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Colonialism and Technological Choice: The Case of the Railways of India
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 22 April 2010
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To what extent was technological choice within colonial countries deter-mined by requirements or expectations that emanated from interests located within the metropolitan powers? The quick answer, supported by a number of case studies, is that the colonial connection played a major role. The same case studies, however, demonstrate how complex and nuanced the determinants of particular technological choices in particular colonies at particular times were. Moreover, in recent scholarship many facets of the colonial experience have been subjected to considerable deconstruction such that colonialism qua colonialism has lost, for some at least, explanatory power: colonialism has become a background condition, a playing field for the contingent interplay of competing forces and interests located within a colony, a metropole and elsewhere. Without going that far but also without denying the benefits of the richer, more complex understanding deconstruction has brought this paper emphasizes the importance of colonial regimes and colonial labour processes to the analysis of technological choice in colonial contexts. The building and operation of the railways of colonial India provides the content for the arguments that follow. Colonialism as a structure of command and control will be seen to have been a powerful determinant of technological choice for the Indian railways although never independent of other considerations which included, this paper will argue, an important role for Indian railway labour.
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* This article is a revised and extended version of a paper given to the session on ‘colonialism and technological choices’ at the Eleventh International Economic History Congress, Milan, September 1994. The revision has benefitted from the comments of the panelists and audience in Milan and from the written comments of Daniel Headrick, to all of whom I extend my thanks. The presentation and initial preparation of this paper was facilitated by two University of Manitoba-Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council Grants.
1 Two books by Headrick, Daniel R. usefully survey aspects of the issue: The Tools of Empire: Technology and European Imperialism in the Nineteenth Century (New York 1981)Google Scholar and The Tentacles of Progress: Technology Transfer in the Age of Imperialism, 1850–1940 (New York 1988)Google Scholar.
2 A set of papers whose goal is to rethink the study of colonialism without denying the significance of the colonial experience is ‘Tensions of Empire’, American Ethnologist 16/4 (1989),Google Scholar especially Frederick, Cooper and Stoler, Ann L., ‘Introduction. Tensions of Empire: Colonial Control and Visions of Rule’, 609–621.Google Scholar Also see John, and Comaroff, Jean, Ethnography and the Historical Imagination (Boulder 1992),Google Scholar especially part three.
3 Solo, Robert, ‘The Logic of Technology In-Transfer’, International Social Science Review 59/3 (1984) 152.Google Scholar Also Solo, Robert A. and Rogers, Everett M. eds., Inducing Technological Change for Economic Growth and Development (Michigan 1972).Google Scholar Or, more poetically and more insightfully, one has the well-known passage from Marx, Karl, Grundrisse, translated with a foreword by Nicolaus, Martin (Harmondsworth 1973) 706:Google Scholar ‘Nature builds no machines, no locomotives, railways, electric telegraphs, self-acting mules etc. These are products of human industry; natural material transformed into organs of the human will over nature, or of human participation in nature. They are organs of the human brain, created by the human hand [emphasis in the original]; the power of knowledge, objectified.’
4 Roberts, Richard, ‘French Colonialism, Imported Technology, and the Handicraft Textile Industry in the Western Sudan, 1898–1918’, Journal of Economic History 47/2 (1987) 461CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
5 The concepts of the ‘made world’ and technology as artifact come from Basalla, George, The Evolution of Technology (Cambridge 1988).Google ScholarChandler, Alfred D., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge MA 1977)Google Scholar provides ample evidence of the sophistication of railway management. He argues railways were the first modern business enterprises.
6 Solo, , ‘In-Transfer’, 152Google Scholar.
7 The labour processes involved in the research and development activities of corporations, government laboratories and universities are large and complex. The role of metropolitan interests in directing (and distorting?) R&D in or related to colonies has become an established field of enquiry. See Macleod, Roy, ‘Scientific Advice for British India: Imperial Perceptions and Administrative Goals, 1898–1923’, Modern Asian Studies 9/3 (1975), 343–384;CrossRefGoogle Scholar also Macleod, , ‘Passages in Imperial Science: From Empire to Commonwealth’, Journal of World History 4/1 (1993) 117–150Google Scholar.
