LOSING SHEEN

Shillong: The cantonment has remained small even as others have grown in strategic importance

- SANJIB KR BARUAH

Known as the ‘Scotland of the East’, Meghalaya’s capital Shillong has a distinct colonial character. It was just a small village of the Khasi tribe till 1864, when it became a British administrative centre. It was the capital of undivided Assam till Meghalaya was hived off in 1972. Shillong’s military cantonment, set up in 1885, has been the only one in the northeast. It will soon be shrunk into a military station.

The cantonment was set up away from the hustle and bustle of the administrative centre. But it is now surrounded by municipal areas and territories of the local Khasi chieftain, as per local laws.

“The first thing that strikes you upon entering town is the cantonment area, and how it intermingles with the civilian areas,” said Wing Commander (retd) Tarun Kumar Singha, who had three stints in the city from 1987 to 2018. “Unlike many other cantonments in India, the Shillong cantonment was always very open to civilian movement. There were plush bungalows on the left and right. We would always envy the owners.”