Abstract
The book, intended ‘primarily’ as ‘a social history of technology’, traces the ‘interrelationship between technology and village society’ (p. xi). Induction of new technology significantly increased during colonial rule, since technology was ‘the primary tool of colonialism’ (p. xi). Indeed, ‘colonialism unleashed a process of technology transmission to the colonies’ (p. xi). The process, however, had its limitations. ‘The manner in which technology was introduced…failed to generate a free interplay between London or other core areas and Calcutta as a colonial metropolis…Indigenous enterprise had been stifled and made to play second fiddle to British interests’ (p. xiii).
1
The manner in which the new technology affected the organisation of production in Bengal widely varied. Some major types are identifiable.
New technology made possible in some cases ‘the survival of a large artisan sector’ (p. xiv). Earlier studies on artisans mostly concentrated on weavers. ‘Singular emphasis on weaving…created a simplified notion of all artisans sharing the weavers’ woes’ (p. xiv). Even the weavers made use of new tools which helped them remain in business for quite some time, until most of them eventually came to the wall (pp. 78–80, 81–93). Other artisan groups making use of the new technology were braziers (kansaris) (pp. 80–81, 98–104), blacksmiths (kamars) (pp. 104–13) and Sankharies, makers of conch shell bangles (pp. 113–14).
A distinctive type, which Sarkar calls ‘machines in the periphery’, was the use of new tools in three major areas of rural peasant production: milling of rice, sugar and oil (Chapter 3). The new technology had much to contribute to the viability of some small-scale industries, such as hosiery and match-making. A small class of English-educated elites, bhadraloks, had the leading role here (Chapter 4).
Railways, strikingly demonstrating application of the new technology in various forms, had perhaps the biggest impact on the economy and society. The key technology in this entirely new enterprise was steam engine: ‘The steam engine was a more powerful agency of change than laws, roads, bridges, canals or education that the British had introduced in India’ (p. 232). The construction of a vast railway network over huge distances also necessitated the induction of advanced technological skills (pp. 60–67).
2
The present review mainly concentrates on railways and rice mills. The emphasis is on the strikingly new ideas in the study.
The book reviewed is the most comprehensive of the usual studies on Indian railways. We briefly refer only to two types, official and nationalist, to give an idea of how Sarkar’s analysis differs. The description of the new Rajmahal route by Canning (Governor General 1856–62) as ‘a line of light through the mofussil of darkness’ (p. 288
Sarkar’s emphasis is on the long-term trends in the changes that occurred, regardless of whether they were beneficial or not to the people. A major part of the study is an analysis of the nature of the changes resulting from the induction of the new technology of steam power. His basic postulate about the totality of its implications for human civilisation is noteworthy. Steam was ‘the first in a series of inanimate converter of energy that changed human life’ (p. 231). Use of the technology as a basis of the new railway project is more or less known. (We have cited above his conclusion that as ‘an agency of change’ the steam engine was more ‘powerful’ than most other things that colonial government had ‘introduced’, such as ‘roads, bridges, canals or education’ (p. 232).) He also elaborates how the process of construction of the vast railway network over a huge geographical area necessitated new technological skills (pp. 60–67). The construction in ‘the early phase’ was a different story. It was ‘a labour intensive process dependent mostly on local skill and method’ (p. 61). Use of technology increased later, especially when rivers had to be bridged. ‘The real challenge of railway construction was bridge building’ (p. 62). ‘The railway bridge was a technological feat of great economic importance’ (p. 63).
A refreshingly new thing in the study is the history of land acquisition for railways. Sarkar calls his book a ‘social history of technology’. Here is an instance.
