Lord Elgin, the British Viceroy of India (1862-63) fell in love with the natural beauty of Dharamshala because of its likeness with Scotland, his home in England. Lord Elgin died in 1863 while on a tour. He now lies buried in the graveyard of St. John's Church-in-Wilderness which stands in a cosy pine grove between McLeod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj.A Legend has it that Lord Elgin liked Dharamshala so much that he had sent a proposal to the British monarch to make Dharamshala the summer capital of India. However, the proposal was ignored. By 1904, Forsyth Ganj and McLeod Ganj had become nerve centres of trade , business and official work of Kangra District, But on April 4,1905, as a result of a severe earthquake, whole of the area was devastated. Alarmed at the massive destruction, the British goverment decided to shift the district headquater offices to the lower reaches of spur. As a result, the present-day district courts and kotwali bazar areas came into being which earlier had only a jail, a police station and cobbler's shop to boast of. Until India attained independence from Britain on Aug. 15,1947 McLeod Ganj and Forsyth Ganj continued to serve as health resorts and resting places for the British Rulers. But all this changed when the goverment of India decided to grant political asylum to the 14th Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatsho, in 1959. In 1960, he was allowed to make McLeod Ganj his headquaters. After his arrival, trade, commerce and tourism picked up afresh. This because with the Dalai Lama came thousands of Tibetan refugees, who gradually settled in Mcleod Ganj. During the last three decades, The Tibetans have built many religious, educational and cultural instutions in and around McLeod Ganj, which has helped in preservation of their culture. This has been a keen area of interst for the people around the world and as a result they flock at Dharamshala at various times.

The present Kangra district came into existence on the 1st September, 1972 consequent upon the re-organisation of districts by the Government of Himachal Pradesh. It was the largest district of the composite Punjab in terms of area till it was transferred to Himachal Pradesh on the 1st November, 1966 and had Six (6) tehsils namely Nurpur, Kangra, Palampur, Dehragopipur and Hamirpur. Kullu was also a tehsil of Kangra district up to 1962 and Lahul & Spiti which also formed a part of Kangra was created as a separate district in 1960. On the re-organisation of composite Punjab on the 1st November, 1966 the area constituting Kangra district were transferred to Himachal Pradesh along with the districts of Shimla, Kullu and Lahul & Spiti and tehsils of Una and Nalagarh and 3 villages of Gurdaspur district.