A SHORT DOCUMENTARY ABOUT ' THE RAJA OF HARSIL ' | PAHADI WILSON | UTTARAKHAND

About This Video:
Mukhba (Mukhwa) is a small village in the town of Harsil, on the banks of river Bhagirathi, on the way to the pilgrimage of Gangotri. It is situated at an altitude of 2620 mts above the sea level.
Frederick E Wilson also known as ' Pahadi Wilson ' or ' The Raja of Harsil ' was a Soldier with the British Empire and was stationed in India. In around 1841 in circumstances that are still not very clear he deserted from the Army in Mussoorie. He was a young man of around 24 years age at that time. As per some sources he killed a fellow Soldier in a duel and that caused him to flee. He fled into the Mountains and entered the Kingdom of Tehri Garhwal where he asked the King to grant him some employment. But the King who was an ally of the British, would have nothing to do with him lest his British friends be unhappy to find out that the King was sheltering a fugitive from their Army. Left with no further recourse it is said that Pahadi Wilson went even deeper into the Mountains till he came to the Valley of the Bhagirathi at a place called Harsil and decided to set himself up over there far away from civilization in general and his fellow British in particular.- So there he settled and married a local lady as soon as the local Villagers accepted him into their Society. One would imagine that he acted like some important official and the local Villagers were scared of the Gora Babu and were generally very nice and accommodating with him. All except the Priests of the local Temples who probably thought of him as some kind of Missionary out to convert the people and hence render the powerful priests unemployed. But far from a Missionary Pahadi Wilson had Royal ambitions and wanted to make a lot of Money. Soon he got involved in the lucrative Timber trade in the Region. He also got involved in Trophy Hunting and he was a self taught Botanist and Ornithologist as well. He traded in all kinds of Exotic Wildlife products as well besides the Timber trade. He also introduced Rajma and Apples to the Region and put large tracts of land under cultivation of these Cash crops.
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