Government did acquire lands from time to time; earlier for different purposes, such as roads, forts, palaces, etc. Land acquisition for railways was distinctive. Its scale was massive. Difficulties in getting the land were not solely due to this huge scale. They had cultural roots. One was the ‘sensitive nature of the homestead’ (p. 7). Home and the land inherited from one’s ancestors had ‘cultural values’. Land, a big asset to the villager, ensured his sustenance ‘through the vicissitudes of life’. Influence of ‘religious cultural tradition’ was a reason why the villager would part with it ‘only under the direst necessity’. The cultural tradition had far deeper roots in the adivasi society. Adivasis feared that ‘clearing forests for the railways would dislocate ancient graves, and as a result fireballs, instead of rain, would drop from heaven’ (p. 7). A more sensitive problem had to be faced when the land chosen for acquisition included sacred sites: temples, mosques and places of religious congregation. Culture had also much to do with the difficulties in acquiring lands from riverside villages. ‘In the cultural tradition of the land, living on the west bank of the Ganges was considered akin to residing in the holy city of Benares’ (p. 8). The railway company faced ‘the severest opposition’ when new lines were being laid along the west bank of the Hoogly river (p. 8).
Difficulties in acquiring land were not all related to rural culture; for instance, the ones where land had to be acquired for embankments or for diverting water channels. It affected ‘hundred of huts and houses’.
Fixing compensation rates for the land acquired was as tough a job. Land was given free to the railway company. It, however, had to be paid for, except where government owned it. The compensation schemes had to be ‘carefully worked out and minutely administered’ (p. 6). Owners’ title to property had to be ascertained. A ‘consuming process’, this caused ‘widespread rumblings’ among villagers (p. 46).
The Mutiny hit the railway work hard. The mutiny greatly disrupted it, except where zamindars remained loyal. Mutineers ‘targeted railways, killed engineers and vandalized railway property’ (p. 52). Government decided to be more cautious in regard to land acquisition and compensation. Uniform compensation rate was given up. New rates were adjusted to local variations. Uniform rates of compensation and undervaluation caused most of the problems earlier too.
The cause of a later difficulty of government was the rising trend of land prices where railways were built. Government blamed it on the ‘very considerable profits’ of the village headmen, who had a crucial role in the whole business of land acquisition (p. 60). One possible cause of the rising land prices was the better definition of land titles necessitated by the formality of compensating the land donors.
Sarkar has made a detailed study of the impact of railways on the economy and society. As an area of its immediate impact Sarkar has chosen ‘the primary transport’, the existing carrying trade by boat and bullock.
He is critical of the nationalist argument that railways, an altogether new mode of transport, had ‘ruined’ the traditional trade. His judgement is more cautious. The impact was ‘mixed’ (p. 266). The boatman and the bullock-cart only partially suffered.
The early impact of the East India Railways upon long-distance boat traffic on the Ganges below Allahabad was ‘less dramatic. The shift from boat to railways was neither abrupt nor uniform’ (p. 255). The boat traffic in eastern India, on the other hand, ‘continued to dominate the trade in low value bulk goods for a fairly long period’ (p. 255). Transport by boat ‘suited the ecology of east Bengal’ (p. 257). ‘A unique grid of rivers, streams, shoals and canals’ linked eastern and deltaic Bengal to Calcutta. The shift from boat to rail was, however, ‘faster in the case of goods more valuable in bulk’ (p. 256). Sarkar could not quantify the magnitude of the shift in western Bengal for lack of precise data.
A distinct trend by the end of the nineteenth century, however, was a steady increase in railway-borne trade. In 1901 its share of the total trade was as high as 65 per cent. ‘The railways carried nearly two-thirds of Calcutta’s total trade with the provinces by all routes’ (p. 259).
The bullock cart as a means of transport suffered too. However, railways could scarcely undermine its position. The railway, along with its unlimited space and faster journey at an affordable cost, was a threat to the bullock cart; but ‘it maintained its position as the principal river transport till the 1930s. Railways only pushed it out of the long-distance trade’ (p. 259). Here is an instance of how it happened. A cart could not cover the distance between Calcutta and Bardhaman ‘in one go’. The cart was uneconomical when used for more than 20 miles or so. Following the introduction of the Calcutta–Raniganj railway via Bardhaman, ‘carters carrying paddy/rice or coal lost their trade almost immediately’ (p. 260). The railways, however, created new business and carts could benefit by it. For instance, carriage of coal from pitheads to the Damodar River had greatly increased the demand for carts.
