0:00:04 > 0:00:09For many Indians, this may be the greatest legacy of the British Empire.
0:00:09 > 0:00:13Their railway network is the biggest in Asia,
0:00:13 > 0:00:19running on 40,000 miles of track and reaching to every part of the subcontinent.
0:00:19 > 0:00:23This is engineering perfectly matched to an epic task,
0:00:23 > 0:00:28feeding and serving a sprawling country of more than a billion people.
0:00:28 > 0:00:35And the railways have played a crucial role in all the main chapters of modern Indian history.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47The politics, the drama and the excitement which attended the birth of the Indian railways
0:00:47 > 0:00:50are still very much relevant today.
0:00:51 > 0:00:57So I'm going to cross the length and breadth of India on these tracks of empire
0:00:57 > 0:01:00to discover how and why they were built,
0:01:00 > 0:01:06to try to understand why the simple idea of building a railway created a nation.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11I want to reveal how the railways brought triumph
0:01:11 > 0:01:17and sometimes tragedy to the biggest democracy in the world.
0:01:21 > 0:01:27The railways have always been more than a matter of nuts and bolts.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30From the grandeur of their temples to transportation...
0:01:30 > 0:01:33It reminds me a bit of the Houses of Parliament.
0:01:33 > 0:01:37..to the ingenuity and beauty of their design,
0:01:37 > 0:01:40coupled to a brutal pursuit of power.
0:01:40 > 0:01:43I'll cross the fault lines of Indian history which lie
0:01:43 > 0:01:47beneath the railway tracks in this glorious, impossible country.
0:01:47 > 0:01:53I'll see how the empire builders harnessed the power of India with astounding engineering
0:01:53 > 0:01:58and the irreducible logic of the timetable.
0:01:58 > 0:02:04Looking out over this great sea of humanity, with its scores of languages and its thousands of gods,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07what could be more satisfying than saying,
0:02:07 > 0:02:12"I don't care, the train has got to arrive at 12.26"?
0:02:27 > 0:02:33The story of the Indian railways begins not on land, but on sea.
0:02:33 > 0:02:35The British came to rule India
0:02:35 > 0:02:40because, as the world's first superpower, they ruled the waves.
0:02:40 > 0:02:44By the 1850s, the Royal Navy had ensured that the ports of Bombay,
0:02:44 > 0:02:48Madras, and here, Calcutta, were firmly in British hands
0:02:48 > 0:02:52through the offices of the British East India Company.
0:02:54 > 0:02:58Naval power kept the sea routes open, but how could they tap
0:02:58 > 0:03:01the vast trading opportunities across the country?
0:03:01 > 0:03:05How could the British rule the inland sea of the interior?
0:03:07 > 0:03:13'It was a problem which had long exercised successive Governor-Generals of India,
0:03:13 > 0:03:17'but in January 1848, a new figure arrived on the subcontinent,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22'Governor-General James Broun-Ramsay, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie.
0:03:22 > 0:03:30'This Scottish aristocrat had been president of the British Board of Trade, and he meant business.'
0:03:33 > 0:03:37In 1853, he proposed a hugely ambitious railway network that
0:03:37 > 0:03:43would eventually become the biggest engineering project of its time.
0:03:43 > 0:03:48In just the first ten years, three million tons of railway
0:03:48 > 0:03:53construction materials would be transported to India in 3,500 ships.
0:03:53 > 0:03:55In the 19th century alone,
0:03:55 > 0:04:00ten million people would work on the construction of the Indian railways.
0:04:00 > 0:04:07In a famous memo of 1853, Dalhousie set India's wheels in motion
0:04:07 > 0:04:14when he wrote, "A magnificent system of railway communication would present a series of public monuments
0:04:14 > 0:04:20"vastly surpassing in real grandeur the aqueducts of Rome, the pyramids of Egypt,
0:04:20 > 0:04:26"the Great Wall of China, the temples, palaces and mausoleums of the great Mogul monuments."
0:04:26 > 0:04:32As the biggest trading firm in the world, the British East India Company
0:04:32 > 0:04:39would have to expand its operations in a land with no factories and almost no skilled industrial labour.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48But this had a huge advantage.
0:04:48 > 0:04:55The iron and steel Dalhousie's project needed would keep the British steel mills working overtime
0:04:55 > 0:04:58and provide a boom to British shipping.
0:05:00 > 0:05:03Dalhousie is a forgotten figure in India today,
0:05:03 > 0:05:10but his project became one of the engineering wonders of the world.
0:05:12 > 0:05:16'From here in Calcutta, I'll journey 3,000 miles
0:05:16 > 0:05:21'and back through history from Rajiv Gandhi to the grandeur of the Raj.'
0:05:28 > 0:05:32I'm going to follow the tracks of empire from here in Calcutta
0:05:32 > 0:05:37across the Ganges plain to Delhi and then on to the border with Pakistan.
0:05:37 > 0:05:41I'm not going to stray far from the railways, but the influence
0:05:41 > 0:05:47and importance of this network rises well above the nuts and bolts, the iron and steel.
0:05:47 > 0:05:53If you understand the railways, you can begin to understand India.
0:06:06 > 0:06:10Howrah Station, where I start my journey.
0:06:10 > 0:06:14It's the biggest station in India, and when it was built in 1906,
0:06:14 > 0:06:18Calcutta was still the capital of India.
0:06:20 > 0:06:24'Calcutta was the natural place to begin building
0:06:24 > 0:06:28'the great east-to-west rail route across the country.
0:06:33 > 0:06:36'Several experiments had been carried out
0:06:36 > 0:06:41'on short sections of track since 1850, trying out the new technology,
0:06:41 > 0:06:46'but it was Dalhousie who proposed the grand, unified plan
0:06:46 > 0:06:49'on which much of today's railway is based.'
0:06:49 > 0:06:55How can you tell that these railways were designed by British engineers?
0:06:55 > 0:06:59Well, all the measurements, of course, are feet and inches and yards and all those things.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Look at this big bolt, here we go... one inch.
0:07:02 > 0:07:05And if you measure the gauge...
0:07:08 > 0:07:10How much is it on the inside?
0:07:10 > 0:07:1266 inches.
0:07:12 > 0:07:19Five foot six, five and a half feet, the standard gauge of the Indian railway.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23As master architect and with an iron determination,
0:07:23 > 0:07:30Lord Dalhousie envisaged a network which would reach right across the subcontinent.
0:07:30 > 0:07:35It would be a network of steel, bringing the country together for the first time.
0:07:35 > 0:07:41The track was laid here in Calcutta in 1854, and within years, the railway was carrying nearly
0:07:41 > 0:07:4720 million passengers and more than three million tons of freight.
0:08:05 > 0:08:10'As I travel across India, I hope to discover the ways in which the railways
0:08:10 > 0:08:17'produced a clash of cultures, the new technology sometimes riding roughshod over ancient India.
0:08:18 > 0:08:22'The formidable difficulties posed by the landscape,
0:08:22 > 0:08:25'the extreme heat, the vast distances,
0:08:25 > 0:08:30'and the unforgiving terrain of desert, jungle and mountain.'
0:08:32 > 0:08:35It is busy, at least I don't have to carry that thing!
0:08:35 > 0:08:37'It's going to be quite a journey.'
0:08:37 > 0:08:39Look at this!
0:08:39 > 0:08:42It's amazing, isn't it? I've just got my bag.
0:08:42 > 0:08:43Perhaps I should put it on my head.
0:08:47 > 0:08:54This is still the most important railway line in India, cutting right across the north of the country.
0:08:54 > 0:08:59It goes through six states and covers more than 1,000 miles.
0:08:59 > 0:09:05First, I'm heading for a town built for the railways and by the railways.
0:09:05 > 0:09:10It's a small hop by Indian standards, but it'll take me all night.
0:09:10 > 0:09:12Right, this is my carriage.
0:09:12 > 0:09:15HA1, that's good.
0:09:15 > 0:09:19First AC, that's first air conditioning.
0:09:19 > 0:09:24Cum AC, two tier, that means you're on two tiers.
0:09:24 > 0:09:27'Right up until independence,
0:09:27 > 0:09:33'Indians were expected to travel third class,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37'whilst the Brits travelled in relative luxury.'
0:09:38 > 0:09:41FAN WHIRRING
0:09:41 > 0:09:44Well, that's good. OK, we've got the fans working.
0:09:44 > 0:09:47I feel cool, feel refreshed, ready for anything.
0:09:56 > 0:09:58Well, we're off.
0:09:58 > 0:10:03'The British rulers never encouraged nationalism.'
0:10:03 > 0:10:08India, with its size and all its diversity, had never existed as an independent nation state.
0:10:10 > 0:10:15But as early as 1885, an Indian official put his faith
0:10:15 > 0:10:20in the railways as a possible means to this end.
0:10:20 > 0:10:22And this is what the official said.
0:10:22 > 0:10:29"If India is ever to achieve solidarity, it must be by means of the railways."
0:10:32 > 0:10:34There are so many questions.
0:10:34 > 0:10:38What did it really take to build this railway?
0:10:38 > 0:10:43And the biggest question of all, why were the railways important,
0:10:43 > 0:10:48first of all in uniting India and then finally, in the end, dividing it?
0:10:48 > 0:10:53'Attention, please. 2321 hours...'
0:11:01 > 0:11:07'Seven hours into our journey, and we've travelled just 290 miles.
0:11:07 > 0:11:10'We're now entering the agricultural heartland of India.'
0:11:13 > 0:11:16This is the great, fertile Ganges plain.
0:11:16 > 0:11:20It looks... It looks green, it's...it's...it's amazing.
0:11:21 > 0:11:26It looks beautiful, but building a railway across this plain was an enormous challenge.
0:11:30 > 0:11:34Swampy marshland for much of the year
0:11:34 > 0:11:38and then a raging overflow from the Ganges during the monsoon.
0:11:38 > 0:11:40The track had to be raised on embankments.
0:11:42 > 0:11:46But this boggy plain was also home to the great curse
0:11:46 > 0:11:53of the railways builders, malaria, and building embankments only created more stagnant water
0:11:53 > 0:11:56in which the malaria-carrying mosquitoes could breed.
0:11:59 > 0:12:02I'm now in Bihar State.
0:12:03 > 0:12:09It's always been one of the poorest areas of India and one of the most troublesome.
0:12:09 > 0:12:14Tourists are put off by the long-running and violent campaign
0:12:14 > 0:12:18mounted by left-wing guerrillas who call themselves Maoists,
0:12:18 > 0:12:21and one of their main targets is the railways.
0:12:24 > 0:12:28'My train arrives at Jamalpur two hours late.
0:12:28 > 0:12:33'As I slept, there was a major incident just a few miles along the track.'
0:12:33 > 0:12:35HORN BLARES
0:12:38 > 0:12:41Well, this is why we were delayed for two hours.
0:12:41 > 0:12:45"Train movement paralysed," it says, "as Maoists blow up the tracks."
0:12:45 > 0:12:49It was an explosion on the line, not our line, thankfully,
0:12:49 > 0:12:50but on a line adjoining us,
0:12:50 > 0:12:54and that put out the system for quite some time.
0:12:54 > 0:12:59It's interesting that it's still an absolute guarantee point that if
0:12:59 > 0:13:03you want to attack the government, first attack the railways.
0:13:09 > 0:13:14Jamalpur owes its existence to the railways.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22It was built for railway workers in 1862.
0:13:25 > 0:13:31Even today, 10,000 rail employees and their dependants live in the town.
0:13:36 > 0:13:39'The British have long since gone,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42'but ghosts are everywhere.'
0:13:48 > 0:13:52Many of the road signs hark back to the Raj.
0:13:52 > 0:13:54Queen's Road, but no longer a Queen.
0:13:57 > 0:14:00The clipped hedges, the manicured lawns.
0:14:00 > 0:14:02Everyone knows his place.
0:14:02 > 0:14:05This is the home of a senior mechanical engineer.
0:14:05 > 0:14:12And the Empire was built like that, on rules and regulations meticulously observed.
0:14:12 > 0:14:17From the Viceroy downwards, continuity was the key.
0:14:17 > 0:14:21Not too much flashy individualism - that might rock the boat.
0:14:27 > 0:14:32The rulers of the Raj could boast that these railway towns - there were quite a few of them -
0:14:32 > 0:14:37would bring progress and prosperity,
0:14:37 > 0:14:40but they were strictly divided on racial lines.
0:14:40 > 0:14:46Indians could work on the railways and as servants, but they couldn't live in this British part of town.
0:14:46 > 0:14:49That would be unthinkable.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00The architect of this great rail network, Governor-General Lord Dalhousie,
0:15:00 > 0:15:06would later claim his railway revolution in India had unleashed the engines of social improvement.
0:15:06 > 0:15:11He believed in the greatest good for the greatest number of people.
0:15:11 > 0:15:15By transforming Indian society, the British, he was convinced,
0:15:15 > 0:15:20would bring material progress and development to India.
0:15:25 > 0:15:33And Lord Dalhousie believed his great railway project could play a major part in transforming society.
0:15:36 > 0:15:43And this is the Anglican church, which I must say looks rather forlorn.
0:15:43 > 0:15:46That's the sign, St Mary's Church, Jamalpur.
0:15:46 > 0:15:49Established 1867.
0:15:49 > 0:15:53And the laundry service, well, I think that's up to the parishioners.
0:15:55 > 0:15:59'For many years, Christian missionaries had been active in India.
0:15:59 > 0:16:02'Any town plan designed for the senior rail staff
0:16:02 > 0:16:07'wouldn't be complete without its churches.'
0:16:07 > 0:16:11This is the Catholic church of the railway workers.
0:16:11 > 0:16:15About 200 families regularly worship here.
0:16:15 > 0:16:18There's also an Anglican church and a Baptist church.
0:16:18 > 0:16:20But if you look in here,
0:16:20 > 0:16:23this is the railwaymen at prayer.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27CONGREGATION SINGING
0:16:37 > 0:16:41The 19th century children's almanac,
0:16:41 > 0:16:44Every Boy's Book Of Railways And Steamships,
0:16:44 > 0:16:46left no room for doubt.
0:16:49 > 0:16:53"Into whatever part of the world the white man penetrates," it said,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56"He takes the Gospel with him."
0:16:56 > 0:17:01So the trains brought the word, and the word was God.
0:17:13 > 0:17:19It's very moving, so much that's familiar, the figure of Christ, the altar, the structure of the mass,
0:17:19 > 0:17:24and so much that's unfamiliar, that warmth, that informality that's particularly Indian.
0:17:24 > 0:17:27And what we're seeing here in this railway town is the way that this
0:17:27 > 0:17:35technology came into India, but all sorts of other things came too with the European rulers.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40Religion, obviously, technology, and India managed to absorb all these influences and, instead of
0:17:40 > 0:17:47rejecting them, they all became part of India, and that's what gives India this extraordinary richness.
0:17:54 > 0:18:0160 years since independence, and another influence is still deeply felt in Indian society.
0:18:03 > 0:18:06Millions of people learn the English language,
0:18:06 > 0:18:08more so than under the Raj.
0:18:10 > 0:18:14But in Jamalpur, it was not the church that ran the school.
0:18:15 > 0:18:18It was the railways.
0:18:18 > 0:18:22'The railways permeate every aspect of life here.
0:18:22 > 0:18:28'In towns like this, people were brought together from all over India.
0:18:28 > 0:18:35'Gujaratis and Tamils, as well as Bengalis, came to live side by side as never before.
0:18:35 > 0:18:39'The people here are railway, through and through.
0:18:39 > 0:18:44'They're in no doubt what they owe to the railways.'
0:18:44 > 0:18:46Are you from all over India?
0:18:51 > 0:18:53What do you do on the railways?
0:18:54 > 0:18:56You want to be an engineer?
0:18:56 > 0:18:59And does your father work on the railways?
0:19:01 > 0:19:03This is your father?
0:19:03 > 0:19:07And what for you is the attraction of working on the railways?
0:19:11 > 0:19:13Belong to the railway?
0:19:13 > 0:19:15And you want to belong to the railway?
0:19:15 > 0:19:19And if you have a son, what would you say to your son?
0:19:19 > 0:19:22So it'll go on and on and on! Yeah. Yeah, I see.
0:19:27 > 0:19:29It carries on, yeah.
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Do you think of yourselves first of all as railwaymen?
0:19:32 > 0:19:35Is that what you think of yourselves as?
0:19:38 > 0:19:39Rail service?
0:19:41 > 0:19:43That's quite a sense of community, isn't it?
0:19:45 > 0:19:48BELL RINGS
0:19:50 > 0:19:55'The nationalised Indian rail network employs one and a half million people.
0:19:55 > 0:20:00'It's the country's biggest employer and the fifth largest in the world.
0:20:00 > 0:20:07'Here, the Prasad family are laying on a special Hindu ceremony to commemorate a railway veteran.'
0:20:07 > 0:20:14It's remembering the father of the family, who died nearly a year ago, and they think that he was 100.
0:20:16 > 0:20:21He's remembered both as a family man and as one of the people that kept the railways going.
0:20:22 > 0:20:28The British ruled India for so long because the majority of Indians gave them active support.
0:20:28 > 0:20:31'Railway staff and their families, then and now,
0:20:31 > 0:20:39'proved to be a first line of defence against those who might be keen to bring down governments.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46'I'm leaving Jamalpur to head to a small town called Ara.'
0:20:49 > 0:20:51Chai!
0:20:51 > 0:20:54Chai! Chai! Chai!
0:20:59 > 0:21:02Chai! Chai! Chai!
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Chai!
0:21:20 > 0:21:21Thank you.
0:21:23 > 0:21:3170 miles further west in Bihar State, Ara is deep in the heart of poor rural India.
0:21:31 > 0:21:38'There, I want to discover how the iron fist of the railways came up against the belligerence of Bihar.'
0:21:53 > 0:21:55'At Ara, the newspapers tell us
0:21:55 > 0:22:01'about more violence from yesterday, which makes me think of yesteryear.'
0:22:01 > 0:22:05For the second day running, terrorists have caught the headlines.
0:22:05 > 0:22:08"Maoists blow up rail tracks, torch vehicles."
0:22:08 > 0:22:14Unrest in Bihar, that would have sounded awfully familiar to the British forces stationed here
0:22:14 > 0:22:18150 years ago at the time of the Indian Mutiny.
0:22:21 > 0:22:27By 1857, the railway builders had achieved what seemed an unstoppable momentum.
0:22:27 > 0:22:33In just three years, they had laid nearly 1,000 miles of track across the subcontinent.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37The engineers had brought Dalhousie's main line to Ara
0:22:37 > 0:22:43just at the moment resentment against Britain boiled over into rebellion.
0:22:43 > 0:22:47And it happened a few hundred metres from the railway.
0:22:47 > 0:22:52Historians in India don't describe this as the Indian Mutiny.
0:22:52 > 0:22:58To them, it's the Rebellion, or more heroically, the First War of Independence.
0:23:00 > 0:23:05In July 1857, a violent mob surrounded this house,
0:23:05 > 0:23:09which belonged to a British railway engineer, Richard Boyle.
0:23:10 > 0:23:14He was one of the great pioneers of the Indian railways.
0:23:14 > 0:23:20At this time, there were just a few hundred British engineers scattered across the subcontinent.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And like many of them, he'd come to India to make his name
0:23:23 > 0:23:26in the greatest civil engineering project of its time.
0:23:37 > 0:23:4415 Brits and 50 well-armed Sikhs withstood attacks
0:23:44 > 0:23:48from nationalist forces outside of several thousand.
0:23:48 > 0:23:55You can see from this picture from the Illustrated London News what it was like during the siege,
0:23:55 > 0:23:59all round here, how the sandbags were put up to help the defence,
0:23:59 > 0:24:05and here is the plaque which was put up by the Viceroy, Lord Curzon.
0:24:05 > 0:24:09Richard Boyle writes a vivid account of what happened.
0:24:09 > 0:24:15Boyle was amused to begin with when the attackers opened up with two cannons.
0:24:15 > 0:24:17This is what he wrote.
0:24:17 > 0:24:22"There was some degree of amusement when it was ascertained that the contents of the cannon,
0:24:22 > 0:24:28"which came rattling through the defences, consisted chiefly of heavy brass castors,
0:24:28 > 0:24:33"torn by mutineers from pianos, easy chairs and couches."
0:24:36 > 0:24:42But soon it was the defenders who were rattled, and Boyle's tone changes markedly.
0:24:42 > 0:24:48He says, "Hope and trust and reliance on providence and on each other
0:24:48 > 0:24:52"cheered and supported the little band of heroes."
0:24:54 > 0:24:58'Boyle's story, The Siege Of The Little House At Ara,
0:24:58 > 0:25:04'was perfectly judged propaganda to prepare the way for a savage British response to the mutiny.
0:25:07 > 0:25:12'After eight days, the siege ended with something of an anticlimax.
0:25:12 > 0:25:16'The rebels withdrew, perhaps encouraged by the fact
0:25:16 > 0:25:20'that 400 British soldiers were on their way to retake the town.'
0:25:20 > 0:25:24Boyle, the railway engineer, lived to tell the tale
0:25:24 > 0:25:29and went on to help build the Japanese railways.
0:25:29 > 0:25:35For the first time, the railways and what they represented had become a battleground.
0:25:36 > 0:25:40This is a portrait of the rebel leader, Kunwar Singh,
0:25:40 > 0:25:43and he is, of course, a local hero, a nationalist.
0:25:43 > 0:25:46He led the forces that surrounded this place,
0:25:46 > 0:25:52and he, of course, is commemorated and not our man, Richard Boyle.
0:25:59 > 0:26:04'Professor Anil Sree teaches history and politics, here at the university.'
0:26:04 > 0:26:08Why were the railways the target of the nationalist forces?
0:26:14 > 0:26:21Will be captured by them, so the nationalist forces, the railway was the first target.
0:26:21 > 0:26:26- Yes, that was the first target. - The interesting point here is that the railways had arrived at Ara.
0:26:26 > 0:26:31It was in fact the main line from Calcutta that had come here.
0:26:31 > 0:26:35So we see the dissatisfaction with the railways very early on.
0:26:35 > 0:26:401857, there comes the mutiny, what do you attack? The railways.
0:26:42 > 0:26:44Cripple the British economy.
0:27:11 > 0:27:17The siege at Boyle's house in Ara came at the beginning of India's long struggle for freedom.
0:27:17 > 0:27:20And even today, the spirit of revolution lives on.
0:27:20 > 0:27:26The rebel leader, Kunwar Singh, who was 80 at the time, is revered by today's students.
0:27:36 > 0:27:43They see him as one of the first great nationalists, a freedom fighter, fully endorsed by history.
0:27:51 > 0:27:53- Vir Kunwar Singh!- Amara!
0:27:53 > 0:27:56- Vir Kunwar Singh!- Amara!
0:27:56 > 0:27:59THEY ALL CHANT
0:28:08 > 0:28:12Tell me what you were saying on the podium.
0:28:12 > 0:28:14We were chanting, "Vir Kunwar Singh, amara."
0:28:18 > 0:28:20Why is he such a great man?
0:28:30 > 0:28:34But when we look at this and we see the house and we see the plaque,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38which obviously celebrates the heroism of the British who were in there...
0:28:42 > 0:28:43And he was the hero.
0:28:43 > 0:28:47- He was the only hero.- Yes, yes.
0:28:47 > 0:28:49So the men in the house...
0:28:54 > 0:28:58But they were brave, though, weren't they?
0:28:58 > 0:28:59Right, whereas he was...
0:28:59 > 0:29:01he was there... to save the country?
0:29:13 > 0:29:17But what aspects of the British rule do you think were good?
0:29:30 > 0:29:32- Than any of these things? Your own freedom.- Yes.
0:29:32 > 0:29:36- do you ever think that the British did some good things for India?- Yeah, of course.
0:29:36 > 0:29:39They have given us railways!
0:29:43 > 0:29:49The Mutiny of 1967 marked a dramatic change in British relations with India.
0:29:49 > 0:29:56'The myth that continuing British rule was somehow inevitable had been exploded.
0:29:56 > 0:30:03'There was plenty of soul-searching. At Westminster, the reaction was not to go easy, but to get tough.'
0:30:03 > 0:30:08Lord Dalhousie was the Governor-General who took much of the blame for the Indian Mutiny.
0:30:08 > 0:30:12He was particularly criticised for annexing large areas of the country
0:30:12 > 0:30:14and putting them under direct British rule.
0:30:14 > 0:30:21But paradoxically, it was his brainchild, the railway network, which helped quell the revolt.
0:30:21 > 0:30:25For the first time, troops could be moved quickly and easily.
0:30:25 > 0:30:27It was, in every sense, a grip of iron,
0:30:27 > 0:30:32and some years later, a senior British official boasted,
0:30:32 > 0:30:37"Provided with this additional source of energy and strength,
0:30:37 > 0:30:41"should an enemy again be rash enough to threaten our territory,
0:30:41 > 0:30:45"he would find a wall of iron, bristling with British bayonets,
0:30:45 > 0:30:49"our munitions of war at hand and our guns in position.
0:30:49 > 0:30:54"Work so formidable to our enemies, so useful to ourselves,
0:30:54 > 0:30:58"the power of the paramount authority in India."
0:31:03 > 0:31:07'For the British, the Mutiny underlined the importance of tightening the Imperial grip.
0:31:07 > 0:31:13'In 1857, the East India Company was relieved of its position as the go-between.'
0:31:13 > 0:31:17Her Majesty's Government was put directly in charge.
0:31:17 > 0:31:21The Raj was born.
0:31:21 > 0:31:24And the railway network consolidated British rule.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32This new phase in India's history was marked by a boom in railway building
0:31:32 > 0:31:36that would see the network expand across the country.
0:31:36 > 0:31:40In just ten years, another 3,000 miles of track were added.
0:31:40 > 0:31:46The rapid mobilisation of troops, the distribution of weaponry and ammunition,
0:31:46 > 0:31:52even a special armoured gun train, all added to British power.
0:31:55 > 0:32:02By 1871, the railways employed 70,000 permanent staff,
0:32:02 > 0:32:05and there were many workshop towns like Jamalpur.
0:32:06 > 0:32:12India was experiencing an industrial revolution, courtesy of the British Empire.
0:32:16 > 0:32:20For the first time, India, under the Raj, had a government
0:32:20 > 0:32:24which could effectively control the entire country.
0:32:24 > 0:32:28As the nationalist leader Mahatma Gandhi ruefully observed,
0:32:28 > 0:32:35"But for the railways, the English could not have such a hold on India as they have."
0:32:47 > 0:32:52By the 1880s, over 10,000 miles of track had been laid.
0:32:52 > 0:32:56Advancing at the rate of almost two miles a day, the railways builders
0:32:56 > 0:33:00were conquering a country five times the size of France.
0:33:00 > 0:33:05Jungles were tamed, deserts crossed, and mountains tunnelled through.
0:33:05 > 0:33:10Never in history had an engineering project been so ambitious in scale.
0:33:14 > 0:33:19From Ara, the railway forces its way for 110 miles
0:33:19 > 0:33:26across the great Ganges flood plain, to arrive on the banks of the River Ganges at Varanasi.
0:33:26 > 0:33:33Nothing, not even a sacred river, was going to get in the way of Dalhousie's Imperial railway.
0:33:40 > 0:33:45This was the scene of one of the most ambitious feats of construction so far -
0:33:45 > 0:33:48the mile-long Dufferin bridge.
0:33:48 > 0:33:53A local engineering professor, PK Singh, promotes this fine example
0:33:53 > 0:33:55of Victorian engineering in his classroom.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58- It's a magnificent bridge, isn't it? - Yeah.
0:34:16 > 0:34:17- A miracle?- Yeah.
0:34:17 > 0:34:22I've got some pictures here of the time. They're actually of bridge building in general.
0:34:22 > 0:34:25Some of them are of this bridge. It's extraordinary, isn't it?
0:34:25 > 0:34:29Building great big pillars, sinking them into the ground.
0:34:29 > 0:34:327,000 men worked on the project.
0:34:32 > 0:34:37An entire town had to be built simply to house them and their families.
0:34:38 > 0:34:44They even had their own narrow-gauge railway.
0:34:44 > 0:34:50The British engineers in charge of the construction had to adapt their building techniques for India.
0:34:50 > 0:34:56The vast rivers of the subcontinent demanded immensely strong bridges
0:34:56 > 0:35:00to withstand the devastating floodwaters of the monsoon.
0:35:00 > 0:35:07It meant that millions of tons of material for the bridge's vast iron and steel spans
0:35:07 > 0:35:09had to be shipped from Britain.
0:35:09 > 0:35:12That's from the top of the bridge, looking down over it.
0:35:12 > 0:35:16You can see some of the thousands of workers at work on it.
0:35:16 > 0:35:19Yeah, working. A large number of labourers working.
0:35:19 > 0:35:22They are busy with the completion work, yeah.
0:35:24 > 0:35:28Later, these came to be called Meccano bridges.
0:35:28 > 0:35:29But this was no toy.
0:35:31 > 0:35:35Using the latest technology and an army of native workmen,
0:35:35 > 0:35:39they built huge brick pillars to support the structure.
0:35:39 > 0:35:45Some had to be sunk as deep as 140 feet beneath the river bed.
0:35:45 > 0:35:50But the bridge was completed on time for Queen Victoria's Jubilee in 1887.
0:35:54 > 0:36:01The chronicler of empire, Rudyard Kipling, caught the intense drama of the bridge builders at work.
0:36:03 > 0:36:08He wrote, "And the very look of their toil, even in the bright sunshine, is devilish.
0:36:08 > 0:36:15"Pale flames from the fires for the red-hot rivets sought out from all parts of the black ironwork,
0:36:15 > 0:36:18"where men hang and cluster like bees."
0:36:18 > 0:36:25But the bridge had been built directly above the holiest site in the country - the Ghats of Varanasi.
0:36:25 > 0:36:28The scene was set for a clash of cultures.
0:36:28 > 0:36:36The latest foreign technology matched against one of the greatest forces of Indian religion
0:36:36 > 0:36:39along the River Ganges, Mother Ganga herself.
0:36:46 > 0:36:50When the bridge was built, how much opposition was there from the people here?
0:37:24 > 0:37:29'Rudyard Kipling, who was born in India, recognised this as a huge struggle
0:37:29 > 0:37:33'between ancient India and the modern British Empire.
0:37:33 > 0:37:36'He wrote a short story called The Bridge Builders.
0:37:36 > 0:37:39'It was a metaphor, in which an engineer battles with
0:37:39 > 0:37:44'India's holy river as it threatens to sweep away his railway bridge.'
0:37:50 > 0:37:55This is what he wrote. "Government might listen, perhaps, but his own kind, engineers,
0:37:55 > 0:38:00"would judge him by his bridge as that stood or fell.
0:38:00 > 0:38:04"His side of the sum was beyond question.
0:38:04 > 0:38:08"But what man knew Mother Ganga's arithmetic?"
0:38:11 > 0:38:14And so we're back to the eternal argument about
0:38:14 > 0:38:20technical development, whether it really does mean progress.
0:38:20 > 0:38:22'When this bridge was built, there were plenty of people
0:38:22 > 0:38:26'on the banks of the Ganges who would happily have done without it.'
0:38:33 > 0:38:37It's hard to exaggerate the importance of the opposition to
0:38:37 > 0:38:42the bridge when it was first built. The Ganges, India's holiest river.
0:38:42 > 0:38:46And to have this great 19th century intrusion of the ruling power
0:38:46 > 0:38:51plonked into these waters was horrendous for the people here.
0:38:51 > 0:38:55It was like a mob suddenly rushing through into a cathedral during a service.
0:38:55 > 0:39:00This is a very sacred area, and to have the modern world
0:39:00 > 0:39:05suddenly imposed upon it was a terrific shock to the community.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10In Kipling's story, the bridge survives.
0:39:10 > 0:39:17Victorian engineering triumphs over India's ancient gods and the great River Ganges.
0:39:17 > 0:39:24But here in Varanasi, people eventually came to embrace the railway age.
0:39:24 > 0:39:27To bathe in the Ganges is for many a holy rite,
0:39:27 > 0:39:31and the railways made that possible for millions of pilgrims.
0:39:31 > 0:39:35The railways seemed to be a force for good.
0:39:35 > 0:39:42But India's spiritual leader, the great nationalist Mahatma Gandhi, did not approve.
0:39:42 > 0:39:48Gandhi argued that the railways soon devalued the purity of pilgrimages.
0:39:48 > 0:39:50The wrong sort of people were attracted.
0:39:50 > 0:39:55He wrote, "The holy places of India have become unholy.
0:39:55 > 0:39:59"Formerly, people went to these places with very great difficulty.
0:39:59 > 0:40:04"Generally, therefore, only the real devotees visited such places.
0:40:04 > 0:40:09"Nowadays, rogues visit them to practise their roguery."
0:40:09 > 0:40:15But the economic effect on religious centres such as Varanasi was incredible.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Quickly, pilgrimages became big business.
0:40:18 > 0:40:23And even now, on a typical day, a million people will come here.
0:40:23 > 0:40:25Most of them will travel by train.
0:40:28 > 0:40:31DRUMS BEATING, BELLS RINGING
0:40:41 > 0:40:43And what is it representing?
0:40:43 > 0:40:48- What are we doing?- We are offering prayer to the Mother Ganges.
0:40:48 > 0:40:53'Every evening, pilgrims from all over India make offerings at the water's edge.'
0:40:53 > 0:40:57This is our way of thanking... thanking her.
0:40:57 > 0:40:59Thanking and offering our prayer.
0:40:59 > 0:41:03She provides us salvation in the end.
0:41:03 > 0:41:08By the early 20th century, 35,000 miles of railway track
0:41:08 > 0:41:13had been built, carrying 80 million tons of goods every year.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20The railways were bringing industry,
0:41:20 > 0:41:23untapping India's vast natural resources
0:41:23 > 0:41:27and transporting nearly 500 million passengers.
0:41:30 > 0:41:33India as an idea became possible.
0:41:33 > 0:41:37Communities separated by vast distances,
0:41:37 > 0:41:42intense local traditions and a plethora of languages
0:41:42 > 0:41:46found, often to their surprise, that they could work well together.
0:41:46 > 0:41:49But one important figure, Mahatma Gandhi,
0:41:49 > 0:41:54endlessly attacked the railways as little more than evil.
0:41:54 > 0:41:59After becoming leader of the Indian National Congress, he gave full vent
0:41:59 > 0:42:06to his ideas on how the power and scale of the railways were the means by which Britain plundered India.
0:42:06 > 0:42:13'An historian, Dr Rudrimshu Mukherjee, is an expert on Gandhi.'
0:42:13 > 0:42:19One part of him, the practical part of him, if you like, was reconciled
0:42:19 > 0:42:24to railways and the benefits that the railways brought in terms of travel.
0:42:24 > 0:42:30But, as an idea, I don't think he ever accepted that modernity,
0:42:30 > 0:42:37- of which the railways were a part, could be anything but evil.- That's a very strong statement, isn't it?
0:42:37 > 0:42:41It is strong, but Gandhi strongly believed in this because he believed that
0:42:41 > 0:42:49the railways were bringing in modern - and by modern, he meant western/industrial -
0:42:49 > 0:42:53- civilisation into India. - Which he disapproved of?
0:42:53 > 0:42:56Completely. Because he believed industrial civilisation
0:42:56 > 0:43:00was based on greed and violence, and he stood for non-violence.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02Therefore, railways were an agent of evil.
0:43:02 > 0:43:07Gandhi is also extolling the virtues of a simple life,
0:43:07 > 0:43:10and he says, "Good travels at a snail's pace."
0:43:10 > 0:43:13So he doesn't even like the speed of the railways.
0:43:13 > 0:43:15He didn't like the speed of anything.
0:43:15 > 0:43:20You know, he didn't believe that things could happen fast and overnight.
0:43:20 > 0:43:26He neither liked good travelling fast or goods travelling fast.
0:43:26 > 0:43:30In fact, he didn't believe goods should travel any great distance at all.
0:43:30 > 0:43:32You should be self-sufficient.
0:43:32 > 0:43:38Self-sufficient in that small little area that one lived in.
0:43:44 > 0:43:49Gandhi saw the railways' huge growth as a threat to Indian society itself.
0:43:49 > 0:43:56An exploitation of its resources, sucking away its wealth and destroying its culture.
0:43:57 > 0:44:00But there's a paradox at the heart of Gandhi's stance.
0:44:00 > 0:44:06The railways were the only way he could tour the country, and only by using the railways
0:44:06 > 0:44:12could nationalist literature be disseminated across the subcontinent.
0:44:12 > 0:44:18Gandhi needed the railways he despised to turn himself into a nationalist hero.
0:44:20 > 0:44:28And on 15 August 1847, it seemed Mahatma Gandhi and the nationalists had finally got their way.
0:44:28 > 0:44:31India became an independent state.
0:44:31 > 0:44:38But what should have been India's greatest moment would quickly turn into its greatest tragedy.
0:44:38 > 0:44:43Under the Raj, the two biggest communities, the Hindus and the Muslims,
0:44:43 > 0:44:49had managed to live together, often in separate areas, but not in separate states.
0:44:49 > 0:44:54The British held the ring. Only when independence was threatened by Muslims
0:44:54 > 0:44:59demanding a state of their own did the British reluctantly agree.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02West and East Pakistan were formed.
0:45:02 > 0:45:08But the partition of India would turn into a tragedy on an almost unbelievable scale.
0:45:08 > 0:45:11And a large part of that tragedy would be played out on the railways.
0:45:14 > 0:45:19'Journalist Kuldip Nayar, a Hindu, was 25 when he discovered,
0:45:19 > 0:45:23'to his horror, he was trapped on the Muslim side of the new frontier.'
0:45:25 > 0:45:29I'm travelling with him to the Indian city of Amritsar,
0:45:29 > 0:45:33which is only 18 miles from the present-day border with Pakistan.
0:45:33 > 0:45:40The railway station at Amritsar was the scene for an atrocity which left a terrible legacy.
0:45:40 > 0:45:43We're going to go to Amritsar because you have
0:45:43 > 0:45:46a personal story to tell, don't you, about partition?
0:45:55 > 0:46:01Kuldip was from a small town called Sialkot in the Punjab.
0:46:01 > 0:46:04Because of partition, he, like millions of others,
0:46:04 > 0:46:09awoke one day to find himself no longer welcome in his own country.
0:46:15 > 0:46:20For many people, partition was the worst moment in Indian history. It was just so violent.
0:47:02 > 0:47:07As politicians desperately tried to make the new agreement work, millions of people took their lives
0:47:07 > 0:47:11into their own hands and fled in terror.
0:47:11 > 0:47:18The refugees wanted to escape as far and as fast as possible. And that meant travelling by train.
0:47:18 > 0:47:23The price of failure was often just all too apparent.
0:47:23 > 0:47:26Stations became battlegrounds.
0:47:26 > 0:47:28Bodies were abandoned.
0:47:28 > 0:47:32Where the refugees were trying to go depended solely
0:47:32 > 0:47:35on where they thought they could find a friendly reception.
0:47:35 > 0:47:40Muslims were desperate to travel across the Pakistan border.
0:47:40 > 0:47:43Hindus to go the other way, to India.
0:47:45 > 0:47:53The Sikhs of Amritsar were thankful their town and their holiest shrine was on the Indian side.
0:47:55 > 0:47:57That is the scene, isn't it?
0:48:32 > 0:48:34It was a savage time.
0:48:39 > 0:48:45In just a few months, 2.5 million people had crossed the borders in search of a new home.
0:48:45 > 0:48:49They were transported in almost 700 trains.
0:48:49 > 0:48:54Each journey carried the threat of sudden violence.
0:48:54 > 0:48:59So, Kuldip, take me back to that date in September. What happened?
0:48:59 > 0:49:02You were on the other side of the border. What happened?
0:49:23 > 0:49:24Really?
0:49:27 > 0:49:30- You had to prove that you were a Hindu?- Yes.
0:49:30 > 0:49:32And how did you do that?
0:49:38 > 0:49:41Circumcision?
0:49:42 > 0:49:44A trial? Yeah.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53You had to take your trousers down?
0:50:21 > 0:50:25The feelings and the emotions of the people who remember what happened
0:50:25 > 0:50:30here on this station, they're so raw still, they're so vivid.
0:50:30 > 0:50:34This happened more than 60 years ago, but they can remember it
0:50:34 > 0:50:39with tremendous clarity, but also with a sense of loss, that the life
0:50:39 > 0:50:47that they led before was so much better in terms of relations between Hindus and Sikhs and Muslims.
0:50:47 > 0:50:54And they now realise that there's no going back and that this argument between India and Pakistan goes on
0:50:54 > 0:50:58and on, and relations between the two countries are still as bad
0:50:58 > 0:51:04as ever because of what happened in this area more than 60 years ago.
0:51:09 > 0:51:14Between the great bridge-building projects of the late 19th century
0:51:14 > 0:51:21and 1947, the rail network doubled in size, to 40,000 miles in length.
0:51:21 > 0:51:24But because India's railways had been constructed to serve British
0:51:24 > 0:51:32interests first and foremost, partition had a devastating effect on the railways themselves.
0:51:33 > 0:51:40The network was ruthlessly dismembered in a way which made little practical sense.
0:51:40 > 0:51:45Both India and Pakistan's main lines simply stopped at their new political border.
0:51:47 > 0:51:51'Pakistan was left with lines whose prime purpose
0:51:51 > 0:51:57'was to transport goods to the ports and cities of the old Indian empire.
0:52:03 > 0:52:06'The east-west main line, as envisaged by
0:52:06 > 0:52:11'the rail network's creator, Governor-General Lord Dalhousie,
0:52:11 > 0:52:18'today stretches from Calcutta to just past Amritsar, a distance of nearly 1,200 miles.
0:52:20 > 0:52:24'These tracks are, in effect, going nowhere.'
0:52:29 > 0:52:33Just two trains a week cross into Pakistan.
0:52:33 > 0:52:36I'm stopping here at the border.
0:52:47 > 0:52:51CHANTING AND SHOUTING
0:52:53 > 0:52:58At the official border crossing, a ceremony is held which has the effect of
0:52:58 > 0:53:02highlighting the differences between the two countries.
0:53:02 > 0:53:06CHANTING AND SHOUTING
0:53:10 > 0:53:14What they're shouting is, "Long live India! Long live India!"
0:53:14 > 0:53:17And you've got this extraordinary, theatrical scene,
0:53:17 > 0:53:23both sides of the border shouting out their slogans, showing how patriotic they are.
0:53:35 > 0:53:42Every evening, the Indian and Pakistan border guards try to outdo each other in military swagger.
0:53:42 > 0:53:46Crowds on both sides raucously chant their support.
0:53:46 > 0:53:52This is one of the two official crossings between India and Pakistan.
0:53:52 > 0:53:56In this nightly ritual, the guards briefly set foot
0:53:56 > 0:54:02in their neighbours' territory, only to slam the gate shut on their shared history.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07It's a pantomime which disguises the tragedy of modern India.
0:54:07 > 0:54:11Mahatma Gandhi became the spiritual leader and father
0:54:11 > 0:54:15of an independent India at the cost of India itself.
0:54:15 > 0:54:23The India of the Raj, partly created and sustained by the railway network, was now derailed.
0:54:28 > 0:54:31FANFARE
0:54:34 > 0:54:40If there was a real war between India and Pakistan, it wouldn't be a phoney confrontation like this.
0:54:40 > 0:54:42Both sides are armed with nuclear weapons,
0:54:42 > 0:54:45and Armageddon would beckon.
0:54:45 > 0:54:48But for the time being, they are content with having these mock battles,
0:54:48 > 0:54:56where they spend their time sprucing up and then flaunting their improbable uniforms.
0:55:04 > 0:55:07'I came to India to ride the rails, to discover
0:55:07 > 0:55:11'how they were constructed and to explore their legacy.
0:55:11 > 0:55:17'Here at the border, it's obvious that railways aren't always built along straight lines.
0:55:17 > 0:55:24'They bend, and sometimes break, with the politics of the country - and nowhere more so than here.'
0:55:24 > 0:55:30To have the Indian railways effectively stopping here, on the border with Pakistan,
0:55:30 > 0:55:33would have seemed particularly pointless
0:55:33 > 0:55:38to the 19th century Governor-General and railway pioneer, Lord Dalhousie.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42For him, the railway network was a way of exerting power
0:55:42 > 0:55:47from West Pakistan right across the subcontinent to Burma.
0:55:47 > 0:55:51To have this great divide between India and Pakistan
0:55:51 > 0:55:56would have seemed to him like the total failure of his Imperial dream.
0:55:58 > 0:56:02What has come across so strongly in my journey is that both Dalhousie
0:56:02 > 0:56:07and Gandhi, in their own ways, had exactly the same aim -
0:56:07 > 0:56:10to unite India.
0:56:10 > 0:56:14Gandhi lived to see independence and the tragedy of partition.
0:56:14 > 0:56:19But he died before the last of the British troops left the country.
0:56:19 > 0:56:23In life, he claimed the railways were inherently evil.
0:56:23 > 0:56:29But in death, his ashes would be taken across India in state by train.
0:56:30 > 0:56:36Not only that, but his ashes were scattered in the holy waters of Mother Ganga,
0:56:36 > 0:56:43the river Ganges, which the Victorians' love of technology had threatened to defile in Varanasi.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50'After all their work to unite India, it was a cruel irony
0:56:50 > 0:56:53'that when the British left here, India was divided.'
0:56:53 > 0:56:58The benefits of the Imperial legacy are still open to argument.
0:56:58 > 0:57:02The tracks of empire are made of more than iron and steel.
0:57:02 > 0:57:07The English language, the legal system, even democracy, they too spread out across the country.
0:57:09 > 0:57:13And it was the railways which helped take them there.
0:57:13 > 0:57:18First proposed by Lord Dalhousie 160 years ago, the railways have become central
0:57:18 > 0:57:22to the life of the independent nation Gandhi fought so hard to create.
0:57:22 > 0:57:29He's revered above so many others in India, and so are the railways.
0:57:31 > 0:57:35As Dalhousie himself wrote in his famous memorandum,
0:57:35 > 0:57:38"A magnificent system of railway communication would present
0:57:38 > 0:57:46"a series of public monuments vastly surpassing in real grandeur the aqueducts of Rome, the pyramids
0:57:46 > 0:57:53"of Egypt, the Great Wall of China, the temples, palaces and mausoleums of the great Mogul monuments."
0:57:56 > 0:58:00But the rail network is far from being a monument or a mausoleum.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05The legacy left by the railways builders enables 13 million Indians every day
0:58:05 > 0:58:09to travel the length and breadth of their nation -
0:58:09 > 0:58:15the fourth biggest railway in the world in the largest democracy.
0:58:15 > 0:58:17India without the railways?
0:58:17 > 0:58:19It just wouldn't be possible.
0:58:40 > 0:58:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:43 > 0:58:46E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk