is, a salubrious hill station where people go on vacation or to recoup their health; playing golf is optional on its world-renowned 18-hole course, which opened three years before Swamiji’s visit and was modeled along the lines of St. Andrews of Scotland. If Swamiji saw the course, it would have reminded him of his experience playing golf, for the first and last time, while staying at Ridgely Manor in Stone Ridge, New York, in 1899; there he happened to score a hole-in-one on a par-four hole—a ‘double eagle’ in golf’s lexicon. 1

In 1901, Shillong was the administrative headquarters of Assam, which had been formed as the Chief Commissioner’s Province in 1874. At an average altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level, the town is considered one of India’s favorite hill stations. Nostalgic British expatriates often referred to the town as the ‘Scotland of the East’ for its eye-pleasing, rolling-hill landscape. It remained the capital of Assam until 1972 when the State of Meghalaya photo was taken in Shillong was formed. Shillong then became the capital of Meghalaya, and Gauhati (now Guwahati) became the capital of Assam.

Prologue