The railways did not hurt the whole of the carter community in a similar way. It had two groups: seasonal and professional. The seasonal or local carter suffered much less, because he combined carting with farming. The same animal was used for both. Farming could make up for the loss from carting. The professional carter, doing only carting, and preferring long-distance transport, was hit hard. Local carters also benefited more from the opportunities created by the railways, particularly where feeder roads connecting the railway station with villages far and near were available. Carts could carry goods from the interior to the station and return with a fresh load from the station. The new rice mills helped the local carter too. Husking was mostly done in the locality where paddy was grown. Not much transport was required unless where the husked paddy was sent away to remote places. Rice mills drew their paddy supply from a wider area. The outflow of paddy from villages increased, ‘much to the benefit of the carter’ (p. 266).
The railways, in conjunction with other developments, deeply affected the economy in other ways. Sarkar has analysed some of the crucial effects. Some are known; but then he has provided new data, which show that they actually were more complex than usually assumed. He has critically examined some of the established views. This necessitated the use of unconventional source materials, including a considerable number of different kinds in Bengali: literature, journals, memoirs and reminiscences. Keen to ‘detect the folk perception of the changes’, he ‘approached the issue from a bottom-up perspective and explored a whole range of local-level sources’, and ‘blended hard data with folk usage, oral traditions, songs and sayings’ (p. xvii).
A major theme of the study is how as a result of the widening of the railway network and other related changes the old isolation of villages gradually broke down and ‘the backward and advanced areas of development’ came to be linked (p. xi). His is not a simplistic view of a self-sufficient village economy. Villages did continue to have links for long with the wider economy, but, except for a few commodities, links with the wider economy remained tenuous. Villages had to have a proper organisation for producing the commodities internally. With the availability of these commodities from external sources it became redundant, and the labour engaged in producing them could now move to other areas of the economy.
Other changes, largely brought about by railways, also had a role in weakening the old base of a self-sufficient village economy. One was the mobility of villagers. This was partly due to availability of job opportunities outside the village. This did not necessarily mean that the mobile villagers changed to an altogether different kind of occupation. One probable reason of the shift to places outside the villages was the increased clientele of their services there. Another was the declining effectiveness of the old village organisation, leading to a fall in the remuneration for their services.
Mobility of villagers, perhaps on a smaller scale, had a different form. This was connected with the way railways led to a reorganisation of the pattern of human settlement all along the railway track. ‘In earlier times populous villages clustered close to the river, the silent highway of trade and transport…With the coming of the railways any road that went to the riverside either lost its importance or [was] re-laid to feed the station nearby’ (p. 232). A typical example of how railways realigned the pattern of human settlement was the growth of Howrah from ‘a small non-descript village on the western bank of the river Hoogly’ into ‘the second city of Bengal’ (p. 233). Villagers increasingly migrated to Howrah, especially with the construction of the railway in 1851. There were other instances of how places situated on the railway route, such as Bolpur and Ahmadpur, rapidly rose in importance within two decades (1856–76). The coming of railways attracted a great deal of the old river-borne trade. Jalpaiguri is another instance of railways promoting urban growth (pp. 239–40). As late as 1849 it ‘was a straggling village near the banks of the Teesta’. A new phase of its growth started with its annexation to British Empire in 1869. Outsiders (bahe), including professional groups and traders, started to settle since then. The pace of migration picked up with the coming of railways (June 1878). The population doubled itself within two decades. This was how ‘railway marts’, as C.A. Bayly called them, emerged as a new type of country town.
A vital part of the study of how railways affected urban development and internal trade in Bengal is its impact on the trade in rice, Bengal’s most significant agricultural produce. The structure of the rice trades in the pre-railway age has been analyzed first.
