Imperial Technology and 'Native' Agency : a Social History of Railways in Colonial India, 1850-1920

2018·1.3 MB·English

by  Mukhopadhyay, Aparajita

Imperial Technology and
‘Native’ Agency
This book explores the impact of railways on colonial Indian society from the
commencement of railway operations in the mid-nineteenth to the early decades
of the twentieth century.
The book represents a historiographical departure. Using new archival evidence
as well as travelogues written by Indian railway travellers in Bengali and Hindi,
this book suggests that the impact of railways on colonial Indian society were
more heterogeneous and complex than anticipated either by India’s colonial
railway builders or currently assumed by post-colonial scholars.
At a related level, the book argues that this complex outcome of the impact of
railways on colonial Indian society was a product of the interaction between the
colonial context of technology transfer and the Indian railway passengers who
mediated this process at an everyday level. In other words, this book claims
that the colonised ‘natives’ were not bystanders in this process of imposition of
an imperial technology from above. On the contrary, Indians, both as railway
passengers and otherwise influenced the nature and the direction of the impact of
an oft-celebrated ‘tool of Empire’.
The historiographical departures suggested in the book are based on examining
railway spaces as social spaces – a methodological index influenced by Henri
Lefebvre’s idea of social spaces as means of control, domination and power.
Aparajita Mukhopadhyay is a history lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of
London.

Imperial Technology and
‘Native’ Agency
A Social History of Railways in
Colonial India, 1850–1920
Aparajita Mukhopadhyay
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2018 Aparajita Mukhopadhyay
The right of Aparajita Mukhopadhyay to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78
of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
The Open Access version of this book, available at www.taylorfrancis.com,
has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non
Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification
and explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Mukhopadhyay, Aparajita, author.
Title: Imperial technology and 'native' agency : a social history of
railways in Colonial India, 1850–1920 / Aparajita Mukhopadhyay.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon ; NewYork, NY : Routledge, 2018. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017056528| ISBN 9781138226685 (hardback :
alk. paper) | ISBN 9781315397108 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Railroads—Social aspects—India—History. | Railroad
travel—Social aspects—India—History. | India—Civilization—1765–1947. |
India—History—British occupation, 1765–1947.
Classification: LCC HE3298 .M85 2018 | DDC 385.0954/09034—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017056528
ISBN: 978-1-138-22668-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-39710-8 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK
For my parents

Contents
Acknowledgements ix
Glossary xi
Introduction 1
1 On time? Railway time and travel-discipline in colonial
India 20
2 A ticket to control? Limits of railway travel-discipline in
colonial India 41
3 A shared space? Contestation of station spaces and railway
travel-discipline in colonial India 83
4 Chariots of equality? Travelling in railway carriages and
social transformation in colonial India 108
5 To eat or not to eat? Railway travel, commensality and
social change in colonial India 141
6 A nation on the move? Railway travel and conceptualisations
of space in colonial India 164
7 Shared spaces, shifting identities: Railway travel and notions
of identity and community in colonial India 187
Conclusion: All aboard the train? Technology transmission
and social transformation in colonial India 213
Bibliography 227
Index 240

Acknowledgements
Originally this book was intended be a replica of my PhD dissertation that I
submitted to the School of Oriental and African Studies, London in 2013. But in
the intervening years I decided to substantially revise, alter and expand the dis -
sertation. As such, with new chapters added and some old ones discarded or
published elsewhere, in its current form this book resembles only the broadest
contours of my PhD dissertation.
Given the long journey this book has traversed, I have been indebted to
individuals and institutions for their support. It will be, however, difficult to even
start recounting my debts, intellectual and otherwise without thanking Peter
Robb (my PhD supervisor) and Ian Kerr. It will not be an exaggeration to claim
that both Peter and Ian have lived with this project in more ways than one and
have generously shared their time, knowledge, constructive criticism and gentle
humour. Over the years Ian has read most parts of this manuscript in one form or
other and has always offered useful critique as well as consistent encouragement.
Ian’s encyclopaedic knowledge of the history of Indian railways remains a source
of inspiration. My intellectual debts to Peter and Ian cannot be sufficiently
articulated in the confines of these pages.
I would also like to express thanks, albeit belated, to Joya Chatterji and
Tirthankar Roy, examiners of my PhD dissertation. Both Joya and Tirthankar’s
comments and suggestions have helped me to re-think crucial concepts that have
proven significant in writing this manuscript.
Thanks are also due to many fellow scholars and friends who over the years
have unhesitatingly shared their knowledge, time and critical insights. Though
for reasons of brevity here I do not proffer a list of names of scholar/friends
who have shaped my thoughts; I hope my private acknowledgement of intel-
lectual camaraderie will rectify this lacuna. I am also thankful to those scholars
and colleagues who generously commented on various parts of this manuscript
presented as conference papers in London (SOAS, Birkbeck, UCL), New Delhi,
Princeton, Yale, Oxford, Tours, Albuquerque, Helsinki, Philadelphia, New Mexico
and Seattle.
This book would not have taken this shape without the help I received from
the staff of the Asia and Africa Reading Room in the British Library. They not
only endured my never-ending demands for documents and books with efficiency,
x Acknowledgements
but also enlivened my days with humour and friendship. The library of the School
of Oriental and African Studies too, proved invaluable for this project.
This book was written in a period of transition, both professional and personal.
Unsurprisingly therefore, I have drawn upon my husband, parents and sister for
emotional support. I would not have been able to write this book without my
husband’s presence and support. He not only believed in my ability to finish the
project, but kept aside his own forthcoming monograph manuscript to share caring
responsibilities of our newborn daughter so that I could continue to write. His
academic specialisation in the History of Early Modern Europe and the History of
Science has also helped me to widen my own research interests. My parents and
my sister offered consistent emotional support and have lived with this project
since my PhD days. This book is dedicated to my parents for en couraging me to
pursue my goals. Last but not least, this book has grown with my daughter. I hope
one day she will enjoy reading it.
I also owe a special thanks to Robert Langham, Senior Publisher for History,
Routledge for believing in this project. The shortcomings of this book, however,
remain solely mine.
Aparajita Mukhopadhyay