'No Railways, no India'

Indian is as Indian doesldquoBuilding railways manually in India inevitably presented problems for the engineers used to conditions in Britain who had to work with those armies of Indian labourersIndian visitors watch a 1947 model Britishbuilt steam locomotive engine that commemorated 155 years of trains running in Eastern India PICAFPThe engineers found it was necessary to devise methods of construction which combined western with Indian techniques So a new syncretic Indian approach to railway building emerged an approach which married British and Indian traditionsRailway mail serviceIndian workers for instance did not like the wheelbarrows which Irish Navies had used as they dug cuttings bored tunnels and built embankments to construct Britainrsquos railways so the Indian method of carrying earth in baskets on the head was adopted It wasnrsquot just tradition which made the workers favour this method It involved employing more manpowerrdquomdash Sir Mark TullyJules Verne and the Western GhatsThe profound impact of the railways on Indiarsquos economy and agriculture even finds a mention in Jules Vernersquos book Around the World in Eighty DaysAn old photograph of a rail car on the NeralmdashMatheran sectionThe following passage describes Phileas Fogg and Passepartout passing through Indiarsquos Western Ghats Passepartout on waking and looking out could not realise that he was actually crossing India in a railway train The locomotive guided by an English engineer and fed with English coal threw out its smoke upon cotton coffee nutmeg clove and pepper plantations while the steam curls in spirals around groups of palmtrees in the midst of which were seen picturesque bungalows viharis sort of abandoned monasteries and marvellous temples enriched by the exhaustless ornamentation of Indian architecture mdash Sandipan DebMaking of modern IndiaThe railways Indiarsquos preeminent form of mass transportation has contributed significantly to the creation and integration of the Indian nation This is a claim suitably qualified and nuanced that finds support among more scholarly writers and which is sympathetically endorsed hereToy train at Matheran is now 107 years old PicSameer MarkandeIndeed some historians have argued that without the development of a large network of railways there would have been no India as we know it in effect no railways no IndiaThe railways came early to the Indian subcontinent mdash much earlier than to other parts of Asia Latin America and Africa By 1901 India had the worldrsquos fourth longest railway network although the exact ranking can be disputed as measured by route miles in operation a ranking the country still holds mdash Ian J KerrPedas on the platformldquoAlmost every station in India sells a regional specialty that causes passengers to dart on and off trains My parents have awakened me at 3 am just to taste the hot milk at Erode station in Tamil Nadu Anyone passing by Nagpur station is entreated to buy its glorious orangesGodrej Soapsrsquo advertisements on the train Pic courtesySandipan DebAllahabad home to Hinduism and the Ganga River is famous for its guavas Agra where the Taj Mahal stands has wonderful pedas chewy squares of candy made with milk Simla called queen of the hill stations by the British was known for its apples Kerala where my father spent his childhood and still leaves his heart has the best plantain fritters fried in coconut oil on the platformrdquomdash Shobha NarayanChugging through BollywoodThe film however that uses trains to best effect is Sholay Ramesh Sippy 1975 Therersquos a great sequence in the opening when the dacoits attack the train and the inspector Sanjeev Kumar must make a decision about letting Jai Amitabh Bachchan and Veeru Dharmendra free to help him ward off the attackThis was beautifully picturised and elegantly shot and written Forever inscribed in my memory is the way in which Veeru is created He had a long and hectic battle with some dacoit and finally manages to beat him off And he says insouciantly Veeru se takkar Taking Veeru on What were you thinking mdash Jerry PintoIndia Junction A Window to the Nation edited by Seema Sharma Rainlight by Rupa Publications R695 Available at all leading bookstores