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Transport and communications reading list

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===Railways===
''Lines of the nation : Indian railway workers, bureaucracy, and the intimate historical self''. New York: Colombia University Press, 2007 (Cultures of history)
Built 1898-1900 as the main workshop for the [[Bengal-Nagpur Railway]], [[Kharagpur ]] was also a railway colony. This book is the result of several years’ ground research exploring the culture and ethnography of the (large) Anglo-Indian community that remains there. A 'must read' for Anglo-Indians with railway roots but uncomfortable in places (e.g. ch. 6 'Public Genealogies' which deals with attempts by the East Indian Railway in the wake of the 1923 Lee Commission to change the classification of its staff by race – European, East Indian, Indian – to one based on domicile – Asiatic, Non-Asiatic). (Reviewed by Hugh Wilding, FIBIS trustee)
Given the fact and detail that ooze from every page, it is reassuring that there are endnotes for each chapter, an exhaustive (11 page) bibliography and an index, although there is no listing by name of the 45 or so railway administrations (or groupings) that existed in the imperial period nor one of the 16 zones that currently make up Indian Railways. There is also scant coverage of the railways of the Princely States.
With the caveat that there is no personal or genealogical data covered, this is a compelling and enjoyable read, wholeheartedly recommended, but maybe a bit pricey in the UK. (The full review by Hugh Wilding, FIBIS Trustee, appears in FIBIS "Journal" no. 22 (Autumn 2009), pp. 54-56)
[[Image:FFF4.jpg|right]]*Wilding, Hugh
''Research sources for Indian railways, 1845-1947''. London: Families in British India Society, 2009 (FIBIS fact files; 4)

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