8 I follow Burawoy in believing that a variety of labour processes are compatible with capitalism (and with socialism) so I write about labour processes rather than the capitalist labour process. See Burawoy, Michael, The Politics of Production: Factory Regimes Under Capitalism and Socialism (London 1985), esp. chapter 1Google Scholar.
9 Burawoy, , Politics of Production, 226,Google Scholar uses the case of African mine labour to write about a production regime he calls ‘colonial despotism: despotic, because force prevails over consent; colonial, because one racial group dominates through political, legal and economic rights denied to the other’. The labour processes of the Indian railway industry require a more complicated understanding. Nonetheless, David Washbrook, ‘Progress and Problems: South Asian Social and Economic History, c. 1720–1860’, Moilern Asian Studies 22/1 (1988) 91,Google Scholar is on the mark where South Asia is concerned: ‘Political control over the forces of market competition and increasing dominance over labour and its processes of reproduction gave capital a comfortable history in colonial South Asia.’
10 Given the subject matter of this paper I do not want to pursue this point here but see Mommsen, Wolfgang J. and Osterhammel, jürgen eds., Imperialism arid After: Continuities and Discontinuities (London 1986)Google Scholar.
11 Prakash, Om, ‘The Transfer of Science and Technology between Asia and Europe’, Ilinerario 14/2 (1990) 16Google Scholar.
12 The railways of colonial India, in turn, could provide the centre-piece for a comparative examination of the transfer and choice of railway technology in colonial (and post-colonial) settings. The benefits to be derived from the comparative (and possibly collaborative) approach are exemplified in the use of instances of railway imperialism as a basis for the exploration of the excentric theory of imperialism advanced by Robinson and Gallagher. See the nine contributions in Davis, Clarence B. and Wilburn, Kenneth E. Jr, eds., Railway Imperialism (New York 1991)Google Scholar.
13 I will not explore the reasons why China had so few miles in 1900 and India so many although the answers indicate some of the possible limitations of formal colonialism as the explanation for technological backwardness. Suffice it to say that imperial Britain found it desirable to orchestrate the development in colonial India of a substantial railway network in the nineteenth century. The battered Qing dynasty in the last half of the nineteenth century had neither the will nor the way to match the effort in India — and in the events leading up to the 1911 Revolution found itself facing the opposition of regional gentry when it tried to ‘nationalize’ railway construction and operation. Two recent studies of Chinese railways are: Huenemann, Ralph William, The Dragon and the Horse. The Economics of Railroads in China 1876–1937 (Cambridge 1984)Google Scholar and Davis, Clarence B., ‘Railway Imperialism in China, 1895–1939’, in: Davis and Wilburn, Railway Imperialism, 155–173.Google Scholar But, and here is the conceptual conundrum, the Qing dynasty's difficulties were, in part, the product of China's incorporation into the world economy as a peripheral and informally dominated area. In short, formal colonialism, at least in the area of railways, worked to India's advantage. Sun Yat-sen argued that China was less well off than Annam under the French and Korea under the Japanese. ‘Being the slaves of one country represents a far higher status than being the slaves of many, and is far more advantageous. Therefore, to call China a “semi-colony” is quite incorrect. If I may coin a phrase, we should be called a “hypo-colony”.’ Quoted in Bary, Theodore de et al., Sources of Chinese Tradition (New York 1960) 770.Google Scholar Jurgen Osterhammel, ‘Semi-Colonialism and Informal Empire in Twentieth-Century China: Towards a Framework of Analysis’, in: Mommsen, and Osterhammel, , Imperialism and After, 290–314,Google Scholar attempts to place the issue in a historiographical and theoretical context.
