Can you imagine an India of 1850?

Just THINK about it! There were no aeroplanes in 1850. The automobile was not yet invented and therefore there were no buses at that time. There were no railways in India in 1850. The only mode of transport was a horse and a bullock cart for short distances. Electricity was not yet invented and India did not have the telephone or a telegraph in 1850. There were no paved roads at that time and worst of all there was no national language for common people to communicate with each other across different regions of the Indian subcontinent. Indians were strangers to each other!

The only form of communication on the Indian subcontinent before 1850 was the word of mouth or the Indian Postal Service. The British East India Company established some form of postal service in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras in 1764. The service was confined to the internal activities of the East India Company. Warren Hastings, the first Governor-General of India, made the postal service available to the general public during his 10 year tenure from 1773-1785. Today, Indian Postal Service is the largest postal system in the world with 155,333 post offices around the country.

It was not until 1851 that the then Governor-General of India, Lord Hardinge, initiated the railway system in India that transformed the whole subcontinent and its history. The first freight train was introduced in Roorkee (now in Uttar Pradesh) on December 22, 1851. This was followed by the first passenger train service between Bori Bunder (now in downtown Bombay) and Thana (now Maharashtra) on April 16, 1853. The total length of this track was 21 miles. By 1880, the total rail network in India covered 9,000 miles, mainly connecting the three British Presidencies of Bombay, Calcutta and Madras, all major port cities. Indian Railways cover 40,000 miles of tract today.