RAILWAYS IN NATIONAL
INTEGRATION
K.G. Joglekar *
Lord Dalhousie, the
Governor General of India under the British East India Company
in the mid-nineteenth century, was an empire builder. He used
every means, more foul than fair, to extend the dominion of the
Company. Princely rulers of the then Indian states were deposed,
were not allowed to adopt sons, their heirs were disinherited
and their states taken over by the Company under the Doctrine
of Lapse. It is,therefore, fair to presume that in 1843 when Lord
Dalhousie suggested that India should have a railway system, it
was not out of philanthropy or a concern for the welfare of India
and its people but because he thought that the railway would make
the movement of troops, ammunition and supplies easier and would
thus help in tightening the British control over India. Another
possible consideration was that the railway would provide a cheap
and quick means for the transport of raw materials from India
to the factories ‘back home’ and the movement of finished goods
in the reverse direction.
The first sod
of earth on the railway project in western India was moved only
on October 31, 1850. On April 16, 1853, the first train steamed
out of Bombay (now Mumbai) to the salute of 31 guns. The 400 guests
travelling in the 14 coaches of the inaugural run could hardly
have been aware that the 57 minutes that the train took to cover
33.81 kms, was the opening of a new chapter in India’s long history.
The first run of the railway train in Calcutta (now Kolkata) took
place on August 15, 1854 and in south India in 1856. The expansion
started from these three port towns and soon went ahead. Today,
India’s rail network covers more than 63,000 kms and has 7000
stations. Thirteen million passengers travel by train every day
and a million tonnes of freight is carried daily.
In the last 150
years, the railways in India has emerged as the principal means
of transport of men and material. The railways transported lakhs
and lakhs of people from Pakistan as they came to India seeking
shelter from violence. It transported relief material in times
of floods, earthquakes and other natural calamities. It transported
men and material to the forward areas during conflicts with China
in 1962 and with Pakistan in 1947-48, 1965 and 1971.
All this is known.
But what is often ignored is the fact that the railways has brought
about a socio-economic revolution which has changed not only the
face of India but altered the mode of living of the Indian people
in a way that nothing else did during the last thousands of years.
A people living and thinking in the bullock cart age were suddenly
pushed into the steam, diesel and electricity age and compelled
to change their life styles. For the first time in their history,
they could cover long distances in a short time and at affordable
prices. Mobility increased and people thronged to the metropolitan
cities from remote backward areas in search of employment and
a better life. What was once only a trickle soon became a torrent.
It is true that it has created problems in the cities. But at
the same time it has made people from different surroundings and
backgrounds to live together and think on parallel lines. The
earlier migrants to metropolitan towns retained their cultural
links with their home towns. But later migrants have discovered
that their children find themselves lost when they go to their
hometowns and want to return to the place to which they had moved.
One thus finds Maharashtrians settling in New Delhi or Gurgaon,
as one finds north Indians preferring Mumbai or Pune to settle
down. When people with different backgrounds live side by side
in a city, the inevitable happens. Boys and girls fall for the
‘eligible’ or ‘suitable’ person next door. Whether they like it
not, the parents have to agree. Since both parties are educated,
matters are settled without acrimony and in good spirit.
This ‘throwing
together’ of people with different backgrounds in a common melting
pot has affected the language, dress and cuisine. Hindi films
have done a lot to popularise Hindi. Purists may sneer at the
‘Mumbaiya’ Hindi but the fact remains that it is understood by
the common man almost everywhere. The porters at railway stations,
the rickshaw and taxi drivers and waiters in restaurants and hotels
not only understand but speak in this language. Girls in Maharashtra,
Gujarat and south India no longer consider salwar-kurta a Punjabi
dress. They find it convenient to wear while at work or while
travelling. Idli, dosa and sambhar are popular in the north, as
is Mumbai’s pao bhaji popular in the south. All these and many
other dishes have travelled far beyond their regions. While it
would be unfair to give the entire credit for all this to the
railways, it is equally true that greater mobility has brought
people from different cultures and backgrounds together and has
forced them to understand and appreciate each other’s views, ways
of living and culture.
Elderly Hindu
men and women in earlier times did not take any cooked food while
travelling by train. Any contact with people of other castes and
creeds, it was felt, would make them unclean. It was only after
a bath at home that they would take cooked food. Many of these
taboos have practically disappeared. One does not see anyone enquiring
about the caste of the bearer serving the food. Finding out the
caste or creed of the cook who prepared the food would be impossible.
Most people take the eatables served in the carriages or sold
at railway platforms. In the days before Independence, it was
a common cry to hear ‘Hindu Paani’ or ‘Muslim Paani’, as if water
also followed a certain religion. Large railway stations now have
water coolers dispensing drinking water. Even at stations where
carriers serve water to the passengers it is only water and no
‘Hindu Paani’ or ‘Muslim Paani’. In the days before Independence
every big railway station had three refreshment rooms – European,
Muslim and Hindu. Now there are only two-vegetarian and non-vegetarian
refreshment rooms.
The railways
has opened up new areas for development. Two projects are worth
special mention. The Konkan Railway running parallel to the sea
coast in western India is considered a masterpiece in railway
engineering and constructions. It covers the Western Ghats for
a long time, once considered intractable. The project took ten
years to complete as it involved boring 92 tunnels, one of them
6.5 kms long, constructing 179 major and more than 2800 minor
bridges. The Konkan region had been neglected because of lack
of proper transport and communication facilities and the Konkan
Railway has filled the gap.
Equally important
is the link with Jammu and Kashmir. The nearest railhead, Pathankot,
was 112 kms from Jammu and more than 450 kms from Srinagar. The
railway line has now gone to Jammu and beyond. In a couple of
years the railway line will enter Kashmir Valley. That would indeed
be an achievement because building a railway line and maintaining
it in the Himalayas is a challenge to human ingenuity. This and
other similar projects open up neglected areas and bring them
closer to other parts of India.
As the Jammu-Kanya
Kumari Express, aptly named Himsagar Express, because it connects
the foothills of the Himalayas with the southern tip of India,
covering a distance of 3787 kms, the Guwahati-Thiruvananathpuram
Express or the Jodhpur-Howrah Express trains meander their ways
through the length and breadth of India, crossing one State after
another. Overcoming the barriers of language and culture, they
present a picture of India, in all its diversity but united in
the common objective of remaining united. That is yet one more
way in which the railways has helped strengthen the unity and
integrity of India.
* Senior Freelance
Journalist
