"Thailand has railways and the British never colonised the country,... In 1885, when the British invaded Burma, the Burmese king was already building railways and telegraphs. These are things Indians could have done themselves."

"...but even after Dalhousie had put his hand to the work, and the Company had responded to his efforts, it was the more general belief that railway communication in India would be rather a concern of Government, useful in the extreme for military purposes, than a popular institution supplying a national want. It was thought that Indolence, Avarice, and Superstition would keep the natives of the country from flocking to the Railway station. But with a keener appreciation of the inherent power of so demonstrable a benefit to make its own way, even against these moral obstructions, Dalhousie had full faith in the result. He was right. The people now learnt to estimate at its full worth the great truth that Time is Money; and having so learned, they were not to be deterred from profiting by it by any tenderness of respect for the feelings of their spiritual guides. That the fire-carriage on the iron road was a heavy blow to the Brahmanical Priesthood is not to be doubted."

"The most powerful teacher was the Indian railway, which despite some gloomy prophecies, had attained immediate popularity and necessarily tended to break down the barriers of ages, to stimulate movement, and exchange of thought. In railway carriages Brahmans and Sudras, Muslims and Sikhs, peasants and townspeople sat side by side. As early even as 1867-8 the total number of railway passengers was 13,746,000, of whom 95% travelled third class. Reflection, observation, interest in the outside world were stimulated; journeys from villages to towns; emigration from India itself became more common; life and prosperity grew more secure; new impulses were given to commerce, to industry and to agriculture. It should not be forgotten that to English capital India owes the sinews of her railway development."

"Though the initial proposal for building railways in India was mooted in 1844 by East Indian Railway and subsequently by GIPR the actual nod from rulers in Britain came many years later. By 1840s the East India Company was fast losing its grip over control of India and many more agents had already started operating in India with governmental support. The dominant group was determined to hold on to remaining power of appointments in India as long as they could. The directors of East India company were more than properly cautious and British government consulted any matter relating to India with the group. The proposals were pushed aside in the beginning but by the time they realised and were eager to do business with the railway companies, the 1847-49 depression had hit England and it was very difficult to raise funds. It was at this juncture that the promoters insisted that the government must put the new railway companies in a position to guarantee the railway stockholders an annual return. The promoters were able to mobilise London merchants aspiring exports and imports to and from large Indian market and finally in 1849, East India Company signed contract and gave the railway companies better term than they had originally asked in 1844. The contract provided in essence that , private companies would raise the funds for the railways and manage their operations, while the Government of India would exercise high-level supervision of railway policy and guarantee the private companies against risk of loss"

"In the second half of the nineteenth century, railway fever had infected Russia, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. In India, the first lines connecting Bombay, Calcutta and Madras opened in the early 1850s. Ten years later, the sub-continent had a railway network of 2,500 miles, nearly 4,800 in the 1870s, and 16,000 miles in 1890. For Marx, the development of Indian railways was a powerful illustration of his vision of traditional and archaic social forms shattered by the advent of modern, conquering industries. ‘Indian society’, he wrote in 1853 in the New York Daily Tribune, ‘has no history at all, at least no known history.’ Its providential destiny was to be ruled and, from this point of view, the British Empire, as violent and brutal as it was, would undoubtedly have more fruitful consequences than its competitors, the Russian and the Ottoman empires. In India the British colonizers had two missions, ‘one destructive, the other regenerating: the annihilation of old Asiatic society, and the laying the material foundations of Western society in Asia.’ Steam had severed the sub-continent from ‘the prime law of its stagnation’ by connecting it with the advanced world. Very soon, he predicted, this joining with the West through ‘a combination of railways and steam-vessels’ would demolish the bases of Oriental despotism. Railroads were destroying the archaic social system of the country, which was grounded on the ‘self-sufficient inertia of the villages’. The article’s conclusion swept away any doubts: ‘The railway-system will therefore become, in India, truly the forerunner of modern industry."

"They [third-class railway carriages] are discreditable-looking places where there is no order, no cleanliness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise. Passengers have no benches or not enough to sit on. They squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food. They are permitted to throw the leavings of their food and spit where they like, sit how they like and smoke everywhere. The closets attached to these places defy description. I have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a breach of the laws of decent speech. In neglecting the third class passengers, opportunity of giving a splendid education to millions in orderliness, sanitation, decent composite life and cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost. Instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters third class passengers have their sense of decency and cleanliness blunted during their travelling experience. Among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with the evil here described, I would respectfully include this: let the people in high places, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maharajas, the Imperial Councillors and others, who generally travel in superior classes, without previous warning, go through the experiences now and then of third class travelling. We would then soon see a remarkable change in the conditions of third class travelling and the uncomplaining millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the expectation of being carried from place to place with ordinary creature comforts."