Mukhopadhyay, Aparajita (2013) Wheels of Change?: Impact of Railways on Colonial North Indian Society, 1855-1920. Phd Thesis. SO
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Mukhopadhyay, Aparajita (2013) Wheels of change?: impact of railways on colonial north Indian society, 1855‐1920. PhD Thesis. SOAS, University of London http://eprints.soas.ac.uk/17363 Copyright © and Moral Rights for this thesis are retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non‐commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This thesis cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder/s. The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. When referring to this thesis, full bibliographic details including the author, title, awarding institution and date of the thesis must be given e.g. AUTHOR (year of submission) "Full thesis title", name of the School or Department, PhD Thesis, pagination. Wheels of Change? Impact of railways on colonial north Indian society, 1855-1920. Aparajita Mukhopadhyay Thesis submitted for the degree of PhD in History 2013 Department of History School of Oriental and African Studies University of London 1 | P a g e Declaration for Ph.D. Thesis I have read and understood regulation 17.9 of the Regulations for students of the School of Oriental and African Studies concerning plagiarism. I undertake that all the material presented for examination is my own work and has not been written for me, in whole or in part by any other person. I also undertake that any quotation or paraphrase from the published or unpublished work of another person has been duly acknowledged in the work that I present for examination. Aparajita Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D. Candidate, SOAS. 2 | P a g e Abstract The thesis investigates the impact of railways on colonial north Indian society, assessing the extent to which they transformed social space and circulatory regimes. The thesis also intends to contribute to wider debates on the nature of the colonial state, and over technology as an agent of social change. Railway journeys have been assumed or claimed to have brought social change; a critical examination will re-assess these claims and assumptions. The choice of journeys as an analytical index has been prompted by two factors: one, railway journeys produced novel experiences – of space and time, self, fellow-travellers, and landscape; and two, journeys bring people into the narrative – the Indian railway travellers. In addition to an introduction and conclusion, three chapters deal with mechanical aspects of railway journeys such as buying tickets, and three with the purposes and experiences of travel. The need to analyse both objective and subjective factors has led to the use of a wide and diverse range of primary sources, including railway travel guides and travelogues written by Indians, mainly in Bengal and Hindi. The thesis takes exception to the idea that Indian railway passengers did not exert any influence over railway operations but were mere recipients of decisions forced upon them. It suggests a more complex, dynamic interaction between Indian railway passengers and the railway system. The thesis also questions the rapidity and novelty of many of the changes brought by railways, but concludes that railway experiences were interpreted and analysed in ways that eventually had implications for Indian society. 3 | P a g e Contents Page Number List of Abbreviations. Acknowledgements Chapter One 7- 26 Chapter Two 27-54 Chapter Three 55-85 Chapter Four 86-106 Chapter Five 107-131 Chapter Six 132-159 Chapter Seven 160-187 Chapter Eight 188- 208 Bibliography 209-220 4 | P a g e Abbreviations 1. Bengal and North-Western Railway: BNWR. 2. Bengal Nagpur Railway: BNR. 3. East India Railway Company: EIRC. 4. Eastern Bengal Railway Company: EBRC. 5. Great Indian Peninsular Railway: GIPR. 6. Government of Bengal: GOB. 7. Government of North-Western Provinces: GNWP. 8. Government Railway Police: GRP. 9. North-Western Province: NWP. 10. Oriental and India Office Collection: OIOC. 11. Oudh and Rohilkhand Railway: O & R 12. Public Works Department: PWD 13. Sind, Punjab and Delhi Railway: SPDR. 5 | P a g e Acknowledgements I would firstly like to thank the Felix Trust for choosing me as a Felix Scholar. Without the scholarship none of this work could have been undertaken. I would also like to thank my supervisor Peter Robb, without whose encyclopaedic knowledge, critical insight, and encouragement, the thesis would not have taken its present shape. Through these years he has been my greatest support, and best critique, without ever imposing his ideas. He has nudged me to think critically, and write better, in his characteristically kind and humorous way. I cannot express in words my intellectual debts to Peter. I owe a special debt to Ian Kerr for generously sharing his knowledge, ideas and time. For