14 Estimates of construction employment are available in Kerr, Ian J., Builtling the Railways of the Raj, 1850–1900 (New Delhi 1995).Google Scholar Statistics for operating line employees, route miles, passengers carried, capital outlays etcetera are provided in Morris, M.D. and Dudley, C.B., ‘Selected Railway Statistics for the Indian Subcontinent (India, Pakistan and Bangladesh), 1853–1947–47’, Artha Vijnana. Journal of the Cokhale Institute of Politics & Economics 42/3 (1975)Google Scholar.
15 Hughes, Hugh, Indian locomotives I Broad Gauge, 1851–1940 (Harrow 1990)Google Scholar and Idem, Indian locomotives II Metre Gauge, 1872–1940 (Harrow 1992)Google Scholar.
16 Thorner, Daniel, Investment in Empire: British Railway and Steam Shipping Enterprise in India, 1825–1849 (Philadelphia 1950)Google Scholar and Thorner, , “Great Britain and the Development of India's Railways”, Journal of Economic History 11/4 (1951) 389–402CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
17 Headrick, , Tentacles of frogress, 10Google Scholar.
18 A process traced in greater detail in Kerr, Building the Railways of the Raj, 1850–1900.
19 India Office Library and Records [hereafter IOL&R], Mss. Eur. D. 1184, West Memoirs, Part II, entry for 3 March 1851. Nor, for that matter, did big spades although for a somewhat different reason. The lightly shod (if at all), often frail Indian coolie was not suited to wield the kind of spades use by the brawny, heavy-booted British navvy.
20 IOL&R, Mss. Eur. C. 378. Typescript copy of ‘A Pioneer of the Madras Railway, 1867–1875’ based on the diaries of Thomas Hardinge Going (1827–1875), p. 10Google Scholar.
21 Macgeorge, G. W., Ways and Works in India (Westminster 1894) 327.Google Scholar There were, of course, exceptions. At one large embankment on the Thai Ghat twenty-seven tramways were used to help move earth. A labour saving device like a tramway was more likely to be used at a long term project but in the case of the Thai Ghat incline labour shortages may have contributed to the decision to use more capital intensive methods.
22 Davidson, Edward, The Railways of India (London 1868) 162Google Scholar.
23 Bhattacharyya, Sabyasachi, ‘Cultural and Social Constraints on Technological Innovation and Development: Some Case Studies’, in: Sinha, Surajit ed., Science, Technology and Culture (New Delhi 1970) 44–72Google Scholar makes a similar point. He states, pp. 57–58, regarding a late-nineteenth-century British proposal to improve the indigeneous method of iron production: ‘The new technique would disrupt the pattern of relationship established as a result of the family functioning as a work-group within a system of well-defined division of labour. Thus the new technique meant to the Agarias much more than a minor change in the process of iron-making.’
24 Berkley, James John, ‘On Indian Railways: With a Description of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway’, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MP1CE) 19 (1859–1860) 607–608Google Scholar.
25 Nolan, T. R., ‘The Construction of the Ninth Division (Hills Section) of the Assam-Bengal Railway’, MPICE 177 (1909) 322Google Scholar.
26 Saul, S. B., ‘The Nature and Diffusion of Technology’, in: Youngson, A. J. ed., Economic Development in the Long Run (London 1972) 42,Google Scholar observes: ‘The theoretical literature is full of references to cheap-labour countries using labour-intensive techniques and dearerlabour countries offsetting this cost disadvantage by employing more capital-intensive techniques. All too often in practice it has not been like that.’
27 Stoney, E. W., ‘Description of the Pennair Bridge, Madras Railway, N.W. Line’, MPICE 29 (1870) 384Google Scholar.
28 ‘Bridging Alluvial Punjaub Rivers’, Engineering (03 28, 1890), 389.Google Scholar The article also states that the growing cost of labour motivated the engineers to use more machinery.
29 The professional and semi-professional engineering journals of the last half of the nineteenth century contain many articles detailing the construction of railways in India. Obstacles are described, innovations and adaptations proudly detailed, and professional accomplishment by members of an increasingly institutionalized profession affirmed and proclaimed. See, by way of example, the issues of Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (MPICE), Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, and Engineering. The institutionalization of British engineering can be followed in Buchanan, R. A., ‘Institutional Proliferation in the British Engineering Profession, 1847–1914’, Economic History Review second series 38/1 (1985) 42–60Google Scholar.
