This is a small clipping of the first ever ‘Railway Exhibition’ held at Delhi in March 1945. I came across this through the internet. It was featured in Modern Transport, a British broadsheet newspaper from the 1940s. When I read about the exhibition, I was reminded of Delhi’s National Rail Museum and the fond memories I had visiting there as a child.
In this case, the first railway exhibition (‘India’s Lifeline’) was at best a belated PR exercise at the end of World War Two. I write this because this was the moment heated discussions were taking place about the nature of the Indian executive council and the elections later in 1945-6. So, perhaps to deflect some attention from the tumultuous days ahead and bask in the glory of bringing modern transportation marvels to the Empire, the first ever railway exhibition was held in the imperial capital.
Interestingly, there were full size exhibits of locomotives, old passenger coaches showing engineering progress along with modern ‘air-conditioned hospital cars (coaches)’. All of this was on a ceremonial platform at New Delhi’s railway station!
Of course, you can’t mention the railways without commenting on the ‘balance sheet approach’- whether the railways were a benefit of Empire or not, especially since the exhibition has it tagged as ‘India’s Lifeline’. Yes, more railway journeys and passenger traffic did take place at this time and markets were integrated as a result of the railways. However, the flipside is significant; at the time of this exhibition, railways carried raw materials away from inland regions where it was needed the most and despite market connectivity, the railways were not meant to bring relief from famine, for example. As it says, the ‘Lifeline’ tag of the exhibition is perhaps best suited to wartime mobilisation, particularly for the defence services that benefitted from it.
See you next Friday.
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