McCluskiegunj: Inside India's Forgotten Anglo-Indian Colony

On a quiet stretch of the Ranchi-Kolkata rail line, past sal forests and red laterite soil, sits a village that was once meant to be a nation within a nation. McCluskiegunj was conceived in the 1930s as a resettlement colony for the Anglo-Indian community, a place where families of mixed British and Indian descent could build a homeland of their own as the British Raj neared its end. Most of that dream has crumbled into moss-covered bungalows and half-remembered names on cemetery stones, but for anyone curious about India's Anglo-Indian heritage tourism circuit, McCluskiegunj remains one of the few places where you can still walk through the physical remains of that story rather than just read about it in a museum caption.

The Story Behind a Colony Built for a Community

The idea came from Ernest Timothy McCluskie, a Calcutta-based property agent and himself Anglo-Indian, who in 1933 formed a colonisation society to purchase land from local Adivasi landholders and develop it into a self-contained settlement. The pitch to Anglo-Indian families across India was straightforward: buy a plot, build a cottage, and settle among your own community in a cool, forested part of Chota Nagpur away from the uncertainty of a colonial administration that was visibly winding down. At its peak in the late 1930s and 1940s, McCluskiegunj had somewhere in the range of 300 to 400 Anglo-Indian families, along with schools, churches, a railway institute, tennis courts, and English-style cottages with sloped roofs and named gates that would look at home in a Home Counties village. The name itself is a hybrid one, combining McCluskie's surname with "gunj," a common Hindi suffix for a market town or settlement.

What's Left to See Today

Independence in 1947 changed everything. Many Anglo-Indian families emigrated to the UK, Australia, and Canada over the following decades, and the population that once filled McCluskiegunj's cottages thinned to a fraction of its original size. What remains today is scattered but genuinely evocative if you know where to look.

- **Don Bosco Academy and the old railway institute buildings** still carry the colonial-era architectural style, with wooden verandas and pitched roofs distinct from the concrete construction around them.

- **St. Paul's Church**, a modest structure still in occasional use, holds services for the small remaining Anglo-Indian and Christian population.

- **The old cemetery** is arguably the most affecting site in the village. Headstones bear English and Scottish surnames -- Smiths, Taylors, Days -- next to dates spanning the mid-20th century, a quiet record of a community that largely dispersed rather than declined through natural attrition alone.

- **Individual bungalows**, many now owned by non-Anglo-Indian families or left partially abandoned, still display the naming conventions (things like "Rose Cottage" or "Xavier Villa") and garden layouts typical of the original settlers.

- A handful of elderly Anglo-Indian residents still live in McCluskiegunj, and some families run small homestays where you can hear firsthand accounts of the colony's history, though you should treat this as a chance to listen respectfully rather than expect a formal tour experience.

There isn't a ticketed heritage walk or interpretation centre here, which is part of what makes McCluskiegunj feel different from more curated colonial-heritage sites elsewhere in India. You're essentially walking through a lived-in village that happens to carry this history, not a preserved museum piece, so approach it with that expectation.

Getting There and Getting Around

McCluskiegunj sits roughly 60-70 km from Ranchi, Jharkhand's capital, along the Ranchi-Daltonganj road, though you should verify the exact distance and road condition before travelling since rural stretches in this region can vary seasonally. The nearest railway station is McCluskiegunj railway station itself, on the Ranchi-Barkakana section, which is a useful detail since the settlement was originally built partly around rail connectivity for Anglo-Indian families working for the railways. A few express and passenger trains stop here, though frequency is limited, so check current train schedules rather than assuming daily service. By road, the drive from Ranchi takes approximately 1.5 to 2 hours depending on traffic and the state of the highway. There's no significant public bus network within the village itself, so having a car, taxi, or two-wheeler arranged from Ranchi is the practical way to explore the scattered sites, since the heritage bungalows and cemetery are spread across a few kilometres rather than concentrated in one walkable core.

Best Time to Visit and Practical Notes

Winter, roughly November through February, is the most comfortable period, with cool, dry weather suited to walking around the village and forested surroundings. Summers can get warm, though McCluskiegunj's elevation and forest cover keep it noticeably cooler than Ranchi city. Monsoon months bring heavy rain typical of the Chota Nagpur plateau, which can make some unpaved village roads harder to navigate, so plan for that if you're visiting between June and September. There are very few formal hotels in the village -- most visitors either stay in Ranchi and day-trip out, or book one of the limited homestays run by local families, some of which are Anglo-Indian households themselves. If you want that homestay experience, book ahead and confirm details directly, since availability is limited and not always reflected accurately on booking platforms.

Why This Matters for Heritage Travelers

McCluskiegunj rarely appears on standard Jharkhand tourism itineraries, which tend to prioritise waterfalls and wildlife sanctuaries like Betla National Park or Hundru Falls. That's precisely why it's worth the detour if you have any interest in the more layered, lesser-known threads of colonial and post-colonial Indian history. Unlike hill stations such as Shimla or McCleod Ganj (a different place entirely, despite the similar-sounding name) that were built for British administrators, McCluskiegunj was built by and for a specific Indian community trying to define its own place in a country undergoing enormous change. That distinction is what makes it a genuinely different kind of heritage site rather than another colonial-era hill retreat.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind Before You Go

Carry cash, since ATM access in the village is limited and unreliable. Mobile network connectivity can be patchy in stretches around the forested approach roads, so download offline maps in advance. If you do get the chance to speak with long-term Anglo-Indian residents, ask before photographing homes or cemetery plots -- this is still someone's home and family history, not a staged attraction. Pair a McCluskiegunj visit with a day or two in Ranchi to make the trip logistically worthwhile, since the village itself can realistically be explored in half a day to a full day depending on how many conversations and detours you fit in. Go with curiosity rather than a checklist, and it's a trip that stays with you longer than the couple of hours it actually takes to see.