Indian Railways and Famine 1875-1914: Magic Wheels and Empty Stomachs

Abstract

Policy-makers interpreted famines in nineteenth century British India as problems of distribution, rather than food production. Railways provided speedier and cheaper transport than road methods employed during that time. They were more reliable than canals, which needed rainfall to facilitate transport. However, they were expensive to construct and maintain, and the British offered various levels of state support to encourage private investors under the façade of laissez faire capitalism. The effectiveness of the largest investment program in the history of the British Empire, in combating appalling famines, was questionable. There was a failure to overcome acute price increases in wheat and rice, and morefundamentally, deindustrialization and poverty in India, all of which colonial railways encouraged.