Railway and Famines in British India
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Colonialism Commercialization of agriculture Drain of wealth Epidemic Man-made famine Railroad
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Abstract
In their expedition from trade to colonization, the British government carved out various instruments to maintain their hegemony in which colonial railways were the single largest and the most significant investment programme made in the history of the British Empire. Under the facade of laissez faire doctrine, the British rule released open support to encourage private investors for railway introduction and extension in India. Railway infrastructure was given priority at theory, policy and practice levels. However, the effectiveness of this largest investment program, in combating frequent terrible famines, is quite questionable. Colonial railways had a regressive impact on the land, environment and the people of India. Fundamentally, railway infrastructure accelerated the process of deindustrialization, poverty and frequent famines. Railway and famines went hand in gloves, as maximum food grains were transported to Europe and Indians were forced to face terrible famines. Therefore, famines in British India can be interpreted as problems of distribution, rather than food production. It was an obnoxious nexus of magical wheels with empty stomach.
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References
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Sen, A. K. (1982) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Seymour, S. (1970) Studies in Railway Expansion and the Capital Market in England - 1825-1873. London: Taylor & Francis.
Sharma, S. (2001) Famine, Philanthropy and the Colonial State: North India in the early Nineteenth Century. Delhi: Oxford University. Press
Stephenson, J. (1916) Principles and Practice of Commerce. London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons Ltd.
Assary, S. T. (2009) Colonialism: Princely States and Struggle for Liberation, Travancore 1938-1948. New Delhi: A. P. H. Publishing Corporation.
Bagchi, A. K. (1970) Private Investment in India, 1900-1939. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Balachandran, G. (2003) India and the World Economy 1850-1950. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Bhatia, B. M. (1968) Famines in India, 1860-1965. New York: Asia Publishing House.
Blyn, G. (1966) Agricultural Trends in India, 1891-1947: Output, Availability, and Productivity. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Bose, S. (1994) Credit, Market and the Agrarian Economy in Colonial India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Chandra, B. (1966) The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism in India. New Delhi: People’s Publishing House.
Chandra, B. (2008) India since Independence. New Delhi: Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd.
Charlesworth, N. (1982) British Rule and the Indian Economy, 1800-1914. London: Macmillan.
Chaudhuri, K. N. (1971) The Economic Development of India under the East India Company, 1814–1958. London: Cambridge University Press.
Crook, N. (1933) India’s Industrial Cities: Essays in Economy and Demograph. New Delhi: Oxford University Press
Davis, M. (2001) Late Victorian Holocausts: El Nino Famines and the Making of the Third World. New York: Verso.
Digby, W. (1878) The Famine Campaign in Southern India: Madras and Bombay Presidencies and province of Mysore, 1876-1878 (Vol. 1). London: Longmans Green and Company.
Drayton, R. (2001) Science, Medicine, and the British Empire. In Oxford History of the British Empire, edited by Robin Winks, pp. 264-276. Oxford/New York: Oxford University Press.
Dreze, J. and Sen, A. K. (1991) Hunger and Public Action, Studies in Development Economics. Oxford/New York: Clarendon Press.
Dutt, R. C. (1900) Open Letters to Lord Curzon on Famines and Land Assessments in India. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd, Reprinted by Adamant Media Corporation, Reprinted 2005.
Dutt, R. C. (1950) The Economic History of India Under Early British Rule. Routledge: Trubner’s Oriental Series, Reprint 2000.
Dyson, T. (1989) India’s Historical Demography: Studies in Famine, Disease and Society. Riverdale MD: The Riverdale Company, Digitized 17 Oct. 2009.
Egerton, H. E. (1904) The Origin and Growth of English Colonies and their System of Government. Oxford: Neyro University’s Press.
Ghosh, K. C. (1944) Famines in Bengal- 1170-1943. Calcutta: Indian Associated Publishing.
Hartwell, R. M. (1971) The Industrial Revolution and Economic Growth. London: Methuen & Company Ltd.
History of the Indian Railways Constructed and in Progress. (May 1925) Corrected up to 31 March 1925, No. 731-St/3-4, New Delhi: National Archives.
Hunter, W. W. (2005) The Indian Empire its People- History and Products. New Delhi: Asian Educational Services.
Kerr, I. J. (1995) Building the Railways of Raj 1850-1900. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Klein, I. (1973) Death in India 1871-1921. The journal of Asian Studies 32(4): 639-659.
Kumar, S. and Mehrotra, S. (2008) Bankruptcy to Billions- How the Indian Railways Transformed?. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Maharatna, A. (1996) The Demography of Famines: An Indian Historical Perspective. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Morris, M. D. and Dudley, C. B. (1975) Selected Railway Statistics for the Indian Subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), 1853-1946/47. Artha Vijnana 17(3): 187-198.
Nanda, S. P. (2003) Economic and Social History of Modern India. New Delhi: Anmol Publication Pvt. Ltd.
Naoroji, D. (1901) Poverty and Un-British Rule in India. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. Ltd.
Nightingale, F. and Vallee, G. (2006) Florence Nightingale on Health in India. Waterloo (Ontario): Wilfrid Laurier University Press.
Ranadev, B. (1982) Food shortage and international trade in food: Analysis of long-term trends. Review of World Economics 118(2): 338-65.
Rao, M. A. (1988) Indian Railways. New Delhi: National Book Trust India.
Rao, S. (1978) The Railway Board; A Study in Administration. New Delhi: S. Chand Publications.
Report by Simms, F. W. (13 February 1847) Consultant Engineer to the Government of India, On the Proposal for Constructing a Railway Line from Calcutta to Diamond Harbour. Home Department, Legislative Branch, No. 17, New Delhi: National Archives, p. 124-26.
Report of the Acworth Committee. (19 January 1923) Railway Board, Financial A, No. 800-F/14-19, New Delhi: National Archives, p.66.
Richard, J. and M. J. (1986) The Railway Station. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Roy, T. (2013) The Economic History of India 1857-1947. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, Third edition.
Sen, A. K. (1977) Starvation and Exchange Entitlements: A General Approach and its Application to the Great Bengal Famine. Oxford: Cambridge Journal of Economics 1 (March): 33-59.
Sen, A. K. (1982) Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Seymour, S. (1970) Studies in Railway Expansion and the Capital Market in England - 1825-1873. London: Taylor & Francis.
Sharma, S. (2001) Famine, Philanthropy and the Colonial State: North India in the early Nineteenth Century. Delhi: Oxford University. Press
Stephenson, J. (1916) Principles and Practice of Commerce. London: Sir I. Pitman & Sons Ltd.