Dagshai - Arround Kasauli

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.