Book Review: Shunting the Nation

Aniruddha Bose, whose book Shunting the Nation has been published by Speaking Tiger and is being released this week, is an Associate Professor of History at Saint Francis University in Pennsylvania, in the US. Bose hails from Calcutta, has family links in the Indian railways and believes in writing histories of ordinary people who can change the world. ‘The period 1939-1949 was the most turbulent decade in modern Indian history – it saw the tumult of the Second World War, the unrest during the Quit India movement and the final phase of the freedom struggle, and the horrors of partition. Shunting the Nation records the contribution of the workers who ensured the smooth functioning of railway-based travel and communication system in the Indian subcontinent, even as regimes changed, new borders were drawn and everything seemed to be falling apart,’ says the publisher’s note.

‘During perhaps the most demanding time in the history of any railway workforce, these workers navigated overcrowded trains, food shortage, famine, disruption of coal supplies, communal riots and an administration close to collapse, in order to ensure humanitarian relief, swift movement of troops and weapons, and transport of over three million refugees. Drawing on memoirs, newspaper reports and government documents, Bose’s passionate narration of railway history brings to light the inspiring and valuable role played by these unsung heroes in the modern histories of India and Pakistan,’ it adds.

In the introduction to the book, the author writes at length about the role that the railways played during the time of India-Pakistan partition and illustrates – via personal stories and anecdotes – how men and women from the railways set aside religious prejudice and helped people from two warring communities survive the horrors of partition. During that period, tens of thousands of Muslim railway workers left India for the newly-formed Pakistan, and Hindu and Sikh workers moved to India from what became Pakistan. ‘The number of railway workers-turned-refugees exceeded 100,000. Nevertheless, the labourers who stayed at their posts were able to keep the system functioning. Partition became a bloodbath in Bengal and Punjab, with the latter turning into a warzone,’ says Bose, adding that Indian and Pakistani railway workers transported around three million refugees in less than three months, despite trains being targeted by heavily-armed mobs on both sides of the border.

In the introduction, the author also talks about the lack of writings on railway labour, whose role – both during times of war and of peace – in building up the nation hasn’t fully been recognized and appreciated. ‘While the nostalgia-driven writings authored by British visitors remains enamoured with cliches steeped in Oritentalism and rose-tinted visions of the Empire, this gaze does not extend in any meaningful fashion to the railway labour force,’ says Bose. Highlighting their contributions, he says ‘In order to survive the challenges of India’s mobilization during the second World War, the Indian railway workers laboured to transport even greater quantities of freight and people through punishing resource constraints. When faced with the twin pressures of India’s freedom struggle and the British Indian state, the Indian railway workers continued to serve at their posts while extending moral support to the Indian National Congress and the Indian struggle at large.’

In a subsequent chapter, the author gives us details of exactly how and in what ways railway workers contributed to the WW-II effort, supposedly ferrying crores of passengers and crores of tons of freight in the period extending from the late-1930s to the mid-1940s. In fact, some facts and figures provided in this context beggar belief and are astounding if true. Interestingly, there is also a mention of how, during WW-II, the British handed over railway workshops to the military and how the said workshops went on to produce shells, fuse bodies, detonator plugs, gun carriage parts and event bayonets. ‘Experts regarded these munitions of a quality that could easily match the best produced in Britain,’ the author says. Also highlighted is Indian railway workers’ contribution to the freedom struggle, in the face of a hostile British-Indian government and a railway board (which we suppose must have comprised only British officers) that was strongly opposed to the Indian freedom movement. In fact, the government and the railway board went as far as to ask railwaymen to actively assist in crushing freedom fighters’ efforts whenever possible and, of course, used the railways to mobilise armed forces across the country against activists.

The author has also tried to show the complex social fabric of Indian railways workers. There were Indian workers on the one hand who were gunning for freedom and Europeans and Anglo-Indians on the other, who believed their interests would be more secure under continued British rule. Railway recruitment rules of that time worked on the basis of caste, race and religion, which the British tried to change by making it easier for Indians other than just upper-caste Hindus to join the railways. These concerns, however, paled into relative insignificance as India won its freedom in 1947 and the India-Pakistan partition gave rise to horrific violence that was unleashed upon both Hindus and Muslims. Trains were attacked on both sides of the border and people were massacred en masse, and yetthe railways soldiered on due to the sheer courage and resilience of its workers. But, yes, whereas most workers were diligent and devoted to serving the railways as best as they could, there were also some rotten apples who indulged in theft and corruption, and ignored their responsibilities, making it even more challenging for the railways to function efficiently. ‘The strongest evidence of corruption comes from the annual reports of the Indian Railway Board. In the period 1942-43, driven by the exigencies of war, Indian railway authorities concluded that corruption had become a problem sufficient to require the establishment of specialised police and staff,’ the author says.

The book concludes with the author’s summary of the role that the Indian railways and its workers played during the period 1939-49, facing everything from the brutality and violence that their British masters of the time unleashed upon them, the great challenges which WW-II brought and the hardships that railwaymen had to face, the turbulence and strife that the Indian freedom struggle brought and the terrors of partition. How the Indian railways and its workers battled circumstances and sailed through every challenge is a story that was worth telling and Bose has done a good job in telling that story.

Get your copy of Shunting the Nation
Format: Paperback / Kindle
Number of pages: 248 / 273
Price: Rs 469 / Rs 471
Publisher: Speaking Tiger
Available on: Amazon