Financing India's Imperial Railways, 1875–1914

269 Pages·2011·7.107 MB·English

by  Stuart Sweeney

FINANCING INDIA’S IMPERIAL RAILWAYS,
1875–1914
Perspectives in Economic and Social History
Series Editors: Robert E. Wright
Andrew August
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FINANCING INDIA’S IMPERIAL RAILWAYS,
1875–1914
by
Stuart Sweeney
First published2011 by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
Published 2016 by Routledge
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© Taylor & Franc is 2011
© Stuart Sweeney 2011
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may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
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british library cataloguing in publication data
Sweeney, Stuart, 1963–
Financing India’s imperial railways, 1875–1914. – (Perspectives in economic
and social history) 1. Railroads – India – Finance – History. 2. Railroads –
Social aspects – India-History.
I. Title II. Series
385’.0954’09034-dc22
ISBN-13: 978-1-84893-047-6 (hbk)
Typeset by Pickering & Chatto (Publishers) Limited
CONTENTS
Introduction 1
1 ‘Productive’ Indian Railways, 1875–1914: Space for Gentlemanly
Capitalists and Industrialists in a Mixed Economy 13
2 Indian Railways and Famines, 1875–1914: Magic Wheels and
Empty Stomachs 43
3 Military Railways in India, 1875–1914: Russophobia, Technology
and the Indian Taxpayer 67
4 Indian Railroading: Floating Railway Companies in the Late
Nineteenth Century 97
5 Northern Wars and Southern Diplomacy: Sir Douglas Forsyth’s
Second Career on the Indian Railways 115
6 Eminent ICS Victorians: Richard Strachey and Th eodore Hope as
Poachers and Gamekeepers 139
7 Background, Proceedings and Legacy of the Mackay Committee of
1908: Gentlemanly Capitalists, Indian Nationalists and Laissez-faire 159
Conclusion 179
Appendices 187
Notes 197
Works Cited 233
Index 247
Passepartout, on waking and looking out, could not realize that he was actually
crossing India in a railway train. Th e locomotive, guided by an English engineer
and fed with English coal, threw out its smoke upon cotton, coff ee, nutmeg,
clove and pepper plantations...
Jules Verne, Around the World in Eighty Days (1873; Puffi n: London, 2004), p. 66,
INTRODUCTION
By 1908 Britain had invested £274 million of capital in Indian railways, mak-
ing it the largest single investment programme ever undertaken in the British
Empire.1 Railways made up 80 per cent of Britain’s industrial investment in
India, relying on Indian taxpayers to fund construction and early operations.
Th e size and prominence of this public works project has prompted a continu-
ing scholarly debate on the motivation and results of Indian railways, since Lord
Dalhousie’s original railway minute of 1853. However, most of the analysis has
focused on the earlier period of railway construction up to 1875. Like much
historiography of the colonial Indian period, analysis has been characterized
by subjective responses to British Imperialism. For example, Daniel Th orner’s
work on government provision of early Indian railway guarantees comple-
mented Indian nationalist writing on railways, as part of the ‘drain’ debate. To
be fair, Th orner was sensitive to the diffi culty of pursuing development policies
in British India given the political landscape at Westminster. Aft er all, the India
Offi ce was not unique in guiding colonial enterprise towards dependence on
manufacturers and fi nanciers at the metropole. In contrast, the ‘new Imperial-
ist’ scholars, reinterpreting British railway policy as liberal, sensible and benign
have ignored the most compelling aspects of Indian nationalist critique. Dutt,
Naoroji, Ranade and Wacha may have overstated their case at times, but the
complaint that Britain pursued railways in isolation from other legitimate devel-
opment concerns has never been rebuff ed.2 Th e opportunity cost of railways, in
a balanced budget environment, in terms of irrigation, sanitation and education
expenditure foregone was considerable.
Indian railways have been criticized for absorbing more than their fair share
of India’s tax receipts. Th ey have also been seen as stifl ing industrial develop-
ment and wealth creation in India. It is true that nationalists underestimated the
challenges in converting India’s eighteenth-century artisan textile businesses into
western-style industry. Nevertheless, India’s industrial stagnation in the nine-
teenth century is an awkward fact for apologists of Empire. Th e British neglect
of Indian industry aft er the fall of the Company is beyond debate, but the extent
to which this was understood to place limits on India’s growth potential is still
– 1 –