All Aboard India's First Train!

The Railway was the finest contribution of the British. Most Indians at the time could only ponder about sitting in a train, it was a privilege for them and a boon for the Britishers till Independence.

A group of men watching the miraculous invention of a transport pass by; Image Source: Transportation History

Long before India could hear the ‘echo’ of independence was a time when the sound of the East India Railway’s train approaching seemed more prominent. The bells of development and extended colonisation rang louder than the bells of freedom.

It all began when a man named Stephenson proposed in his newspaper titled ‘The Statesman’ the whole system of railway lines that could run across the country. This led to the formation of the East India Railways, a company made just for the purpose of developing railways in India.

Britishers were always selfish when it came to the development of India. The real reason why the railways were introduced in the first place was to ensure the smooth and timely movement of freight from one part of the country to the other.

The secondary cause could have been easy commuting limited to the use of the Britishers. For Indians, it was a distant dream and a privilege.

However, once the plan was laid out, construction began immediately. The entire board of directors (consisting only of Britishers, of course) raised money in London and then sailed back to India to lay an ‘experimental line’ between Calcutta and Rajmahal, located in Jharkhand.

These two locations were highly strategic - one was a seaport, from where goods/ raw materials could be easily moved to England via sea and the second was a production unit where necessary raw materials were available.

On 15th August 1854, this rather slow train left Rajmahal. Children and adults alike stood near the lines to witness the train go, leaving white smoke behind. The train was powered with coal, something which only its builders were aware of.

Initially, Delhi (the commercial capital of India) to Mirzapur was picked as a prospective route but due to cost obligations, the travel assistants picked Calcutta over it.

It was not until 5 years later that the rest of the portion towards Hooghly was opened up. The Revolt of 1857, one of India’s first revolts for independence,  seized all construction, which led to a delay in the development of the Indian railway.

India came a long way after that, just within a span of a few years, it had 77 engines, 228 coaches and 848 freight wagons, at the courtesy of Britishers.

The one thing which doesn’t make us despise our colonialists as much is their contributions towards the infrastructural development of our country. While they might have done it for their own selfish motive, the additions to India’s development then continue to benefit us to this day.