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McCluskieganj: The Ghost of 'Mini England'

The colourful people who lived there made McCluskieganj what it was. Alas, only a few are left now

Of Better Days An old colonial bungalow seen in the picture is owned by the church. It is now in ruins. Damyanti (in red), who runs a small tea stall by the road, and a school teacher now live in the bungalow *Photo: Chinki Sinha*

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Updated: 23 Mar 2023 6:27 pm

McCluskieganj, also known as ‘Mini England’, is a small township in the jungles of Jharkhand. Commonly referred to as ‘The Gunj’, McCluskieganj came up in the mid-thirties as a hamlet or ‘Mooluk’ for the Anglo-Indian community. Ernest Timothy McCluskie, an Anglo-Indian businessman from Kolkata (then Calcutta), approached the erstwhile King of Ratu for a 10,000-acre land to establish a settlement for the Anglo-Indian community. He was granted the land on a perpetual lease which was registered in 1932/33.

More than 400 Anglo-Indian families from across the country chose McCluskieganj to settle down. Surrounded by forests and rivers, the town was barely 65 km from Ranchi, the summer capital of Bihar. The Anglo-Indians lived in their high- roofed bungalows with beautiful flower gardens and guava and mango trees. They lived a very British life and loved food, fashion, and music. They partied a lot and enjoyed their lives.