The ‘two most important’ aspects of the trade were water transport and rice export. There were several key groups in it. Rice passed through ‘an elaborate hierarchy of traders. Farmer traders collected paddy form the village. They sold it to itinerant traders. Several “carrier traders” had a crucial role in mobilising supplies from the interior to the assembly centres. More substantial traders (goladar, arhatdar, mahajan/seth) ‘controlled supply through networks interlinking localized traders’ (p. 242).
An obvious determinant of the rice trade was the timing of the harvests, their seasonality. The two principal rice crops were harvested in autumn and winter. The second, ‘more bountiful’, ‘determined the supply and price of grain in the market’ (p. 243). The mode of transport, boat, determined the seasonality of trade. It determined the location of the grain market. All major rice-trading centres were naturally located on the riverbank. Very little was exported or imported in the dry season. Rice grain from the village was then collected in warehouses. Grain movement at different stages—from the interior to the primary market, then to the assembly centre (ganj) and finally to places of inter-regional trade, slowed down. There was thus no vertical control over the organisation of the trade. ‘The fragmentary nature of the market helped dissipate control at the local level’ (p. 244). Much depended on how the grain stock could be cornered, Naturally, ‘the more substantial the merchant, the greater was his ability to hold the stock over a longer period’ (p. 244). They devised various strategies to corner large supplies at a preferential price (p. 245).
How did the railways affect the old structure of the rice trade? The railways alone could not do it. The railways did it in conjunction with the new development—the rise of rice mills.
Until the growth of rice mills, the railways could change ‘neither the seasonality nor the nature of the rice trade’ (p. 245). Except in some ‘landlocked places’, the old system of transport continued to remain competitive till long after the 1860s. The old pattern of trade changed only when the railways made it possible for the steam-driven rice mill to spread to the interior by about the 1920s. The old structure of trade thus changed ‘in the most active hinterland of the colonial metropolis’ (p. 246).
The changes were all significant. One was the reversal of the old composition of the rice trade: a higher share of clean rice to paddy. Earlier Calcutta imported clean rice from the interior. With rice mills coming up, it procured paddy rather than clean rice. Local rice trade was reorganised. Rice mills drew on new sources of paddy supply. The role of rice mills became increasingly decisive, though the strategies of different rice mills varied. ‘All these intensified competition at the primary market all over eastern India’ (p. 246). Substantial merchants dealing with Calcutta mills supplied paddy on credit in the lean season on condition that the mills would sell rice through them. The strategy of the district mills differed. They preferred to buy directly from the farmer. To counteract this move, Calcutta mills too preferred direct contacts with farmers. They provided credit to farmers on condition that farmers would hand over to them a fixed quantity. By the 1920s ‘the rice mill emerged as a new source of rural credit’ (p. 247).
3
The shift from traditional paddy husking to rice milling illustrates how the induction of technology making the shift possible had a profound impact on the economy and society of rural Bengal (Chapters 3 and 5).
Paddy husking, that is, changing paddy in the husk into rice, was a common rural activity. It was universally done manually by women, and the contrivance used in the operation was called dhenki. Paddy had all along been a major commodity in the pre-colonial trade in rice, the staple produce of the region. Availability of women labour increased with the rapid decline of traditional weaving. Women, doing the spinning in the weaving industry, now chose rice pounding as their major livelihood (p. 131). Since husked paddy formed part of the vast rice trade, traders controlling the trade also controlled the whole husking activity, perhaps through agents, including fixing the quantity of paddy to be husked, employment of women and procurement of the husked paddy. The traders were often itinerant groups. Huskers too, particularly during times of a brisk rice trade, included migrants.
Rice-milling, meaning ‘conditioning, husking and cleaning of rice’ (p. 142) did not have a long past in India. Large-scale rice milling first started in London and Liverpool. India and Myanmar were the chief sources of the paddy supply. Things rapidly changed after the annexation of Lower Burma (Myanmar) to the British Empire in 1852. Chetty capital and Tamil labour opened up the Irrawaddy delta to international trade. The Myanmar ecology and cheap labour made possible a large increase in the rice cultivation. British grain exporters preferred to invest in rice mills from the 1870s onwards. With a plentiful supply of paddy and cheap milling cost the new rice industry in Myanmar priced out the home millers in Europe (p. 142). Quite a few London–Liverpool millers relocated their mills to Myanmar.
