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Speaker 1: The Day in History Class. It's a production of I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hello from the History closet everyone. I'm Eves

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Speaker 1: and welcome to another episode of this Day in History Class.

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Speaker 1: Like so many of you, I am at home, but

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Speaker 1: I am doing well and I hope you're doing well too.

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Speaker 1: And as always, the show goes on. Today It's April.

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Speaker 1: The day was April eighteen fifty three. The Great Indian

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Speaker 1: Peninsula Railway opened the first commercial passenger train service in India.

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Speaker 1: This service was not the first railway that operated in

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Speaker 1: the country. The Red Hill Railroad, built in Madras in

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Speaker 1: the mid eighteen thirties, was the first railway in India.

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Speaker 1: It was built for the carriage of minerals and it

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Speaker 1: was an operation by eighteen thirty seven. In May of

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Speaker 1: eighteen forty five, the Madras Railway Company was established. In

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Speaker 1: that same year, the East India Railway Company was also formed,

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Speaker 1: but these railways were built to transport materials, not passengers.

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Speaker 1: Throughout the beginning of the eighteen forties, British people promoted

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Speaker 1: the idea of constructing railway lines in India. Roland McDonald

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Speaker 1: Stevenson supported the creation of a line from Calcutta towards

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Speaker 1: Delhi and Varonesey, and he published a text called Report

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Speaker 1: upon the Practicability and Advantages of the Introduction of Railways

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Speaker 1: into British India. British civil engineer Charles Blacker Vignol submitted

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Speaker 1: a report to the East India Company on the potential

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Speaker 1: of constructing a railway network in India. The proposal had

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Speaker 1: colonial designs with an aim of facilitating trade and managing

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Speaker 1: the country. In eighteen forty three, Governor General Lord Harding

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Speaker 1: claimed that the railways would be beneficial to the quote commerce,

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Speaker 1: government and military control of the country, and Lord Dalhousie,

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Speaker 1: who was the Governor General of India starting at eighteen

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Speaker 1: forty eight, advocated in trusting railway construction to private companies

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Speaker 1: rather than let the government be in charge of constructing railways.

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Speaker 1: On August first, eighteen forty nine, the Great Indian Peninsula

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Speaker 1: Railway or the g I p R was incorporated by

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Speaker 1: an Act of the British Parliament. A couple of weeks later,

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Speaker 1: the East India Company entered into contracts with the East

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Speaker 1: Indian Railway Company and the g I PR Company for

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Speaker 1: the construction of experimental lines. The East India Company was

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Speaker 1: a monopolistic training company that eventually became involved in politics

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Speaker 1: and extended Britain's imperial power in India. Per the old

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Speaker 1: guarantee system, free land and a guaranteed five percent rate

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Speaker 1: of return was provided to British companies willing to build railways.

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Speaker 1: On April eighteen fifty three, the first commercial passenger train

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Speaker 1: in India was inaugurated when the first section of the

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Speaker 1: Great Indian Peninsula Railway opened. The train departed from Bori

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Speaker 1: Bunder station in present day Mumbai that afternoon headed for Tana.

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Speaker 1: It had fourteen railway carriages and four hundred guests and

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Speaker 1: it was hauled by three locomotives. The trip was about

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Speaker 1: twenty one miles or thirty four kilometers. The second section

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Speaker 1: of the railway from Tanna to kel Yahn opened in

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Speaker 1: eighteen fifty four. That same year, the East Indian Railway

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Speaker 1: Company opened to passenger service that ran from Howrah, which

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Speaker 1: is near Calcutta, to Hoogley. From the eighteen fifties onward,

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Speaker 1: passenger railways in India were expanded. By eighteen eighty, around

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Speaker 1: nine thousand miles of railways spanned across India. The railways

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Speaker 1: allowed the British to transport goods and to deploy officials

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Speaker 1: and military resources. Many people who constructed the railways died

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Speaker 1: from the working conditions and diseases that hit camps. The

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Speaker 1: railways were a major part of the colonial project, but

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Speaker 1: the number of Indian passengers also increased over the years.

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Speaker 1: Rail travel also highlighted cast divides in India. In the

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Speaker 1: Indian government purchased the g I p R. Half a

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Speaker 1: century later. The g I p R combined with other

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Speaker 1: railways to form a zone of Indian railways called Central Railway.

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Speaker 1: India's national rail network is the fourth longest in the world.

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Speaker 1: The history of railways in India is intertwined with the

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Speaker 1: British legacy of colonization, exploitation, and racism in the country.

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Speaker 1: I'm Eve Jeff Coote and hopefully you know a little

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Speaker 1: more about history today than you did yesterday. And if

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Speaker 1: you have anything you'd like to tell us, you can

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Speaker 1: send us a note on social media at t d

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Speaker 1: I HC Podcast. You can also send us an email

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Speaker 1: at this day at I heeart media dot com. Thanks

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Speaker 1: again for listening to the show and we'll see you

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Speaker 1: again tomorrow. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit

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