The gripping story of a nation that was the Jewel in the Crown of the British Empire, transformed from a patchwork of lands and peoples by a railway system completed against all odds, told through they eyes of British engineers and financiers; Indian laborers and merchants; nationalists and politicians; and the modern tourist.
Ian J. Kerr is a retired Professor of History and Senior Scholar in the Department of History at the University of Manitoba. He is also a Professorial Research Associate in the Department of History at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London. His publications include Railways in Modern India (2001) and Building the Railways of the Raj (1995).
[A] highly readable, thoroughly researched analysis of the
development and impact of railways, their technology, and their
people on the Indian subcontinent….Just as the best way to see
India is by train even today, Kerr's book is the best way to grasp
the historical saga of the fire vehicle and its contributions to
the economic, political, social , and cultural integration of
India.
*Technology and Culture*
The Indian railroad system is among the most fascinating in the
world, says Kerr, a retired history professor, and he recounts its
birth and growth since the 1850s, with an emphasis on the impact it
had on the political and economic development of the country. For
the first century, until 1947, it was a colonial railroad system
designed to serve the imperial occupation, and has continued to be
shaped by the colonial legacy after independence and partition, he
explains.
*Reference & Research Book News*
. . . an excellent overview of the history of the railways of India
from an economic and social perspective.
*Socialist Standard*
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