30 The same process occurred in other skilled construction work, e.g., tunnelling or the laying of track. Skilled workmen, of course, did pass on skills to their workmates and children by example and oral communication.
31 Rosenberg, Nathan, “Factors Affecting the Diffusion of Technology”, Explorations in Economic History 10/1 (1972) 18,CrossRefGoogle Scholar argues that the movement of qualified personnel was essential to the diffusion of technology. In the case of Indian railways there was movement of the transfer agents from Britain to India and the movement of skilled Indian workmen from early construction sites to later sites.
32 Deloche, Jean, ‘Bridge-Building in Nineteenth Century India: Indigenous Empiricism and European Technology’, in: Keiji, Yamada ed., The Transfer of Science and Technology lietween Eurofie and Asia, 1780–1880 (Japan 1994) 106–107.Google Scholar I am indebted to Leonard Blusse for making this work available to me.
33 A biographical entry for Spring can be found in Rao, C. Hayavadana, Indian Biographical Dictionary (Madras 1915) 408–409.Google Scholar I am indebted to Donald Clay Johnson for a copy of the entry. Spring went on to become chairman and chief engineer of the Port Trust, Madras and a member of the Madras Legislative Council.
34 IOL&R, India, Director of Railway Construction, Technical Paper no. 71: ‘The Bridge of the North Western State Railway over the Chenab at Sher Shah, 17 Spans of 206 Feet, and the Bridge of the East Coast State Railway over the Kistna at Bezwada, 12 Spans of 300 Feet’ (1900) by J.E. Spring, pp. 26–27.
35 Ibid., 29.
36 George Stephenson (of ‘Rocket’ fame) reportedly said: ‘I can engineer matter very well, but my great difficulty is in engineering men.’ Stepenson, Robert, quoting his father, as reported in The Engineer (25 04 1856), 233.Google Scholar Historians of technology would do well to remember that which George Stephenson, a towering figure in the history of modern engineering, expressed so well: human nature is a crucial element in the development and application of technology. Rosenberg, Nathan, ‘Economic Development and the Transfer of Technology: Some Historical Perspectives’ Technology and Culture 10 (1970) 555,Google Scholar makes a similar point when he writes: ‘The notion of a production function as a “set of blue-prints” comes off very badly if it is taken to mean a body of techniques which is available independently of the human inputs who utilize it.’
37 Marx, Karl, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy I, introduced by Mandel, Ernest and translated by Fowkes, Ben (New York) 563Google Scholar.
38 Bell, James R., ‘The Empress Bridge Over the Sutlej’, MPICE 65 (1881) 256Google Scholar.
39 Ibid.
40 The evolutionary nature of technological change is emphasised in Basalla, and in Rosenberg, , Technology and Culture, 550–575Google Scholar.
41 The preference for iron bridges with long spans was dictated by the physical nature of many of India's great rivers. Masonry bridges required many small spans with a corresponding multiplication of the number of foundation wells. Multiple foundations restricted water flow which in high flow periods increased the danger of scouring and collapse. Iron bridges with long spans needed fewer foundations.
42 IOL&R, L/PWD/2/121, Railway Home Correspondence-C. Letters to and from Railway Companies. Register IV-Bombay, Baroda and Central India Railway Company, 1859: ‘Memoranda for the Information and Guidance of those of the Engineering Staff Engaged in Construction’, 4–12. Put another way, the brickmakers were persuaded to intensify their work and, thereby, to generate more surplus value for their employers.
43 Hughes, , Indian locomotives I, 5.Google Scholar Also see Lehmann, Fritz, ‘Great Britain and the Supply of Railway Locomotives to India’, Indian Economic and Social History Review (IESHR), 2/4 (1965) 297–306.CrossRefGoogle Scholar The much-to-be-regretted, premature death of Professor Lehmann early in 1994 deprived us of one of the most knowledgeable students of Indian railway history.
44 Government of India, Railway Department (Railway Board), Report, State Railways Work-shops Committee (Calcutta 1926) 68Google Scholar.
45 Lehmann, , IESHR, 299Google Scholar.
46 [Thornton, T. H. and Kipling, J. L.], Uihore (Lahore 1876) 78Google Scholar.
47 Great Britain, Parliament, Parliamentary Papers (Commons), 1876, vol. 56, cmnd. 1584, ‘Report to the Secretary of State for India on Railways in India for the Year 1876’, 13.
48 The value of railway stores (of all sorts including construction materials) imported into India for the Guaranteed Railways (the private railways whose stockholders had been guaranteed by the Government of India a certain rate of return — initially 5% — on their investment) totalled some 59 million pounds in the period 1852 to 1898. See Banerji, A. K., Aspects of Indo-British Economic Relations 1858–1898 (Bombay 1982) 67. Most of these stores came from Britain. The total value would have been considerably higher since Banerji's figures do not include the State Railways or the Guaranteed Railways converted to State RailwaysGoogle Scholar.
49 Lehmann, , IESHR, 300.Google Scholar I revisited in the summer of 1994 some of the primary sources used by Lehmann located in the Hamilton (India Office) Collection in the IOL&R and I see no need to revise in any substantial way his reading of them.
50 IOL&R, Hamilton Collection, Mss. Eur. F. 123/53, Hamilton to Hatch dated 22 January 1902.
51 Lehmann, , IESHR, 300Google Scholar.
52 Walker, K. J., ‘Technology Transfer to India: The Case of the Integral Coach Factory’, Development and Change 18/1 (1987) 99–127CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
53 Nor can appropriateness be reduced solely to that which enhances economic development. See James, Jeffrey, ‘Appropriate Technologies and Inappropriate Policy Instruments’, Development and Change 11/1 (1980) 65–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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55 Rosenburg, , Technology and Culture, 570Google Scholar.
56 This extended to the detailed regulations that governed the conduct of work and life of the railway employees.
57 Marx, , Capital I, 1024.Google Scholar The contrast in Marx's terms was with the formal subsumption of labour under capital in which the mode of production itself did not change and the labour process, although subordinated to capital, changed little with respect to work practices and technology.
58 Thompson, Paul, The Nature of Work (Houndsmill 1983) 124CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
59 Headrick, , The Tentacles of Progress, 10.Google Scholar Also see Rosenburg, , Technology and Culture, 553–556.Google Scholar Prosopographical work I am conducting on British railway engineers in India suggests that as the decades passed and the employment opportunities elsewhere in the world for engineers diminished the period of service in India for these men lengthened.
60 AmbaPrasad, , ‘Indianization of Superior Railway Services’, Modern Review 71 (1942), 163Google Scholar.
61 Lehmann, Fritz, ‘Railway Workshops, Technology Transfer and Skilled Labour Recruitment in Colonial India’, journal of Historical Research, 20/1 (1977) 52Google Scholar.
62 Satow, Michael and Desmond, Ray, Railways of the Raj (New York 1980) 26–27Google Scholar.
63 Ibid., 26.
64 It is important to know that the locomotive decision took place in a context that included economic difficulties and the rationalization of competing firms within a British locomotive industry heavily committed to export opportunities and faced with competition from German and American firms whose own production had a larger domestic market.
65 Balandier, Georges, The Sociology of Black Africa (London 1970), especially chapter oneGoogle Scholar.
66 Kerr, I. J., ‘Working Class Protest in Nineteenth Century India. Example of Railway Workers’, Economic and Political Weekly 20/4 (1985) PE40–40Google Scholar.
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68 The growth of nationalist sentiment in twentieth-century India introduced a new dimension into the contest.
69 Scranton, Philip, ‘None-Too-Porous Boundaries: Labor History and the History of Technology’, Technology and Culture 29/4 (1988) 736CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
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