Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical Self (Cultures of History)

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Lines of the Nation radically recasts the history of the Indian railways, which have long been regarded as vectors of modernity and economic prosperity. From the design of carriages to the architecture of stations, employment hierarchies, and the construction of employee housing, Laura Bear explores the new public spaces and social relationships created by the railway bureaucracy. She then traces their influence on the formation of contemporary Indian nationalism, personal sentiments, and popular memory. Her probing study challenges entrenched beliefs concerning the institutions of modernity and capitalism by showing that these rework older idioms of social distinction and are legitimized by forms of intimate, affective politics.

Drawing on historical and ethnographic research in the company town at Kharagpur and at the Eastern Railway headquarters in Kolkata (Calcutta), Bear focuses on how political and domestic practices among workers became entangled with the moralities and archival technologies of the railway bureaucracy and illuminates the impact of this history today. The bureaucracy has played a pivotal role in the creation of idioms of family history, kinship, and ethics, and its special categorization of Anglo-Indian workers still resonates. Anglo-Indians were formed as a separate railway caste by Raj-era racial employment and housing policies, and other railway workers continue to see them as remnants of the colonial past and as a polluting influence.

The experiences of Anglo-Indians, who are at the core of the ethnography, reveal the consequences of attempts to make political communities legitimate in family lines and sentiments. Their situation also compels us to rethink the importance of documentary practices and nationalism to all family histories and senses of relatedness. This interdisciplinary anthropological history throws new light not only on the imperial and national past of South Asia but also on the moral life of present technologies and economic institutions.

Lines of the Nation: Indian Railway Workers, Bureaucracy, and the Intimate Historical Self (Cultures of History) Review

Paul Theroux noted in the Great Railway Bazaar that India works because the railway works, which is more than just a clich�. Indian Railways is one of the few systems in India that work. Given the size of the system (1.6 million employees) a study of Indian Railways is a study of microcosm of India. Despite railways constant presence in India, behind the curtain goings-on are for the large part hidden from the world. "Lines of the nation" fills this important gap.

The book runs on two parallel levels: First, as a study of the system, its origins, procedures, rules and regulations. Second, as an anthropological study on a cross-section of people working on this system. The author does a fine job of balancing the two perspectives and weaving them into a narrative that will hold a railway buff's attention.

On the negative side, the book suffers from author's inability to distinguish between general traits shared by all government departments in India from specific traits unique to railways. For example her first meeting with Deputy General Manager, which goes into the details of long corridor, queue of favor seeking supplicants, trappings of power, hidden buttons under desks etc. could have taken place in any government department in India without little difference. Similarly, the unequal relationship between employee and employer, the quasi-judicial process of disciplinary action against government servants, the officer as paternalistic figure-head of the office would hold true for any government department in India, not just railways.

The other negative feature of the book is repetition. Same incidents (such as author's meeting with Deputy General Manager, Librarian, Abdel - the railway colony guide) is repeated twice or thrice without any addition to new insights or information. Section on the life of Anglo-Indians - though interesting in its own right - is also quite repetitive with minute details of their life that barely have any relation with the "lines of the nation". Moreover, since Anglo-Indians are now such a tiny majority of Indian Railway's workforce that their lifestyle and worldview is hardly representative of an average railway man.

The author has also fallen into the trap of explaining all sociological issues in India through the twin lens of "jati" and "desh" even where they are not applicable. Her discussion with a Bengali railway man dismissing Anglo-Indians as people without "jati" and "desh" remains content at that level without exploring if it is the larger perception or an individual's view.

Overall, despite some of its shortcomings, this is an important book that is a must read for all Indian Railway buffs. Even long time railfans will find it a treasure trove of unique insights and information about the inner world of Indian Railways.

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