British Built Railways - Essay Example

Indians and Their Relationship with British Built Railways Rail transport history in India began in the mid-nineteenth century. There was no single railway line in India in 1942 but by 1929, there were sixty six thousand kilometres of railway lines. These lines were serving most of the districts in India. Six hundred and eighty seven million British Sterling Pounds was the capital value represented by the railways at that particular time. The railways transported over six hundred and twenty million passengers and ninety million tons of goods a year. These railways were owned by private companies (Kerr, H.U. 1995, p. 13). The pressure for building railways in India came from London in 1840’s. The reason for that was so the economies of the two countries would be intermeshed. The Indian Railway Association was formed by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy and Hon. Jaganath Shunkerseth in 1845. The Association was eventually incorporated into the Great Indian Peninsula Railway and the two formers became the only two Indians among the ten directors. The first train journey in India was between Bombay and Thane on the 16th of April in 1853 (Rothermund, H.U. 1993, p. 28). Shankarseth participated in this journey which involved a fourteen carriage long train drawn by three locomotives. The locomotives were known as Sultan, Sindh and Sahib. The train was around twenty one miles in length and took forty five minutes approximately. A century after the introduction of railway lines in India, basic policies and ultimate management of the Indian Railways came from London. Every decision made had to come from London. This means that the British had a huge role in the ways the railways of the subcontinent affected the Indians and their surroundings. These effects were seen in the military front, economically and also politically (Crowley, H.U. 2011, p. 21). Robert Maitland Brereton was the British engineer responsible for the expansion of the railways from 1857. By 1864, the Calcutta-Allahabad-Delhi line was completed and the Allahabad-Jabalpur branch line opened in June 1867. These two were linked with the Great Indian Peninsula Railway courtesy of Brereton. This resulted in a combined network of six thousand four hundred kilometres making it possible to travel from Bombay to Calcutta directly via Allahabad. On 7th March 1870 this route was officially opened (Narayanan, H.U. 2011, p. 23). The opening of this route was part of the inspiration for French writer Jules Veme’s book Around the World in Eighty Days. The official opening ceremony was graced by the Viceroy Lord Mayo who concluded that it was thought desirable for the whole country to be covered with a network of lines at the earliest possible moment. Ninety five million British Sterling pounds were invested in Indian guaranteed railways by British companies by 1875. The network route had increased to fourteen thousand five hundred kilometres by 1880 (Baugmart, H.U. 1982, p. 13). By 1895, the network had greatly increased and India had started building its own locomotives. This led to India sending engineers to aid in building the Uganda Railways. The Great Indian Peninsula Railway became a government owned company in 1900. The railway network spread to other states and this led to various independent kingdoms having their own rail systems. Railway Board was constituted in 1901 and the powers were formally under Lord Curzon. It had a government railway official as chairman, an English railway manager and an local company agent. The railways began to make profit from that moment on (Kerr, H.U. 1995, p. 21). A huge fraction of the rail companies were taken over by the government in 1907. The first electric locomotive made its first appearance in 1908. The railways were used during World War 1 in meeting the needs of the British outside India. The end of the war left the railways in a state of disrepair and collapse. The railway network continued expanding and by 1920 it had expanded to sixty one thousand two hundred and twenty kilometres. This gave rise to the need for central management. This idea was brought forth by Sir William Acworth (Rothermund, H.U. 1993, p. 26). The East India Railway Committee took over chaired by Acworth. This saw the government take over the management of the railways. It detached the railways finances from other government revenues. 1920 to 1929 saw the economy grow greatly. However, this changed following the Great Depression. This led to the company suffering for the following eight years. The Second World War worsened the situation for the railway company. Railways were severely crippled as trains were being diverted to the Middle East and later the Far East to combat the Japanese (Crowley, H.U. 2011, p. 27). The railways were crippled in various ways. During the war, railway workshops were converted to ammunitions workshops while some of the racks were dismantled. This was for use in war in other countries. The Second World War left the railways in a bad state and for this reason all rail systems had been taken over by the government by 1946. From this period railways have had central management and their renovation saw the connection of various towns and cities in different regions. India got their independence in 1947 and they inherited a decrepit rail network. Various changes and constructions had to be done to restore the railway transport network (Narayanan, H.U. 2011, p. 31). After India’s independence, about forty percent of the railway lines were