Railways
The railways in India were subject to constant changes of ownership, amalgamations and adjustments over the years. The categorisation below is intended to be comprehensive but not exhaustive.
The early railway companies were UK companies operating in India. Later the British Government of India (GoI) owned the majority and either managed them directly or leased them back to private management. From circa 1925 the GOI began to call in the leases, operating the services directly. By 1945, most railways were both owned and managed by the GoI.
- Guaranteed Railways included those railway companies, formed by 1859, to which the East India Company, later the GoI, guaranteed a fixed return on capital.
- Private Railways (those built without a guarantee) were few in munber - only two were formed in the period 1850-1866 and both these were re-constituted by 1870.
- State Railways were those either built and run directly by the GoI, or those where the GoI exercised its right to assume ownership (which it did gradually with all the original guaranteed railways from 1879 until 1907), or those whose promoters chose to surrender the workings to the GoI (and, in the cse of the guaranteed companies, received their capital back). From 1907, the word State was usually dropped from the name of railways in GoI ownership.
- Assisted Railways were those whose construction was assisted by the GoI, either by guaranteed return or subsidy or in some other material way.
- Indian States Railways were those built or promoted, often on similar terms to those above, by the various Princely States.
- Foreign Railways. Three small railways were built to serve foreign enclaves. These were managed by British companies but the lines could never vest in the GoI.
For a full list of railways known to have operated in British India, follow the link below.
Records
It is important to bear in mind that railway staff records created in India before 1947 remain in India, as do the records of railways built, owned or operated by the Indian Princely States. The records that survive today in the collections held at the British Library (and elsewhere) do so because they were originally created in the UK.
Recommended Reading
Hyde Clarke, Colonization, Defence, and Railways in our Indian Empire (London: John Weale, 1857).
J.N. Westwood, Railways of India (Newton Abbot: David & Charles Ltd, 1974) [out of print; a general history of the railways of India from pre 1840 to the 1970s.]
Ian J Kerr, Building the Railways of the Raj 1850-1900 (Delhi; Oxford: OUP, 1995) [out of print; a detailed, academic examination with full bibliography.]
Ian J Kerr, Engines of Change : the Railroads that made India (Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing, 2007) [links to a Google Books preview limited to the first 35 pages].
External Links
The Imperial Gazetteer of India : New edition . . . in Council (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1908-1931 [v. 1, 1909])
Indian Railways, "Evolution of Indian Railways - Historical Background," Indian Railway Administration and Finance
Mike's Railway History "Modern transport in India"