The growing influence of Myanmar rice in international rice trade threatened the position of the countries exporting rice to Southeast Asia, such as Madras, the Cauvery delta, Bengal and coastal Orissa. ‘This commercial compulsion forced Madras to shift to the new rice milling technology’ (p. 143).
Two types of technology were used in rice mills: huller and sheller (p. 143). The huller had two grooved cylinders. As paddy was poured into one cylinder, the clean rice came out of the other. The sheller was a bigger machine which ‘de-husked the paddy by grinding it between two rotating stone discs, while an automatic cone polisher cleaned the product’ (p. 142).
The growth in rice milling in Bengal was rather slow. One reason was of a cultural nature. There was a strong prejudice here against milled rice. People preferred parboiled rice. This required soaking and drying of the paddy before husking. The parboiled rice produced by rice mills contained much meal and chaff, and was hence inferior. Moreover, steaming and sun drying of paddy, done mainly manually, was a costly process. Rice mills therefore could not compete with the old system of husking by dhenkis. In contrast, the Myanmar and Madras mills produced only non-boiled rice without drying.
The use of the rice huller in Bengal took off in the early twentieth century. Initially its use was more or less localised in parts of Howrah. The leading brand of the huller used was England’s Engel Berg Huller. ‘The transfer of technology from the colonial metropolis to the periphery was neither easy nor free from control’ (p. 145). The London firm manufacturing the huller did not want it manufactured in Bengal and created obstacles for the local entrepreneurs. The discovery of a prototype of the Engel Berger Brand ensured its widespread use.
Favourable changes in the economy had much to contribute to it. A crucial one was the fast-increasing Calcutta export trade in rice. It increased by as much as 200 per cent in the 1870s (p. 146). A much larger increase by 600 per cent occurred in the period between 1918 and 1928 (p. 147). Bengal rice mills could now produce enough to supply to Sri Lanka, Singapore, Mauritius and other British settlements. High-quality rice could also be shipped to Europe and Japan.
The huge increase in the urban demand helped too It was mainly due to the huge growth of Calcutta’s population—by 11 per cent in the 1870s and by 24 per cent in the next decade (p. 147). The social composition of the new population was significant too. It mostly included the migrant industrial labourers, from parts of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, who preferred the milled rice to the costly hand-pounded rice. It was a big stimulus to the growth of new mills.
The long spell of high rice prices during the years 1916–28 also stimulated the growth. The Depression (1929–36) reversed the rising trend. The outbreak of World War II restored it. Rice mills became active again, now in the districts. The railways helped rice mills grow fast, especially in southwest Bengal, where boat transport was negligible. It did not just improve the movement of rice. By opening up new markets it stimulated new cultivation in virgin lands. As a result of the increased availability of rice and its quicker transport, rice imported from Calcutta penetrated deep into the district and priced out the local product.
Rice mills thus became most widely distributed. Coming up first in Calcutta, they tended to shift to districts with the export trade in rice gradually weakening. It was mostly to the western Bengal districts that the shift occurred. Part of the reason was the easy supply of coal there and also the abundance of cheap labour, especially in the mono-crop regions. The easy river link to Calcutta explains the weak base of the rice milling industry in eastern Bengal. It was much cheaper transporting rice by railways than by boat. The Partition was a big setback to the Calcutta mills, primarily because their supply base, that is, source of paddy supply in east Bengal considerably shrank. The industry grew in Bihar and Orissa, so much so that the Calcutta millers were marginalised.
Control over the industry remained dispersed too. A small elite group could scarcely dominate it…most mill-owners came from humble trading groups. A notable feature was the leading role of traditional caste groups, such as gandhabaniks, telis and sadgops. In Burdwan, ugra-kashtriyas, the dominant agricultural caste, had the lead. However, unlike hosiery and match manufacturing, rice milling rarely attracted bhadraloks, ‘a small class of English-educated elites’. Sarkar had a significant conclusion to draw about the social roots of the rice-milling enterprise: ‘the wide social acceptability of the new technology’ (p. 154).