many years he has been a steady source of intellectual encouragement, kind support, and useful advice. I would also like to thank Robert Varady (University of Arizona) for sharing his unpublished PhD dissertation. Thanks are also due to Clive Dewey for sharing the manuscript of his forthcoming book. I want to thank the staff of the British Library, especially those in the Asia and Africa Reading room. They endured my never-ending demands for documents and books with efficiency and smile. Last but not least, I would like to thank my parents and my sister for believing in me and the project. They have been my greatest emotional support. This thesis is dedicated to them. Thanks are also due to my friends (in alphabetical order): Adar, Catherine, Eduardo, Elena, Jared, Lauren, Michael, Rajashree and Sarah for making my life in London pleasant. And finally, thanks to Francesco, for making me a part of his life. Aparajita Mukhopadhyay. 6 | P a g e Chapter One Introduction Iron and steam has civilised mankind let us give India the benefit of the discovery.1 …In our own day it has been reserved as one of the most remarkable triumphs of the steam locomotive to have aroused and awakened the eastern world, to have undermined and in great measure overturned, the larger number of those deep rooted ancient prejudices which in India have so long and tenaciously resisted all previous assaults.2 The quotes above neatly encapsulate the moral and social justifications behind the introduction of railways in mid-nineteenth century India. Though railways were meant to fulfil the economic and military needs of an expanding colonial administration, their role in uplifting India from her putative stupor was considered to be equally if not more significant. This confidence in the instrumentality of railways to transform India was also part of a wider belief which credited technology with an ability to propel social change. Steam locomotion therefore was expected to perform nothing short of a social miracle for India. Railway operations in India were formally inaugurated in April 1853, when the first train ran between Bombay to Thana, covering a distance of 21 miles (34 kilometres). In next two decades, the railway network covered 6541 route miles, and at the turn of the century India possessed the fourth largest railway system (by route length) in the world.3 The development had its origin in England during the 1830s and 1840s when railway enthusiasts, investors, and the officials of the East India Company debated on the possibilities of introducing railway communication in India primarily for commercial and military purposes.4 Of all proposals, two plans eventually emerged as plausible. The first plan, by R.M. Stephenson, proposed to build a railway in the Gangetic plain, between Calcutta and Delhi.5 The second plan, by John Chapman, proposed railway lines from Bombay largely to tap the 1 Pamphlet addressed to the Secretary of State for India, 1853, in Home Correspondence ‘B’, copies of letters sent, 1849-1879, L/PWD/2/68, OIOC. 2 2 G.W. MacGeorge, Ways and Works in India: being an account of the public works in that country from the earliest times to the present day (London, 1894). 3 I. Kerr, Building the railways of the Raj, 1850-1900 (New Delhi, 1995) 4 4 R.M. Stephenson, ‘Report upon the practicability and advantages of the introduction of railways into British India with the official correspondence with the Bengal Government and full statistical data respecting the existing trade upon the line connecting Calcutta with Mirzapore, Benaras, Allahabad and the North-West frontier’; 1844, London, L/PWD/2/43, OIOC. 5 Idem 7 | P a g e cotton-growing districts of western India.6 Stephenson’s group slowly gained the upper hand and became the East Indian Railway Company which built and operated the line along the Gangetic valley to Delhi.7 At first, the East India Company, however, was not very interested in introducing railways into India, for financial reasons. Railways in India were argued to be a risky venture and the railway promoters wanted the Company to guarantee an annual dividend to the shareholders if the railway companies did not make enough profit to pay a dividend. However, this guaranteed amount was to be paid by Indians in the form of tax to the Government of India. In other words, Indian taxpayers were to sustain railway enterprise in India, if it did not become remunerative. Soon, then, the introduction of railways found an enthusiastic patron in the person of Lord Dalhousie, the Governor-General of India (1848- 1856). In a famous minute written to the Court of Directors, in April 1853, Dalhousie outlined a broad plan for railway expansion in India.8 This plan remained the basis for railway expansion until the turn of the century. Apart from Dalhousie’s patronage, the necessity for rapid railway expansion was also brought home by the events of the 1857.