in the newly created Pakistan. This left the Indians with no choice but to reroute many lines through their territory. They also had to construct new line in order to connect important cities. The railway systems continued to develop leading to the computerization of the system. It has also seen the network go through different places enabling communication and ease of transport between places (Baugmart, H.U. 2011, p. 33). The first ever passenger train in England was prompted by the trade of wool in 1825. On the Indian sub-continent, it was the trade of cotton among other things that prompted the journey of the first ever Indian train. Indian railways had been an integral part of the nation since its inception in 1853. The network has held together a population of over one billion and has united India. This has been through a self-propelled social welfare system through the Indian railways. Indian railways are the largest rail web in Asia and the world’s second largest under one management (Kerr, H.U. 1995, p. 34). India’s economy was stagnant for some time and had a growth of one percent. Cotton was their main trading commodity and transport issues greatly affected their trade. The failure of cotton crop in America is what led textile merchants in Great Britain to seek for alternative markets. They turned to India which was one of British colonies then. Transportation of the cotton was a major challenge since ships were the only means of international communication. The high demand for India’s cotton and other goods led the British to introducing a railway in India ( Rothermund, H.U. 1993, p. 38). The British felt that organising and dispersing the growing native population and deployment of troops would be handled well if there was a railway. This introduction would see the growth of India’s economy and the expansion of the railway network to other major cities. The conditions in India were quite different from those in Britain and so the railway introduction saw an alteration of the Indian’s relationship to their surroundings. These included their economic and climatic conditions (Crowley, H.U. 2011, p. 41). Some of the people involved opposed to the construction of railway lines in India due to its state of poverty and the frequent rains and deserts. They felt that the system would not work considering the costs involved. This introduction was going to change the mode of transport in India and generally their economy and trade. Their former ways of trade were slow due to lack of transport for their goods or very slow means. This resulted in their slow economic growth and limited market for their goods (Narayanan, H.U. 2011, p. 46). The introduction of railway lines saw their trading goods move faster and this and their economy started growing. There was increased demand for their goods and so the need to improve their transport system and its management. Initially, the railways were managed by private companies and they were only able to do much. After the Second World War, the government took over management enabling for central decision making. This made it possible for the railways to be repaired faster, new ones constructed and improvements made in line with the demands (Baugmart, H.U. 1982, p. 49). There is no doubt that there were many changes in the surroundings. The rise of the Indian economy during that period gave rise to many merchants trading in India. This led to the need for various facilities to be used by these merchants. They included lodging facilities where they would rest in between their trading, social amenities and places where trading goods could easily be found. With these came the growth of their cities and towns and different structures were constructed. This gave India an improved look as they were now open to modern ways of trading and facilities ( Kerr, H.U. 1995, p. 52). Since Britain was a more developed country, their interaction with the Indians was bound to bring about some cultural and social changes. More modern locomotives were introduced as time went by and more areas became accessible and modernised. The modernisation saw the Indians invent their own locomotives and open up to other regions within the continent. Their experience led to them being used by the British to construct railway lines in other parts of the world that were British colonial territory (Rothermund, H.U. 1993, p. 59). Their politics were also affected in that they learnt new ways of governing their people and also managing their businesses. This greatly impacted their economy leading to a changed way of living. The railways opened India up to other opportunities and also eased their transportation making them a good example in the transport industry. The separation of railway revenue from other government revenues also saw the growth of the railways and its modernisation. Since the inception of the first railway line and locomotive in India, there has been tremendous growth in the areas reached and the modernisation of the system (Crowley, H.U. 2011, p. 63). References Kerr, J. I. 1995. Building the Railways of the Raj, 1850-1900. Oxford University Press, USA. Rothermund, D. 1993. An Economic History of India. 2 Edition. Routledge. Crowley, J. E. 2011. Imperial Landscapes: Britain’s Global Visual Culture (1745-1820). Paul Mellon Centre BA. Narayanan. 2011. Railways of India. Arise Publishers and Distributors. Baumgart, W. 1982. Imperialism: The Idea and Reality of British and French Colonial Expansion, 1880-1914. Revised Edition. Oxford University Press USA. Read More