Rice mills thus led to a sizeable increase in the rice acreage by creating new rice markets or by consolidating existing ones. Better distribution of rice also made it available in larger areas. Rice mills had negative effects on the rural economy too. A considerable number of huskers, traditionally all women, lost their employment. The employment generated by rice mills was far smaller. Two features of the new employment scene are notable. ‘The early rice mill was a low-input labour-intensive technology’ (p. 252). For instance, in 1921, only two out of 137 mills in Bengal employed more than 100 workers. Again, even the new labour force was not drawn from the local source. It was mostly migrant labour from Bihar, Orissa and Andhra. Sarkar has quantified, on the basis of available data, the growing unemployment among women huskers. An official report cited by him concludes: ‘For every mill that was introduced in Bengal about 500 persons were thrown out of hand-pounding work’ (p. 254). He presents revealing data showing the ‘insignificance of the employment created by rice mills’. ‘In 1920 rice mill workers accounted for only 14 per cent of the displaced husker,12 per cent in 1930, and 15 per cent in 1939’ (p. 254).
4
How best to characterise this long, meticulously researched study? The author says its ‘principal theme’ is ‘a social history of technology’ (p. xii). Readers may get a different impression. The present reviewer would call it a competent treatise on economic history. The changes analysed here were, by and large, of an economic nature, and the new technology and related developments that generated them were primarily impulses rooted in the organisation of the economy.
There are numerous instances where the economic changes had social roots or social implications. We have cited some of them above. Difficulties in acquiring land for railways in peasant villages had distinct cultural roots. Santals and other adivasis also bitterly opposed the land acquisition out of a fear that the usurpations could be a big threat to their communal and cultural tradition, especially where their family graveyards could be completely wiped off. This would mean disruption of their ties with their ancestors.
Cultural implications of some changes, associated with railways, were of a temporary nature. ‘The majesty of speed and power of the railways’ was a big surprise to villagers used to travelling by the slow cart (p. 289). ‘The ecstasy of railway travel mesmerized both the high and low’ (p. 289).
However, the feeling of awe wore off before long.
A few other changes brought about by railways left a more lasting effect on society and culture. Villagers were now more mobile. One form of mobility was related to realignment of the pattern of human settlements. With the increasing importance of railways as a determinant of most types of economic exchanges, villagers moved away from the river sites, the old centres of settlements, to new habitations built near railways. Equally significant was peasant mobility to places, far and near, during particular agricultural seasons, particularly harvesting, which had to be finished as quickly as possible after the ripening of the grain. The labour force necessary for it was often not available locally and peasant families could not do without migrant labour. Such migrations did occur earlier. The scale noticeably increased now. The changing pattern of village livelihoods as a result was a socially significant trend. ‘Sometimes the villages owe their names to migrant settlers’, the author tells us (p. 294). Mobility increased not just because railways made travel easier. One major reason, by about the last decade of the nineteenth century and the first three decades of the twentieth, was the rising trend of commodity prices. Artisans and others, who provided communally defined services to the village, needed to earn more. They were now eager to move out of the village. Such migrations further weakened the old communal ties. The increased scale of mobility was culturally significant too where railways facilitated pilgrimages, especially to places like Nilachal.
Another significant social change resulted from the weakening of the old-type village economy and a relatively closed society. ‘With the State asserting itself more and more in the locality, the notion of community changed’ (p. 305). Villagers no longer needed the protection of the caste/village society. ‘As the old social organization of occupations caved in, psychological intimacy among villagers increased across the limits of caste, kin and community’ (p. 305).
The significance of these social changes is undeniable. However, the technology-induced economic changes, which this study has analysed, had a far deeper impact on the traditional society. Indeed, the primary changes occurred first in the economy. Social changed resulted from them.