Dagshai is
one of the oldest cantonment towns in the Solan district of Himachal Pradesh,
India. It is situated on top of a 5689 feet (1734 mtr) high hillock that stands
sphinx-like astride the Kalka-Shimla Highway at a point about 11 km from Solan.
It was founded in 1847 by the East India Company by securing free of cost five
villages from Maharaja of Patiala aka Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. The name
Dagshai, according to a popular local legend was derived from Daag-e-Shahi.
During the Moghul times a Daag-e-Shahi (royal mark) was put on the forehead of
the criminals and sent packing to the then Dagshai village.
Built by the British as a sanatorium for tuberculosis
patients, it has a British era graveyard overlooking a valley. A short drive
from Dharampur on the Chandigarh Simla highway. It is some 65 kilometers from
Chandigarh. There is an army unit stationed there, a residential only Army
Public School, Dagshai and a private school called Dagshai Public School.
There is a very small civilian town, and the two schools
take up most of this hilltop station. There are no hotels in Dagshai, but the place
has a lot of picnic spots with grand views. From some spots one can see the
entire view of plains like Chandigarh on clear day. The next towns in the
direction towards Simla are Barog and Solan. Solan is some 11 km from Kumar
Hatti by road, and Dagshai is some 3 km from Kumar Hatti. From Kumar Hatti
there is also a road to Sarahan and Nahan.
Dagshai Central
Jail
The Dagshai Central Jail now being used as office for Junior
Engineer and Godown by the Military Engineering Service (MES) was built in
1849. This jail came into limelight when a number of Irish freedom fighters
were executed here prompting Mahatma Gandhi to rush to an on the spot
assessment of the situation. Four revolutionaries of Komagata Maru incident
were also executed at Dagshai. Presently this jail is being maintained by MES
under GE S/H Kasauli. This has now been converted into a museum.
Irish soldiers'
mutiny, 1920
Following a large scale mutiny of Irish soldiers in the
British service at 1920, in support of the independence struggle then unfolding
in their homeland, dozens of mutineers were incarcerated at Dagshai Prison. On
November 2, 1920, mutineer leader James Daly - a 21-year-old private - was shot
by a firing squad in the prison courtyard, the last member of the British
Forces to be executed for mutiny. He was buried at the Dagshai graveyard until
1970, when his remains were repatriated to Ireland and given a funeral with
full military honours.
