Those many wheels of change

The concept of space and time as a human experience, the world over, was transformed by the arrival of the railways. Considered largely a symbol of the industrial revolution, the railways not only helped the spread of industrialization across the world, but also ‘annihilated’ the concept of space and time for ordinary people. Commodities moved at faster speeds — and so did people. Even ideas were carried faster, to greater distances than ever before, giving people greater access to news and views. This proved to be the undoing of the local character of the small towns and villages that the railway traversed.

The railways, during the process of their construction, reshaped geographies, geologies and created new histories. Going up and down inclines or gradients — even eliminating them when required — tunnelling through mountains, bridging rivers, streams and gorges, the railways took on and conquered every natural contour that stood in its way.

Railways transformed the landscape, and as a result they simultaneously transformed the way travellers experienced the countryside. It was the visuals outside the train that were commented upon by sociologists and litterateurs alike. Victor Hugo, during one of his train travels, in 1837, described a view from a train window as such: ‘the towns, the steeples, and the trees perform a crazy, mingling dance,’ causing sociologist George Simmel to call ‘this multiplication of visual impressions’ ‘nervous fatigue’. This is also the sort of sensation that is felt nowadays in urban areas.

The railways thus bequeathed India with a new geography. Spaces were now enlarged; scope of travel magnified; pilgrimages — a great passion and one of the earliest tourist industries in India — could now be undertaken as holy places were now accessible.

The space-time convergence through the railways in India was immensely beneficial as well as a huge drawback. Increased travel to pilgrimage spots changed the existing economies. The railways would now be catering to an increased number of people and huge profits could be made from it.

The flip side was the obliteration of local character of isolated towns and villages, and with it the sense of alienation amongst people started emerging. With the railways, speed ruled leading to a space-time convergence. Industries were consolidated and consequently traditional activities were sacrificed at the altar of strategically and economically viable rail routes for the British.

Although the railways were regarded as a tangible, larger than life British institution, it still gave early travellers in India a feeling of unease. For example: On 23 August 1854, the Bengal Hurkaru reported: ‘One Roop Chand Ghose, a flourishing dealer in piece goods and perfumery, when set down at the end of his journey from Howrah to Hoogly, felt strongly suspicious at the short time it had taken, and went down the street asking people the name of the place he was at. It took a long time before conviction gained upon him that verily he had come to Hoogly.’

Another story in the same paper: ‘Pandit Ranalunkur Banerjee, after duly consulting the stars undertook his trip to Hoogly but declined to take the return journey because he said that ‘too much travelling on the car of fire was calculated to shorten life’. Seeing that it annihilates time and space and curtails the length of every other journey, it must shorten the ‘journey of human life.’

Although the railways were simultaneously the product and the driver of industrialization in Europe and elsewhere in the world, they failed to industrialize India until after Independence, in spite of the fact that 59,000 kilometres of tracks had already been laid.

This belied Karl Marx’s view that the advent of railways would speed up industrialization in India. Though there was some industrialization brought about by the railways such as the mining, textile and a small amount of engineering industries, it was insignificant when compared to the large-scale industrialization that happened in Europe and the North American continent.

A consequence of industrialization was the joint processes of urbanization and modernization that were brought about by technology in the form of railways. Production and efficiency increased and the speedy movement of merchandise led to the availability of a greater range of consumer goods. These were now no more a part of the local identity of a place as the railway created a definite spatial distance between their production point and the destination of their consumption. The commodity at its place of consumption attains its value.

The railways also played a vital role in urbanization. As new zones to visit were defined, large-scale migrations, temporary or permanent, were now possible.

Thus, a wave of migrants rode the rails to urban centres to seek their fortunes. Away from their villages, inherited, traditional spaces, they merged with the unique culture of the urban centres. In fact, urbanization for migrants starts the moment they board a train, come into contact with different cultures, communities, belief-systems to ultimately shed lifelong traditions.

Because of the railways temporary communities are formed in urban areas where spaces are shrunk to bring communities closer. Cities merge into one another—for example, Delhi-Jaipur, the expansion of Jaipur towards Ajmer, Mumbai into Panvel into Navi Mumbai, all moving along the lines of the expanding railway network. It is as if urban centres are spreading their tentacles through new railway lines to bring rural areas into their fold. The time taken to reach another place shortens; cities are no longer selfcontained areas; they spread uncontrollably.

The railways destroy the traditional time–space continuum even today as it continues to be one of the fastest modes of transport. Earlier, the railways allowed suburbs to grow into satellite towns but its expansion is now consuming them. India is swiftly moving towards urbanization with provincial cities like Ghaziabad, Ludhiana, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar stretching along the existing railway lines. In fact, currently the projects that Indian Railways are working on include expansion of the suburban systems in metropolises that will inevitably expand the reach of different cities.

There are huge investment plans for Metro Railways in Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai and a 101.05-kilometre multi-model transport system in Hyderabad.

In Europe, most railway stations are on the outskirts of the city. Goods and people would come and be carried into the city through other modes of transport such as roadways.

In India, however, the railway stations were built in the heart of the city. Vast areas were and still are being used to construct stations, along with business centres to service the commerce connected with the railways...

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