Building the Railways of the Raj, 1850-1900

Some 25,000 miles of railways were constructed in India from 1850 to 1900. This involved a substantial investment of British capital, the transplantation of Victorian railway technology to the British Indian Empire, the presence of a small, supervisary cadre of British engineers, skilled workmen and overseers, and the mobilization of millions of Indian workers. This is the first, wide-scale examination of this subject in modern times. It explains how great physical obstacles and human complexities -- for example massive rivers, epidemics of disease and the co-ordinated use of large labour gangs - tested alike the skills and fortitude of British supervisors and the Indian workers, whose labour built the railways and whose construction-related deaths numbered in tens of thousands. This book is intended for students of modern Indian history, technology transfer, labour history and railway enthusiasts.