Home on the train Bhowani Junction tells us about the British, Anglo-Indians and the railways in colonial India In last week’s column, I drew on Awtar Kaul’s film 27 Down to evoke the way that India’s train network can sometimes stand in for the country itself. But of course, the Indian Railways were not always so Indian. Along with cricket and the English language, trains are often spoken of as one of the ‘gifts’ of British colonialism. