0:00:05 > 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, running on
0:00:13 > 0:00:1940,000 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, feeding
0:00:23 > 0:00:28and serving a sprawling country of more than a billion people.
0:00:28 > 0:00:35'And 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 > 0:00:57'So I'm going to cross the length and breadth of India on these Tracks of Empire
0:00:57 > 0:01:00'to discover how and why they were built.
0:01:00 > 0:01:06'To try to understand why the simple idea of building a railway created a nation.
0:01:06 > 0:01:11'I want to reveal how the railways brought triumph and
0:01:11 > 0:01:17'sometimes tragedy to the biggest democracy in the world.'
0:01:23 > 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 > 0:01:44I'll cross the fault lines of Indian history which lie beneath
0:01:44 > 0:01:48the railway tracks in this glorious, impossible country.
0:01:48 > 0:01:51I'll see how the empire builders harnessed the power of India
0:01:51 > 0:01:58with astounding engineering and 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."
0:02:29 > 0:02:35160 years ago, India was a disparate collection of individual states.
0:02:39 > 0:02:45Up until the middle of the 19th century, there were really only two ways to travel across most of India.
0:02:45 > 0:02:48You could walk, or you could go by bullock cart.
0:02:48 > 0:02:52Villages like this would be almost completely isolated.
0:02:52 > 0:02:56The railways changed the way that time and space could be measured.
0:02:56 > 0:03:04Journeys that could take weeks might be accomplished in hours, and journeys could be undertaken
0:03:04 > 0:03:07which before couldn't even have been contemplated.
0:03:14 > 0:03:17'And these are the tracks that transformed India,
0:03:17 > 0:03:22'the largest single investment undertaken by the British Imperial regime in any colony.
0:03:22 > 0:03:27'On my journey, I'll consider how this vast network developed,
0:03:27 > 0:03:32'from the origins of its construction to the vital role it plays today.'
0:03:32 > 0:03:36By understanding its past, I hope to gain an insight into India's future.
0:03:36 > 0:03:40What do the railways tell us about the mindset of empire?
0:03:40 > 0:03:44What is it about the railways that has shaped India today?
0:03:44 > 0:03:47How is it there are striking similarities
0:03:47 > 0:03:53between the way India absorbed railway technology in the 19th century
0:03:53 > 0:03:57and the way it's tackling the problems of the 21st century?
0:03:57 > 0:04:02I'm heading for Delhi, the most important city in India,
0:04:02 > 0:04:05and the beating heart of the great railway network.
0:04:05 > 0:04:09From there, I'll travel on to Mumbai and south to Bangalore.
0:04:09 > 0:04:16'Delhi became India's capital in 1911, when Calcutta,
0:04:16 > 0:04:20'after 140 years, ceased to be the centre of British rule.'
0:04:20 > 0:04:26The British were keen to move their capital from Calcutta inland to Delhi.
0:04:26 > 0:04:30Better placed strategically, and historically important,
0:04:30 > 0:04:35it was the seat of power for the previous grand rulers, the Moguls.
0:04:35 > 0:04:40And it was finally the railways which made that possible in 1911.
0:04:40 > 0:04:43From this railway junction,
0:04:43 > 0:04:46every part of the country could be easily accessible.
0:04:46 > 0:04:50Delhi grew into the hub of the railway network,
0:04:50 > 0:04:54and it's still from here that the Indian Government holds sway.
0:04:56 > 0:04:59Ports were the trading hubs of the nation.
0:04:59 > 0:05:05Today it's cities and their railway stations that have opened up the inland sea of India.
0:05:05 > 0:05:12Where once all roads led to Rome, now all Indian railroads lead to Delhi.
0:05:12 > 0:05:17Trains on 1,278 routes come through here.
0:05:17 > 0:05:18Number 2820...
0:05:21 > 0:05:23HE SPEAKS IN HINDI
0:05:30 > 0:05:33All the tracks from India come to this junction.
0:05:33 > 0:05:36So from Mumbai, Calcutta...
0:05:36 > 0:05:40Local stations. Yes, it's all the local ones as well,
0:05:40 > 0:05:45and it means there are more train movements through this junction than anywhere else, well, in Asia too.
0:05:45 > 0:05:48The biggest in India, also the biggest in Asia.
0:05:48 > 0:05:52And it was all down to one man,
0:05:52 > 0:05:56James Broun-Ramsay, the 1st Marquess of Dalhousie.
0:05:56 > 0:06:00He was one of the last of the great Governor-Generals to rule India
0:06:00 > 0:06:05before the British Government took over from the East India Company and the Raj was born.
0:06:05 > 0:06:10A Scottish aristocrat, he'd been President of the British Board of Trade.
0:06:10 > 0:06:15When he arrived in 1848, Dalhousie had plans that would change India forever.
0:06:15 > 0:06:19In 1853 he proposed a revolutionary modern railway network
0:06:19 > 0:06:24designed to link up the four corners of the subcontinent.
0:06:28 > 0:06:31His legacy today stretches all across India.
0:06:31 > 0:06:3513 million passengers travel by rail each day.
0:06:35 > 0:06:4014,000 trains go through 8,000 stations.
0:06:40 > 0:06:42And 1,000 tonnes of freight cross India every minute.
0:06:46 > 0:06:52This never-ending succession of arrivals and departures gives off an air of inevitability.
0:06:52 > 0:06:57But there are forgotten stories which show how much luck played a part.
0:07:01 > 0:07:08The ghosts of the Empire's network still haunt this train graveyard on the outskirts of Delhi.
0:07:13 > 0:07:17These machines that once heaved and steamed across India
0:07:17 > 0:07:22on Dalhousie's rail lines now rest on a journey to nowhere.
0:07:26 > 0:07:31'I've come here to meet an author, journalist and old India hand, Sir Mark Tully,
0:07:31 > 0:07:36'who admires the tenacity and efficiency of the Victorian pioneers.'
0:07:40 > 0:07:43The British built these things with huge determination.
0:07:43 > 0:07:46They built the railway across the Sibi desert,
0:07:46 > 0:07:49which is now in Pakistan, at the rate of one kilometre a day.
0:07:49 > 0:07:52I remember what was happening on British Rail
0:07:52 > 0:07:57when they were modernising the West Coast route, they seemed to be building one kilometre a year then!
0:07:57 > 0:08:04And of course there's another thing, I think, which is very much part of the Victorian mind, was this idea of
0:08:04 > 0:08:11going forward, of making progress, and building the railways, being part of a great Imperial venture.
0:08:11 > 0:08:16'The old trains and carriages tell a story of enterprise,
0:08:16 > 0:08:20'not just in India, but across the whole Empire.
0:08:20 > 0:08:22'It was enterprise driven by the pursuit of profit.'
0:08:22 > 0:08:27In the 19th century, there was no heavy industry in India,
0:08:27 > 0:08:33so all the machinery had to be made in Britain and transported 4,000 miles.
0:08:33 > 0:08:40Many of these locos started their lives in the factories and workshops of Sheffield or Leeds.
0:08:40 > 0:08:47Glasgow's Finnieston crane was specially constructed to load trains onto ships at the Clyde.
0:08:47 > 0:08:53Now look at this, this is the engineers, Jessop & Sons, in England, Leicester.
0:08:53 > 0:08:56- Engineers, Leicester. And it can lift five tonnes.- Yes.
0:08:56 > 0:08:58And famous for accidents, in particular.
0:08:58 > 0:09:01- Well, this is Thomas the Tank Engine, isn't it?- Yes.
0:09:01 > 0:09:07- It says here on it, there we are, look at that, "Engineering, England."- Yes.
0:09:07 > 0:09:15"Newcastle on Tyne." It's amazing that these great big heavy machines, transported all the way.
0:09:15 > 0:09:22By 1870, over 1,000 British-built locomotives were puffing their way
0:09:22 > 0:09:26across the subcontinent as the network rapidly expanded.
0:09:26 > 0:09:32Each mile of track demanded 600 tonnes of material from British factories.
0:09:32 > 0:09:38The same ships that brought the railway stock took back raw cotton from the plains of India.
0:09:38 > 0:09:44British mills manufactured this cotton into clothing that was returned to India
0:09:44 > 0:09:47by sea, and often sold back to those who'd grown and picked it.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51British companies made huge profits.
0:09:51 > 0:09:55But for the authorities in India, there was something even more
0:09:55 > 0:09:58attractive than the millions of pounds worth of Empire Made.
0:09:58 > 0:10:02The military advantages of the railway project.
0:10:02 > 0:10:08Trade followed the flag, and the flag was made of steel.
0:10:08 > 0:10:11The railways in India were hugely popular from the point of view of
0:10:11 > 0:10:15military, of moving your troops around the place.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18And also they were a symbol of power. That's very important.
0:10:18 > 0:10:24These were, in a way, built to impress people, to give the impression of this hugely powerful
0:10:24 > 0:10:32nation which has built these and which can therefore, in a sense, have a right, almost, to rule over India.
0:10:32 > 0:10:35HORN BLARES
0:10:35 > 0:10:37Today the wheel of fortune has turned.
0:10:37 > 0:10:42Britain's technical advantage has long disappeared.
0:10:42 > 0:10:48It's now Indian workshops who provide the rolling stock for India's nationalised railway.
0:10:48 > 0:10:50Why did the Indians put up with the British?
0:10:50 > 0:10:53Many Indians formed a partnership with the British.
0:10:53 > 0:10:59There's one thing which is absolutely clear about the British Raj, that if there wasn't a partnership
0:10:59 > 0:11:05with Indians, the Raj could not have survived. And that is perhaps the key point about it.
0:11:22 > 0:11:30'This partnership offered many benefits, not least to the Indian aristocracy, the Maharaja princes.
0:11:30 > 0:11:33'Their control over large parts of the country had always been
0:11:33 > 0:11:36'acknowledged by the Government in London.
0:11:36 > 0:11:40'Making up to the Maharajas was long-established policy.
0:11:40 > 0:11:46'The railways would have to go right across the princely states. A deal was vital.
0:11:46 > 0:11:51'I'm heading 190 miles south-east of Delhi to what was once
0:11:51 > 0:11:58'one of the most powerful princely states of the Raj, Gwalior.'
0:11:58 > 0:12:06This is the remains of the branch line from the centre of Gwalior to the Maharaja's palace. This is...
0:12:06 > 0:12:11the track ends in a brick wall, but this would have been the railway line which would take
0:12:11 > 0:12:17the Maharaja in their magnificent coach right the way through to his palace.
0:12:21 > 0:12:28Like many of the princes, the 19th century Maharajas who ruled Gwalior state were true rail fanatics.
0:12:28 > 0:12:32In the years since, people have thrown up walls and ripped up the rails,
0:12:32 > 0:12:39but traces of the old tracks can still be found, evidence of how the Maharajas were kept on side.
0:12:39 > 0:12:45This is obviously where it comes through the wall, and then it sets off towards the palace.
0:12:45 > 0:12:47But where does it go?
0:12:47 > 0:12:50'The railways quickly became the most obvious symbol of the British Raj.'
0:12:50 > 0:12:57Just to hear the tooting sound of a train was a reminder of who was in charge.
0:12:57 > 0:13:02The network had been designed by the British, in the interests of Empire,
0:13:02 > 0:13:06and was almost entirely run by the British.
0:13:06 > 0:13:12But the iron horse quickly became extremely popular with everyone, from Maharajas downwards.
0:13:12 > 0:13:14I've got to be careful of snakes, apparently.
0:13:14 > 0:13:16The place is riddled with snakes.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22I think this is it.
0:13:22 > 0:13:25You can see the gap here,
0:13:25 > 0:13:29and the train would just come piling through here,
0:13:29 > 0:13:34with steam and all the smoke and the sparks, everything.
0:13:34 > 0:13:37What a way to... what a way to enter a palace, right?
0:13:37 > 0:13:39Just right through, no messing around.
0:13:41 > 0:13:44By allowing the railways into their princely states,
0:13:44 > 0:13:50local leaders like the Maharaja of Gwalior had accepted the silver shilling.
0:13:50 > 0:13:52They had signed up with the British.
0:13:56 > 0:13:58Hello.
0:13:58 > 0:14:02Well, thank you. Can you open the gate for me? All right.
0:14:05 > 0:14:06Thanks very much.
0:14:06 > 0:14:10Well, this is some palace, isn't it?
0:14:10 > 0:14:16Built in the 19th century, the seat of the Maharajas of Gwalior. Fantastic, isn't it?
0:14:16 > 0:14:23Now, we don't have the train, but we do have a picture of a train up against the walls of the palace.
0:14:31 > 0:14:35'This accommodation with the occupying power was collusion,
0:14:35 > 0:14:40'nationalists might say collaboration, on a grand scale.
0:14:40 > 0:14:45The British liked to argue that the Maharajas were aristocrats,
0:14:45 > 0:14:49lords of the manor, just like those at home.
0:14:49 > 0:14:55As with all the most lasting political deals, it was based on mutual interest.
0:14:55 > 0:15:00The Maharajas got the latest technology, the British, control of India.
0:15:00 > 0:15:01It's as simple as that.
0:15:01 > 0:15:07Everything was done to make sure that the princes were kept on side.
0:15:07 > 0:15:11Because it made it so much easier for the British then
0:15:11 > 0:15:17to rule the whole country if they didn't have to control, in detail, the princely states.
0:15:17 > 0:15:21The Maharajas were very susceptible to flattery.
0:15:21 > 0:15:24Anything to do with the Royals or the military, they liked.
0:15:24 > 0:15:28Look at this portrait. A red coat, of course, British officer.
0:15:28 > 0:15:33The Order of Merit. It's everything to say, "We think you're as good as we are,"
0:15:33 > 0:15:37and then for the Maharaja, "I think I'm as good as them."
0:15:40 > 0:15:46The palace stands testimony to the power of wealth and prestige.
0:15:46 > 0:15:52It also contains one of the best examples of a rich man's fancy.
0:15:52 > 0:15:55Imagine that you're here for a grand dinner at the height of the Raj.
0:15:55 > 0:15:58Something special is about to happen.
0:15:58 > 0:16:00Yeah, it's a train.
0:16:01 > 0:16:06The Maharaja is not just interested in trains, he's obsessed by them.
0:16:06 > 0:16:11You take a drink off, have a drink, absolutely fine, and then when you've poured out
0:16:11 > 0:16:16your drink, you put it back, and it's only when you put it back that the train sets off again.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27His showmanship appealed to the British, not least to the Prince of Wales,
0:16:27 > 0:16:31who stayed in this palace on his visit to India in 1905.
0:16:31 > 0:16:37On his accession to the throne, George V inherited the title Emperor of India.
0:16:37 > 0:16:43It was a position only made possible through the acquiescence of the Maharajas.
0:16:43 > 0:16:50And what could be a more symbolic display of political unity than a special steam train
0:16:50 > 0:16:54to bring the royal guest to the Maharaja's palace?
0:16:56 > 0:17:03The Maharajas go back to the 18th century here, but this is the one who was really keen on railways.
0:17:03 > 0:17:07We go on further into the modern period, and this was a minister for
0:17:07 > 0:17:13railways, and his son is the present Maharaja, now a junior minister.
0:17:13 > 0:17:17And it's not surprising that the present Maharaja isn't very keen
0:17:17 > 0:17:21to go on about his family's close connections with the British.
0:17:21 > 0:17:28For a politician in India today, it's not very good politics to hark back to the Raj.
0:17:28 > 0:17:30That's my great-great-grandfather.
0:17:30 > 0:17:37'To me, the Maharaja comes across less as His Royal Highness and more as the local MP.'
0:17:37 > 0:17:42What did the British give to your family, the Maharajas?
0:17:42 > 0:17:46What what was the essence of that relationship from the British to your family?
0:17:46 > 0:17:50Well, to be quite honest, there's not much that the British gave us.
0:17:50 > 0:17:55- But didn't they give you... - The British took a lot from India, but I don't think gave very much.
0:17:55 > 0:18:00- All right.- The one thing that they did give to India, which I think is a testimony which stands today as well,
0:18:00 > 0:18:05is probably the railway system and the most extensive railway network in this country.
0:18:05 > 0:18:09It is the cheapest mode of transport today in the country.
0:18:09 > 0:18:12Now, there are some people who would be highly critical
0:18:12 > 0:18:16of the role played by the Maharajas and the princely states.
0:18:16 > 0:18:22Because they feel that the princes shouldn't have collaborated with the British.
0:18:22 > 0:18:24Well, I don't...
0:18:24 > 0:18:28I always have a habit, John, of looking forward and not looking back.
0:18:28 > 0:18:31- India is...- Is that because you're embarrassed about the past?
0:18:31 > 0:18:34No, I'm not. I'm not embarrassed about the past at all.
0:18:34 > 0:18:37I think India is a very robust democracy.
0:18:37 > 0:18:41We're a growing economy. And I'm a product of 21st century India.
0:18:41 > 0:18:46- But you're still proud to be a Maharaja, you're still proud.- Well, I'm not. I'm Jiwajirao Scindia.
0:18:46 > 0:18:49But do you never talk about yourself as a Maharaja?
0:18:49 > 0:18:53- No, I don't.- The people here treat you very much as the Maharaja.
0:18:53 > 0:18:56That may be, but I don't. I never think about it.
0:18:58 > 0:19:05The Maharajas may have had a passion for railways, but even princes weren't allowed to run the system.
0:19:05 > 0:19:10The British insisted that in India, trains were their business.
0:19:13 > 0:19:17Only when independence came were the locals put in charge.
0:19:17 > 0:19:22'But in one surprising way, the British made a compromise.'
0:19:22 > 0:19:30Close relations between the British occupiers and Indian women had produced offspring, Anglo-Indians.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34These half castes, as they were called, weren't wholly accepted by either side.
0:19:34 > 0:19:39But thanks to the railways, they weren't left without salvation.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43They were taken on by the private companies, and the Anglo-Indians
0:19:43 > 0:19:46became the backbone of the railway network.
0:19:46 > 0:19:50There was a reluctance to give them high rank, that would have been going too far.
0:19:50 > 0:19:56But they were given vital jobs in ticket offices and on the trains as drivers.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04Pukka Indians, proud of their superior caste, would have been
0:20:04 > 0:20:07cold-shouldered by the railways looking for senior staff.
0:20:07 > 0:20:13The Anglo-Indians, such as George Knight, were welcomed with open arms.
0:20:16 > 0:20:23Of the Anglo-Indians that you came across in your community, how many of them joined the railways?
0:20:25 > 0:20:27About 90%.
0:20:27 > 0:20:29- About 90%.- 90%.
0:20:29 > 0:20:33- So almost all the men that you knew. - All Anglo-Indians. - They were all Anglo-Indians.
0:20:33 > 0:20:35And all working on the railways?
0:20:35 > 0:20:39- All working on the railways. - And why was that?
0:20:39 > 0:20:42Because at that time, the Anglo-Indians had a hold on the railways.
0:20:42 > 0:20:46Yes. It was a place where you could do well.
0:20:46 > 0:20:48The Anglo-Indians were looked for,
0:20:48 > 0:20:51- as a good worker on the railway. - But wasn't it...
0:20:51 > 0:20:57wasn't it racist to choose you to work on the railways, not on the basis of what you're like,
0:20:57 > 0:21:02but on the basis of your background, you know, the fact you're an Anglo-Indian? It seems so strange.
0:21:02 > 0:21:04Well, indeed it is.
0:21:04 > 0:21:06And what do you think about that now?
0:21:06 > 0:21:13My grandfather did it, my father did it, so why should I do it? And I did it.
0:21:13 > 0:21:16With the Anglo-Indians and the Maharajas signed up,
0:21:16 > 0:21:21and with the benefit of India's inexhaustible supply of cheap labour,
0:21:21 > 0:21:26the pace of construction accelerated from the 1880s.
0:21:26 > 0:21:31Large work gangs, known as the Navvies of India, pushed deeper into the interior.
0:21:31 > 0:21:35Under the supervision of British engineers, native workmen
0:21:35 > 0:21:39began to learn industrial skills and trades for the first time.
0:21:39 > 0:21:45Blacksmiths, carpenters, riveters, mechanics, their skills being transmitted from Indian to Indian,
0:21:45 > 0:21:49moved from one great railway project to another.
0:21:51 > 0:21:56They'd soon be building thousands of miles of track every decade.
0:21:56 > 0:22:02Protecting this most valuable of Imperial assets became a priority.
0:22:04 > 0:22:06Train stations were turned into fortresses.
0:22:06 > 0:22:09Lahore station, in what is now Pakistan,
0:22:09 > 0:22:13incorporated machine gun turrets into its architectural plans.
0:22:13 > 0:22:20The approaches to and from station concourses were kept deliberately open for wide arcs of fire.
0:22:20 > 0:22:27And very soon, in the architecture of stations such as Old Delhi, this language of fortification
0:22:27 > 0:22:30was incorporated as standard into their design.
0:22:30 > 0:22:35For unruly elements, the message was clear - keep off!
0:22:39 > 0:22:44Once the railways had been built, the British authorities were determined
0:22:44 > 0:22:46that no-one should mess around with the railways.
0:22:46 > 0:22:51The strict rules they enforced were really quite amazing.
0:22:51 > 0:22:56This is from the Indian Railway Act of 1890.
0:22:56 > 0:23:02"If a person unlawfully puts or throws upon or across any railway any wood, stone
0:23:02 > 0:23:08"or other matter or thing, or takes up, removes, loosens or displaces any rail, sleeper
0:23:08 > 0:23:13"or other matter or thing belonging to any railway, or turns, moves, unlocks
0:23:13 > 0:23:21"or diverts any points or other machinery belonging to any railway, he shall be punished
0:23:21 > 0:23:25"with transportation for life, or with imprisonment
0:23:25 > 0:23:29"for a term which may extend to ten years."
0:23:29 > 0:23:32Well, you can't get much tougher than that.
0:23:32 > 0:23:36Protected by the full weight of Empire, powered by the Anglo-Indian railway caste,
0:23:36 > 0:23:40and built with the hands of an estimated 10 million native labourers,
0:23:40 > 0:23:43the Indian railways were soon in full bloom.
0:23:43 > 0:23:47Welcome to Mumbai, formerly known as Bombay, the city
0:23:47 > 0:23:51where the empire builders would construct their crowning glory.
0:23:51 > 0:23:54From small beginnings, an awe-inspiring monument
0:23:54 > 0:23:57would arise, fit for an Empress and the world's greatest power.
0:24:02 > 0:24:08The most extravagant railway station the Empire ever built.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12It was called Victoria Terminus, after the Empress herself,
0:24:12 > 0:24:17as a celebration of her Golden Jubilee in 1887.
0:24:17 > 0:24:20Today it's one of the busiest stations in India.
0:24:20 > 0:24:251,000 trains come through here daily, carrying two million passengers.
0:24:35 > 0:24:39'Looking up, you can take in the full majesty of the ticket office.
0:24:39 > 0:24:44'No expense was spared by the architect, Frederick William Stevens.
0:24:44 > 0:24:50'Boasting Italian marble and stained glass, the edifice took 10 years to build.'
0:24:56 > 0:25:00Victorian Gothic. Church and state.
0:25:00 > 0:25:02It's great.
0:25:02 > 0:25:06It reminds me a bit of the Houses of Parliament.
0:25:11 > 0:25:14It's the icing on the cake of British rule.
0:25:14 > 0:25:18Impossibly ornate and topped with a statue of Progress.
0:25:18 > 0:25:20Whatever you might think of the intentions of those
0:25:20 > 0:25:25behind this great structure, you can't accuse them of not trying.
0:25:25 > 0:25:29But when it was opened, there were some people who didn't like it at all.
0:25:29 > 0:25:34A British commentator writing in the Calcutta Review complained
0:25:34 > 0:25:39that it was "wasted on the 1.5 million passengers whose pride" -
0:25:39 > 0:25:43would you believe it - "whose pride is to be half naked,
0:25:43 > 0:25:47"but are favoured with these luxuries to induce them
0:25:47 > 0:25:52"to improve a little upon their domestic architecture."
0:25:52 > 0:25:55Well, you can't get more superior than that.
0:26:00 > 0:26:04Queen Victoria was proclaimed Empress of India in 1877,
0:26:04 > 0:26:08as the Empire was reaching its zenith.
0:26:08 > 0:26:12'For the British, it didn't seem to matter that she didn't make a grand tour
0:26:12 > 0:26:16'to see the largest number of her subjects in a single country.
0:26:16 > 0:26:23'Queen Victoria's power rested not on her physical presence, but on the tracks of her Empire,
0:26:23 > 0:26:26'and the bricks and mortar of these secular temples.'
0:26:26 > 0:26:31It's the architecture of power and confidence,
0:26:31 > 0:26:35deliberately designed to keep the natives in their place.
0:26:35 > 0:26:42And the message is obvious - her government, and her government alone, is in charge.
0:26:44 > 0:26:47'The railway builders had connected the ports of Bombay,
0:26:47 > 0:26:52'Calcutta and Madras with over 4,000 miles of railway track.'
0:26:52 > 0:26:58The British had strengthened their grip on India with a high degree of political skill.
0:26:58 > 0:27:02But this remarkable transformation, a practical partnership between
0:27:02 > 0:27:10power and profit, had only been made possible by what happened right here in Bombay, just 24 years earlier.
0:27:12 > 0:27:16High on the walls of VT, as it's called, is a bust in memory
0:27:16 > 0:27:22of the founding father of Indian railways, the Governor-General, Lord Dalhousie.
0:27:22 > 0:27:29He granted licences for companies to build test lines in both Bombay and Calcutta at the same time.
0:27:29 > 0:27:32But it was the one in Bombay which got started first,
0:27:32 > 0:27:38giving the city a head start to the title, Gateway to India.
0:27:38 > 0:27:41This was where it all started, in 1853.
0:27:41 > 0:27:46We're travelling on the route taken by the first train to run officially
0:27:46 > 0:27:51in India, from Mumbai to what is now one of its suburbs.
0:28:00 > 0:28:07For the 400 VIPs on board, it was an occasion for considerable excitement.
0:28:07 > 0:28:13They'd been sent off with a band and a 21-gun salute.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17Epoch-making? Well, they couldn't have guessed that.
0:28:17 > 0:28:21But it was a great moment, and they knew it.
0:28:21 > 0:28:25Covering just 21 miles, this first railway line
0:28:25 > 0:28:31quickly became a roaring success, carrying half a million passengers in its opening year.
0:28:31 > 0:28:36It changed the course of Bombay's future as much as it altered the history of the whole country.
0:28:36 > 0:28:42Helped by the railway network, Bombay has grown into the second largest city in the world,
0:28:42 > 0:28:44and the biggest in India.
0:28:44 > 0:28:47It is now the country's financial capital.
0:28:47 > 0:28:53By the turn of the 20th century, 50,000 passengers travelled its urban tracks every day.
0:28:53 > 0:29:01For the first time people were able, and even encouraged, to commute in and out of a city to work.
0:29:01 > 0:29:07This is where the first official train trip in India ended.
0:29:07 > 0:29:10But it wasn't of course the end, it was just the beginning.
0:29:11 > 0:29:17But four years after this momentous start, the project ran into its biggest problem.
0:29:17 > 0:29:2445 miles south-east of Bombay rises the ridges of the Western Ghats.
0:29:24 > 0:29:29Crossing this 2,000-foot mountain range would be
0:29:29 > 0:29:33the railway builders' hardest task, and greatest achievement.
0:29:33 > 0:29:38It would cost British lives as well as the lives of many more Indians.
0:29:42 > 0:29:47One ridge in particular, Bhor Ghat, caused the most difficulty.
0:29:47 > 0:29:52To get locomotives up and over the mountain, the railway builders used
0:29:52 > 0:29:59dynamite and hand tools, excavating 54 million cubic feet of hard rock.
0:30:03 > 0:30:09Engineers would produce 3,000 plans to provide 22 bridges and 25 tunnels.
0:30:12 > 0:30:19'Nothing like the constructions of Bhor Ghat had ever been undertaken before anywhere in the world.
0:30:19 > 0:30:25'Local railway experts are still excited by the towering achievement of those involved.'
0:30:27 > 0:30:31This is a train that's going from Mumbai to what we used to call Madras.
0:30:33 > 0:30:38This was a hard section, an inclined trail. Because of the difficulty
0:30:38 > 0:30:40in the terrain, the line could not be built
0:30:40 > 0:30:43with the same ease as the other lines on the plains.
0:30:43 > 0:30:47So it was important that this missing link had to be built,
0:30:47 > 0:30:54so that end-to-end connectivity from Mumbai, from Bombay, right up to Madras was possible.
0:30:54 > 0:30:57So this effectively is the gateway to Southern India.
0:30:57 > 0:31:05- Once you build this line, you can open up the whole of Southern India to trade.- Precisely.
0:31:05 > 0:31:11Bhor Ghat tested the Victorian engineers to the limit of their skills.
0:31:11 > 0:31:17With such a steep gradient up these slopes, they had to build a vast reversing station
0:31:17 > 0:31:20to enable the trains to navigate the mountainside.
0:31:20 > 0:31:26'Welsh and Cornish miners were initially recruited to cut through
0:31:26 > 0:31:30'the mountains, but soon, their work was carried out by Indians.'
0:31:33 > 0:31:36- They're all so solid, aren't they? - They have to be, yeah.
0:31:36 > 0:31:41Just there's no... you don't feel there's any danger of the sides collapsing or anything?
0:31:41 > 0:31:45- No, that's never happened. - Never happened?- Doesn't happen.
0:31:45 > 0:31:49'For the workmen, it was dangerous and often lethal work,
0:31:49 > 0:31:54'toiling under a burning sun or being swept away by monsoon rain.
0:31:54 > 0:31:58'The pace of tunnelling was sometimes as slow as four feet a month.
0:31:58 > 0:32:03'As a trial of strength and endurance, it was almost Biblical.'
0:32:06 > 0:32:10It took about eight years for the entire line to be built.
0:32:10 > 0:32:15Because it was so hard and lack of technology that we see today
0:32:15 > 0:32:18made it all the more difficult.
0:32:18 > 0:32:23But the clever building, the really intelligent building, are these viaducts.
0:32:23 > 0:32:25- Yes.- These are amazing structures, aren't they?
0:32:25 > 0:32:29There's no flat piece of land. They had no other way of building it.
0:32:29 > 0:32:32- And these are wooden structures, aren't they?- They are.
0:32:32 > 0:32:35Temporary scaffolding for raising the structures.
0:32:37 > 0:32:41Like all Indian construction sites of the time,
0:32:41 > 0:32:45women and children used head baskets to carry rubble away.
0:32:45 > 0:32:50Accidents were common, and the real cost of this engineering project
0:32:50 > 0:32:54should be measured in human lives.
0:32:54 > 0:32:59In 1861, over 40,000 people were employed on the project.
0:32:59 > 0:33:024,000 were killed in accidents.
0:33:02 > 0:33:05That's one in ten.
0:33:05 > 0:33:09Accidents have happened and people have fallen to death from the height.
0:33:09 > 0:33:11Even when constructing these tunnels like this,
0:33:11 > 0:33:17they had to come down from the cliff and they couldn't walk there,
0:33:17 > 0:33:23so they had to be suspended and ropes have broken and it has been recorded that they fell to their death.
0:33:25 > 0:33:33According to records, three native workmen were considered to be worth one European.
0:33:33 > 0:33:36In usefulness as well as replacement value.
0:33:38 > 0:33:41'There was no room for moral indignation.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46'This was a matter of pounds, shillings and pence.'
0:33:48 > 0:33:54British investors raised the vast sums of money that were needed for this project.
0:33:54 > 0:33:56But they got a guaranteed return of 5%.
0:33:56 > 0:34:02And when the subcontinent was opened up to trade, British business made vast profits.
0:34:02 > 0:34:06To the Indian nationalists, it was imperialism at its worst.
0:34:06 > 0:34:09They'd gained from the wages of sin.
0:34:17 > 0:34:24'Fatal risks were taken, and even if British engineers stood a better chance, they were often unlucky.
0:34:24 > 0:34:29'On this hillside, at the remains of a British cemetery close to the Bhor Ghat line,
0:34:29 > 0:34:34'there's a graphic reminder of how accident and disease took their toll.
0:34:34 > 0:34:39'Malaria and cholera were the most frequent killers,
0:34:39 > 0:34:43'with even the fittest of men cut down in their prime.'
0:34:46 > 0:34:51"In affectionate remembrance of Charles Henry.
0:34:52 > 0:34:55"Will the memory fade?"
0:34:55 > 0:34:57Well, it has faded.
0:35:00 > 0:35:02Oh, this is sad.
0:35:02 > 0:35:06"In memory of Edward, the dearly loved child of Charles and Edith,
0:35:06 > 0:35:11"who departed this life aged four years."
0:35:11 > 0:35:15Almost certainly from the fever.
0:35:15 > 0:35:19That's the terrible scourge of this part of the world at that time.
0:35:19 > 0:35:23One engineer was Solomon Treadwell.
0:35:23 > 0:35:27He started his career with Brunel, building the steamship Great Eastern
0:35:27 > 0:35:30before heading to India to work at Bhor Ghat.
0:35:33 > 0:35:37From an established family of British railway contractors,
0:35:37 > 0:35:44Treadwell arrived with his wife and children at Bombay in October 1859 to start work at Bhor Ghat.
0:35:44 > 0:35:48'But he died just one month later.'
0:35:53 > 0:35:58You see, the problem was that when the fever gripped a construction camp,
0:35:58 > 0:36:01they didn't know that it was going to be so virulent.
0:36:01 > 0:36:06And that proved just a terrible, terrible killer.
0:36:06 > 0:36:08'Solomon's wife, Alice, took over.'
0:36:08 > 0:36:14With two young children, and despite having no engineering experience,
0:36:14 > 0:36:16she became the project manager.
0:36:16 > 0:36:22'So much had been invested, and payment only came at the end.
0:36:22 > 0:36:28'But she still completed this section against all the odds, on time and under budget.'
0:36:33 > 0:36:39Pioneers like Alice Treadwell are the forgotten few who saw this project through.
0:36:39 > 0:36:46I wonder, without the local workmen and the single-minded colonials in charge,
0:36:46 > 0:36:51could anyone have ever managed to complete such a task?
0:36:54 > 0:36:58The Britishers who got this project done, they would have cajoled them,
0:36:58 > 0:37:02they would have forced them, they would have used all sorts of things to make it happen.
0:37:02 > 0:37:09At the end of it, the line was constructed and the train ran and people who were walking
0:37:09 > 0:37:13up the Ghats on foot, they were able to sit in a train and have a comfortable journey.
0:37:13 > 0:37:17So the fruits were good. The fruits were sweet.
0:37:17 > 0:37:21So somebody has to put in effort and some people have
0:37:21 > 0:37:23to give their... had to give their lives.
0:37:23 > 0:37:29But I guess that happens in all sorts of projects, this not being any exception.
0:37:29 > 0:37:36'The railway builders refused to be daunted, whatever the difficulties.
0:37:41 > 0:37:47This was a truly pioneering era. They were in a headlong rush to prove
0:37:47 > 0:37:50that even faced with the extremes of India,
0:37:50 > 0:37:54technology that was the best in the world would finally win through.
0:37:58 > 0:38:05Never, though, anywhere else did the Victorian engineers have to overcome problems
0:38:05 > 0:38:10on such a scale as they encountered in India.
0:38:10 > 0:38:13100 trains a day now pass through Bhor Ghat.
0:38:18 > 0:38:25Any sense of bitterness at the brutal way in which these projects were forced through has now faded.
0:38:25 > 0:38:27The railways made cities possible.
0:38:27 > 0:38:33Delhi became the nation's new capital, and Bombay an industrial powerhouse.
0:38:35 > 0:38:42Along the rail lines, whole communities live and work just a few metres from the tracks.
0:38:42 > 0:38:45Their forebears first built these railways,
0:38:45 > 0:38:48and now they work in the associated industries
0:38:48 > 0:38:53sustained by this river of rail running through their midst.
0:38:56 > 0:39:01From the trains, 4,000 bedsheets, 2,000 blankets
0:39:01 > 0:39:05and 5,000 pillows need washing every day.
0:39:07 > 0:39:12Thousands of portions of food are prepared every morning.
0:39:12 > 0:39:18'A local journalist, Rajendra Aklakar, has studied the impact the railways made.'
0:39:18 > 0:39:23People think of the railways as giving jobs to people who actually worked on the railways.
0:39:23 > 0:39:26But what we're seeing here are all the other people who got jobs.
0:39:31 > 0:39:32Why do you need the laundry?
0:39:32 > 0:39:35What is so important about the laundry for trains?
0:39:40 > 0:39:42So to keep the trains clean,
0:39:42 > 0:39:45you've got to have a very efficient laundry system.
0:39:50 > 0:39:551.5 million people are directly employed by the railways.
0:39:55 > 0:40:02But it's estimated half a million more work across the country in these related industries.
0:40:04 > 0:40:06So the railways brought lots of jobs.
0:40:20 > 0:40:22And this is all over India, not just here in Mumbai?
0:40:37 > 0:40:39And they want the food from their area?
0:40:48 > 0:40:53To taste the whole of India. Get the taste of India, go on the railway all the way through.
0:40:53 > 0:40:56- Across the country.- Amazing. So for some people here,
0:40:56 > 0:40:59their whole life really revolves around the railways.
0:41:20 > 0:41:24Just off the tracks in Daravi, a leather workshop churns out
0:41:24 > 0:41:29400 gloves and 150 toolbags every day for use on the railways.
0:41:29 > 0:41:32All this by hand, in one small factory.
0:41:36 > 0:41:38OK.
0:41:40 > 0:41:41What does that do?
0:41:43 > 0:41:45Oh, from tickets, money from the tickets goes in here.
0:41:53 > 0:41:56They're amazingly well made. And it's so intricate.
0:41:56 > 0:42:00You think, what would they need to be made of in leather
0:42:00 > 0:42:05for a railway, and here we are, there's a great pile of things. The money bag, the gloves.
0:42:07 > 0:42:08It's a British design?
0:42:14 > 0:42:19People think they understand how a railway works and then you realise there are all these extra jobs.
0:42:19 > 0:42:25I mean, tens of thousands of jobs created just because of this amazing railway system, isn't it?
0:42:25 > 0:42:29- Precisely, yeah. - And these... and these, all these designs, how old are they?
0:42:31 > 0:42:34150 years old?
0:42:34 > 0:42:38So what we're seeing here is a whole host of articles all made of
0:42:38 > 0:42:42leather, all made in the same way as they always used to be. This is...
0:42:42 > 0:42:44- this is for a toolkit.- Toolkit.
0:42:44 > 0:42:47So that's then for Northwest Railways.
0:42:47 > 0:42:49So there we are.
0:42:49 > 0:42:51Has been for, I should think, many, many years.
0:42:55 > 0:42:59Alongside the railway, life in the raw.
0:42:59 > 0:43:04It sort of takes your breath away, the contrast between the big city of Mumbai and this.
0:43:04 > 0:43:09It looks chaotic, but the more you look at, you look down on it and
0:43:09 > 0:43:15it's like looking in the past, it's something which has happened for hundreds and hundreds of years.
0:43:15 > 0:43:19I don't know, it's wonderful, but it's also... it's also very shocking.
0:43:29 > 0:43:32Having the manpower to operate and support the railways was important.
0:43:32 > 0:43:37But so too was running them on time and in good order.
0:43:37 > 0:43:41Victorians, with their rules and regulations, gave the railways a sense of purpose.
0:43:43 > 0:43:48The railways pioneers didn't baulk at complexity. They embraced it.
0:43:48 > 0:43:51And this love of detail lives on.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55Even now, on each journey, a record of every passenger is kept -
0:43:55 > 0:44:00where they get on and off, their carriage and seat number.
0:44:00 > 0:44:07Everything is covered by regulation. How do you travel, for example, with a box of tortoises?
0:44:07 > 0:44:13Well, you've got to make sure that their baskets are soaked with sufficient water,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16otherwise don't accept the booking. Quite right!
0:44:16 > 0:44:23And another thing, make sure their necks do not protrude from the baskets.
0:44:23 > 0:44:28All this is an example of that Victorian love of detail,
0:44:28 > 0:44:31carried through in the 21st century on the Indian railway.
0:44:33 > 0:44:37Railway policy still covers everything.
0:44:37 > 0:44:41The contents of every carriage is itemised and classified.
0:44:41 > 0:44:44They're talking about all the various things that they've got.
0:44:44 > 0:44:49For example, in the compartment, you've got to have one swivel-tag coat hook.
0:44:49 > 0:44:55Oh, no, there are 46 of those. A bottle holder. Window curtain with rods. Folding table with brackets.
0:44:55 > 0:44:59Automatic door closer. Bay curtain with rods.
0:44:59 > 0:45:02And so it goes on. Mirrors and luggage racks, everything.
0:45:02 > 0:45:06What's in the doorway, what's in the lavatory, what's in the linen room.
0:45:06 > 0:45:09Vestibule bellows, that's quite useful.
0:45:17 > 0:45:24That's it. J Sergeant, number 22.
0:45:24 > 0:45:27'And class of travel is carefully preserved.
0:45:27 > 0:45:33'Air-conditioned first class, sleeper class, second class, unreserved, women only.
0:45:33 > 0:45:37'The ticketing system reflects the Empire's obsession with hierarchy,
0:45:37 > 0:45:41'and the way that fitted in with the caste system of India itself.'
0:45:44 > 0:45:49It's a system of organisation peculiarly suited to running a railway
0:45:49 > 0:45:53in a country so diverse and so vast.
0:45:59 > 0:46:04'But how do the majority of India's population travel?'
0:46:04 > 0:46:08Should I be calmer? Probably. All right, let's go this way.
0:46:10 > 0:46:13I can't see any space here! We'll get on.
0:46:15 > 0:46:21'The poor, officially about half the population, have always travelled third class.'
0:46:24 > 0:46:27So most of the train you reserve with tickets. This is unreserved.
0:46:27 > 0:46:31But the key point to remember is that for many of the people here,
0:46:31 > 0:46:34the cost of travel is the key for them.
0:46:34 > 0:46:37If you can get the cost right down, they'll come. That's it.
0:46:37 > 0:46:42It's always been like that on Indian railways, and it still is like that.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46'There are hundreds of people packed in here.
0:46:46 > 0:46:51'In the days of Empire, conditions were worse. The carriages were often double-decked,
0:46:51 > 0:46:56'with no toilets, no drinking water, and no seats until 1885.'
0:46:59 > 0:47:01There are people everywhere.
0:47:01 > 0:47:05But the doors are open and it's actually not that hot.
0:47:05 > 0:47:07It's just very overcrowded.
0:47:07 > 0:47:08Thank you!
0:47:11 > 0:47:16Third class passengers have always been the most numerous travellers on Indian railways.
0:47:16 > 0:47:23'There were 200 million passengers in 1905. One billion in 1946.
0:47:23 > 0:47:25'And today, five billion.'
0:47:29 > 0:47:31About another hour, isn't it?
0:47:38 > 0:47:46I'm now travelling 600 miles south to the city of Bangalore, the powerhouse of modern India.
0:47:50 > 0:47:56Bangalore is one of the richest cities in the country, the centre of new technology.
0:47:56 > 0:48:02£20 billion worth of IT equipment is exported from here every year.
0:48:02 > 0:48:06'And it's the railways which make this trade possible,
0:48:06 > 0:48:10'just as they were designed to do so in Lord Dalhousie's earliest proposal
0:48:10 > 0:48:16'for a rail network across the subcontinent, all the way back in 1853.'
0:48:18 > 0:48:24Freight generates the enormous revenue which subsidises the cheaper passenger tickets.
0:48:24 > 0:48:27And it's this freight which today drives the wider Indian economy.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33I'm here to find out how the modern Maharajas do business.
0:48:33 > 0:48:41Bangalore has become the great computer city of India, where trains meet high tech.
0:48:43 > 0:48:48The booming computer business is now the magic carpet of India's economy.
0:48:52 > 0:48:58As in the past, it's the vast reserves of cheap labour which gives India its strength.
0:48:58 > 0:49:04But the difference now is that the labour has become increasingly skilled.
0:49:11 > 0:49:1510,000 tonnes of freight is carried in and out of Bangalore
0:49:15 > 0:49:19every day, by 500 freight companies.
0:49:19 > 0:49:25India's phenomenal economic growth is being driven by manufacturing and export.
0:49:28 > 0:49:32'Yogesh Ariya manages one of the biggest transport companies
0:49:32 > 0:49:37'here in Bangalore, and the railway is at its heart.'
0:49:39 > 0:49:44It's the lifeline of India. I would say it's the vital part of distribution industry today.
0:49:44 > 0:49:50Now the biggest thing happening in Indian railways is the dedicated freight corridors,
0:49:50 > 0:49:54where we'll have the tracks only for the freight trains, which the British never built.
0:49:54 > 0:49:59Where we'll have only freight tracks, where we have large logistics park,
0:49:59 > 0:50:05industrial parks, and large container depots and dry ports.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08So this is what the modern India has built and this is what has
0:50:08 > 0:50:12transformed the business at a greater height.
0:50:12 > 0:50:17160 years ago, it was Dalhousie who first harnessed India
0:50:17 > 0:50:20to the iron horse in the railway revolution.
0:50:20 > 0:50:25But today, it's the Indian entrepreneurs who benefit from his legacy.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31Now, this old railway system and all sorts of other things have made you and your family very rich.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33HE LAUGHS
0:50:33 > 0:50:37Do you sometimes feel that you are now the exploiters?
0:50:37 > 0:50:41You are a successor of those British authorities? Do you ever think that?
0:50:41 > 0:50:43India is growing, so you need to grow with India,
0:50:43 > 0:50:47and it's just the business mindset, it's the strategies.
0:50:47 > 0:50:51Indians are famous worldwide, they are the best strategists, the best analysts.
0:50:51 > 0:50:57And the age group which we have between 18 to 35 is the largest in the world today, which are ready
0:50:57 > 0:51:01to be entrepreneurs, which are ready to be big industrialists.
0:51:01 > 0:51:03HORN BLARES
0:51:05 > 0:51:09The more things change, the more things are the same.
0:51:09 > 0:51:15What's interesting is that the way that this businessman has been talking is exactly the same way
0:51:15 > 0:51:18as a businessman would under the British Raj.
0:51:18 > 0:51:22He's talking about the movement of goods, making profits,
0:51:22 > 0:51:24making sure the goods arrive on time,
0:51:24 > 0:51:27making sure that the system works.
0:51:31 > 0:51:33Because the key thing about the Empire
0:51:33 > 0:51:38is that it always was, in India, about profits and about trade.
0:51:38 > 0:51:44And what's interesting about modern India is that that idea is now central, it's absolutely mainstream.
0:51:51 > 0:51:58And what's very interesting is the system through which it flows is the dear old railway system.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01So we are back to Tracks of Empire.
0:52:04 > 0:52:09All across India, the railways are still vitally affecting the lives
0:52:09 > 0:52:14of one billion people in ways which would have delighted their colonial architects.
0:52:14 > 0:52:16I think they'd have been pleased.
0:52:16 > 0:52:19They'd think, well, these are our successors,
0:52:19 > 0:52:24our natural successors, and if they're Indian, well, that's surprising, but they're very good.
0:52:27 > 0:52:32'Where previously the concept of time would have varied with distance
0:52:32 > 0:52:39'from village to village, now trains all over India come and go on a prearranged schedule.'
0:52:39 > 0:52:45Railway clocks punctuate the day, and the old phrases remain.
0:52:45 > 0:52:50Going places, racing the clock, and full steam ahead.
0:52:52 > 0:52:57Once the railways were established, a modern economy became possible.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04The tracks laid originally by the British are now being lined
0:53:04 > 0:53:09with fibre optic cable, connecting India's broadband system.
0:53:09 > 0:53:15And the Indian railways are now expanding their network to meet the increasing demand.
0:53:17 > 0:53:20Progress has been earned the hard way by India.
0:53:20 > 0:53:24But now the 40,000 miles of track has helped to turn the country
0:53:24 > 0:53:28into a real force to be reckoned with in the global economy.
0:53:31 > 0:53:35It's also become, in a very direct sense, a force for good.
0:53:41 > 0:53:44This is the world's first hospital on rails.
0:53:46 > 0:53:51This train travels to stations deep inside rural India
0:53:51 > 0:53:55to deliver life-changing surgery of the most up-to-date kind.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03One of the reasons it's been so successful
0:54:03 > 0:54:07is that it's part of the trusted fabric of the nation, the railways.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14'Zelma Lazarus is the head of the Railway Hospital Project.'
0:54:14 > 0:54:18People would, in a way, prefer to have an operation done on a train...
0:54:18 > 0:54:22- Certainly.- ..than in a hospital. - The train is part of their lives.
0:54:22 > 0:54:27The hospital is an alien being. It's gone away, it's something, you don't know what's going to happen there.
0:54:27 > 0:54:31- The train is theirs.- Yes.- It's part of their life, they know it.
0:54:31 > 0:54:35And they will connect immediately. They would prefer to come to the train.
0:54:37 > 0:54:40100 operations a day can be performed on the train.
0:54:40 > 0:54:46The railway has brought science and medicine into India's ancient heartland.
0:54:57 > 0:55:02The beneficial effect of this new use of the railway can be dramatic.
0:55:02 > 0:55:07Cleft palates were once seen as a curse, and the children who suffered were often hidden from sight.
0:55:07 > 0:55:13'Now the train brings access to a simple operation that
0:55:13 > 0:55:21'not only transforms a child's life, but the attitudes of family and village.'
0:55:21 > 0:55:23THEY TALK IN HINDI
0:55:23 > 0:55:27What is she saying, Zelma?
0:55:27 > 0:55:33She said that she got the news about the train and she wasn't sure, but she decided to go.
0:55:33 > 0:55:37And she's very, very pleased and she's grateful and she says God is good to her.
0:55:37 > 0:55:40Yes. How old is the child?
0:55:40 > 0:55:42She was the youngest.
0:55:42 > 0:55:44- Just three months old. - Just three months old?
0:55:44 > 0:55:47And how well... it looks as if it's healing very well.
0:55:47 > 0:55:50Yeah, it is healing very well. Just a bit of scab is there.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53- It needs to be cleaned up. - How pleased is the mother?
0:55:53 > 0:55:55SHE TALKS IN HINDI
0:55:59 > 0:56:03She's very happy. Her child is going to be beautiful again.
0:56:03 > 0:56:07And she's happy she made the decision to go on the train.
0:56:10 > 0:56:17So much of what we see today and the life today, putting it simply, depends on the railways, doesn't it?
0:56:17 > 0:56:22Yes, I would like to think that. The train is an integral part of village life.
0:56:22 > 0:56:24Everything happens when the train arrives.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27The vegetables come, the food comes, the people move.
0:56:27 > 0:56:32And it connects the world, practically, the world outside the village, it connects.
0:56:32 > 0:56:35So it is a way of life.
0:56:35 > 0:56:38- That is a revolution, isn't it? - It is, it is.
0:56:40 > 0:56:42The railways are India.
0:56:42 > 0:56:46Without them, India wouldn't be India.
0:56:46 > 0:56:50'I've travelled the length and breadth of the nation to discover
0:56:50 > 0:56:54'the amazing story behind the construction of the railway network.
0:56:54 > 0:57:01'I've glimpsed into the heart of a nation that not only depends on its railways, but loves them, too.'
0:57:01 > 0:57:06This ceremony is, amazingly, the retirement of a train driver.
0:57:06 > 0:57:10Now, doesn't that show you how much pride there is in the Indian railways?
0:57:10 > 0:57:14When they retire, they're still in love with the railways,
0:57:14 > 0:57:17they want to make a big show of it. It's wonderful.
0:57:17 > 0:57:23Working for the railways has become a sign of status and prestige,
0:57:23 > 0:57:29because today, it's the railways which provide India with a chance to take on the modern world.
0:57:34 > 0:57:40'Hundreds of thousands died in the railways' construction, from accidents and disease.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45'But the railway pioneers moved mountains.
0:57:45 > 0:57:49'The engineers bridged the largest rivers in the world,
0:57:49 > 0:57:53'struck across flood plains and drove through deserts.
0:57:53 > 0:58:01'They made great cities and created entire industries, supporting communities across the nation.
0:58:02 > 0:58:07'The Victorian engineers brought new technology to harness the strength
0:58:07 > 0:58:12'of old India to buttress the might of the British Empire.
0:58:12 > 0:58:17'But in the end, they helped a new India to emerge,
0:58:17 > 0:58:21'an independent India, proud and free.'
0:58:40 > 0:58:43Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:43 > 0:58:46E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk