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Representation and Representations of the Railways of Colonial and Post-Colonial South Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 May 2003

Ian J. Kerr
Ian J. Kerr
Affiliation:
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London
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Abstract

This paper offers a preliminary exploration of the multi-faceted ways in which the railways of South Asia have been represented in textual, aural and visual media. I do this despite my reservations about some representational-type studies presented via language and theories I find opaque. Nonetheless, I do want to signal that I am not a closed-minded trainspotter; I am not one of those railway historians a reviewer of Michael Freeman's Railways and the Victorian Imagination labelled ‘“trainspotters” to a man…combining the enthusiasms of the hobbyist and the econometrician in scholarly mimicry of that singular British type.’ The reviewer, of course, was referring to those railway devotees who haunt British railway stations desperately taking pictures of locomotives and recording their serial numbers and not to the alienated characters in a recent movie of similar name.

Type
Research Article
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 37 , Issue 2 , May 2003 , pp. 287 - 326
Copyright
© 2003 Cambridge University Press

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Footnotes

This is a reworked and enlarged version of a paper that began as an oral presentation accompanied by a good many slides. In some ways the material lends itself better to the previous format although this article does flesh out the argument and, via the footnotes, provides a better sense of the range of evidence that can be brought to bear. Only a fraction of the visual evidence could be reproduced here although I am grateful to MAS for allowing me as many illustrations as it did. Earlier versions were presented at the University of Manitoba; the October 2000 meeting of SACPAN at the University of British Columbia; the Centre of South Asian Studies, Cambridge; SOAS; the National Railway Museum, York; and St Antony's College, Oxford. Along the way I beneffitted from the help and advice of a large number of people. Jennifer Howes of The British Library and Graham Partlett of the Victoria and Albert Museum helped me locate visual materials as did others acknowledged in specific footnotes. The following provided me with support, encouragement, advice, and opportunities to try out my ideas and to benefit from the knowledgeable comments of others: Marika Bose, Raj Chandavarkar, Tina Chen, Roisin Cossar, Colin Divall, Gordon Johnson, Barrie Morrison, Avril Powell, and David Washbrook. A Visiting Fellowship at Clare Hall, Cambridge, Lent Term 2001 facilitated greatly the process of revision.