Himachal Pradesh: history
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1948-1971
April 15, 2026: The Indian Express
Few maritime disasters have gripped the world’s imagination for as long as the sinking of the RMS Titanic in April 1912, during its maiden voyage from England to the United States. The tragic story of the seemingly unsinkable ship seeped into popular culture with the release of the 1997 movie Titanic.
But even before Hollywood, the Titanic had captivated the world. Proposals to locate its wreckage were put forth since 1912, but could not be immediately realised. What then inspired American oceanographer Robert Ballard to find the sunken ship and how did he finally succeed in his mission on September 1, 1985? We recall.
Why did it take decades to locate the Titanic wreckage?
The Titanic sank following its collision with an iceberg on April 14, 1912. While 706 people made it to the lifeboats and survived the disaster, 1,517 people died. Calls to find the wreckage soon after the sinking were put forth by relatives of the wealthier passengers, who wished to bring the ship’s remains to the surface and secure their belongings.
The wreckage sat in the Atlantic Ocean at around 12,500 ft or around 3,810 metres. For reference, Mount Everest is 8,849 metres high. This depth presented problems of high air pressure, and a “variety of audacious & impractical schemes were proposed” to overcome this problem, according to the Titanic Belfast monument’s website. Some ideas included “using balloons & electromagnets to float the ship to the surface. However, all of these fell foul due to practical and technological difficulties, as well as a lack of funding and… understanding of conditions at the wreck site.”
What was Robert Ballard’s aim behind finding the Titanic wreckage?
Ballard joined the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts in 1967, as a young scientist and ensign in the US Navy. In his book The Discovery of the Titanic, he wrote how he soon enrolled in the Boston Sea Rovers, one of the oldest diving clubs in the world, cultivating his interest in deep-sea exploration.
Woods Hole geophysicists were well-regarded as they helped gather important information about the ocean floor and the movement of the earth’s crust in the 1960s. “The Institution had grown with the boom in oceanography that happened when the space program was in its heyday, a time when there was talk of “wet NASA” concepts for the conquest of the oceans,” he wrote, describing it as “a unique American phenomenon — a blend of cloistered academe and competitive free enterprise.”
The lore associated with the Titanic, the biggest ship of its time, had long intrigued explorers. The improvements in technology helped prepare the ground for Ballard’s dive. For instance, the steel hull of the deep-dive submersible Alvin saw its steel hull replaced with a titanium alloy. This doubled the sub’s maximum depth to 13,000 feet, “sufficient to dive to the crest of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge — and, incidentally, just enough to reach the ocean floor in the region where the Titanic had sunk.”
After a failed expedition in 1977, Ballard tried again in 1985 with the help of the French national oceanographic agency IFREMER and explorer Jean-Louis Michel. While this attempt was funded by the US Navy, he was also tasked with using the funds to locate the Thresher and the Scorpion, two submarines which had disappeared in the Atlantic in the 1960s. Ballard eventually found information about those submarines.
A system called Argo/Jason was used in the mission, where a remotely controlled deep-sea vehicle called Argo and a robot called Jason were deployed to take photos and assess the area. As their search drew to a close, the crew spotted remains of the Titanic in the early hours of September 1.
What did Ballard find in the Atlantic?
At a press conference, Ballard would tell the world, “The Titanic lies now in 13,000 feet of water on a gently sloping Alpine-looking countryside overlooking a small canyon below… Its bow faces north. The ship sits upright on its bottom with its mighty stacks pointed upward. There is no light at this great depth and little life can be found. It is a quiet and peaceful place — and a fitting place for the remains of this greatest of sea tragedies to rest. Forever may it remain that way. And may God bless these now-found souls.”
The discovery led to the revelation of crucial facts related to the sinking, including that the ship broke into two pieces as it sank. It also inspired other expeditions and a debate — whether materials from the wreckage should be brought to land or left untouched. Ballard was a proponent of the second approach.
It also spoke to the marvels of modern technology. In an interview with CNN in 2021, he said that with private missions to space and the deep ocean announced in recent years, “the age of exploration” was just getting started.
Gorkha rule
A backgrounder
Rohit Mullick, March 24, 2024: The Times of India
From: Rohit Mullick, March 24, 2024: The Times of India
From: Rohit Mullick, March 24, 2024: The Times of India
From: Rohit Mullick, March 24, 2024: The Times of India
From: Rohit Mullick, March 24, 2024: The Times of India
At the beginning of the 19th century, the Gorkha army of Nepal overran the hills of Himachal Pradesh. Although the British dislodged them before long, the Nepalese left behind a legacy of Gorkha forts in the state. But now, more than 200 years later, these forts are crumbling. Wild bushes and trees have invaded their grounds while the walls have developed huge cracks.
If the forts disappear, it will be an irreparable loss, said Arun Kumar Singh, professor of history and archaeology at Himachal Pradesh University in Shimla. “Himachal Pradesh has a history of Gorkha rule, and these forts are a witness to that time and age. You just can’t abandon these structures and leave history in ruins,” he said.
Still, it’s not too late to witness these relics of an almost-forgotten past as three of the forts – Banasar, Sabathu and Malaun – are situated in Solan district, known all over for the hill station of Kasauli, and are not far from Chandigarh. Banasar: This fort defended the Gorkha army’s outpost overlooking the plains of Punjab and Haryana, but today there’s no sign to lead visitors to it at Banasar village near Kumarhatti. It’s a rickety edifice with cracks running along the inside walls of the watchtowers at its four corners. As there’s no caretaker, visitors have scratched their names on its walls.
Malaun: This fort commands a hilltop near Swarghat on the boundary with Bilaspur district. It was here that one of the last and decisive battles of the Anglo-Nepalese war was fought in 1815. British troops under David Ochterlony cut off supplies to the fort. This move, combined with superior British firepower and numbers, forced Gorkha commander Amar Singh Thapa to surrender the Malaun fort while his son Ranjor Singh surrendered the Jaithak fort of Nahan in Sirmaur district. After this, the British raised Nasiri, their first Gorkha battalion, from members of the defeated Nepalese army.
Today, a part of the Malaun fort has collapsed, while a tem- ple has gradually encroached upon it. A dharamshala and temple buildings stand over the old fort rooms. Another collapsed part of the fort is being dug up to make more temple rooms. Jai Dev, a panchayat member in Malaun, said he’s saddened by the fort’s decay. “They even took away its two British-era cannons. If govt doesn’t repair it soon, there won’t be any fort left at Malaun in a few years,” he said.
Sabathu: A few years ago, the Malaun guns were brought to the Gorkha Training Centre in Sabathu, a famous cantonment since British times. Now the Gorkha fort at Sabathu is also falling apart and a temple stands on the site. When TOI mentioned the decaying forts to Solan deputy commissioner Manmohan Sharma, he said there’s no plan to restore them, but he promised to talk to the tourism department about it.
THEY RULED GARHWAL, KUMAON TOO
Before it took the hills of modern-day Himachal, the Gorkha army had conquered the Kumaon region of Uttarakhand by 1791, followed by Garhwal to its west by 1804. Led by their general Amar Singh Thapa, the Gorkhas ruled a vast expanse of Himachal between 1803 and 1815, covering Sirmaur, Shimla, Solan and Kangra districts. Thapa had made Arki in Solan district, a princely state known for its miniature paintings, his capital. He built forts in this territory as outposts and a symbol of Gorkha dominance. But the British put an end to his ambitions in 1815.
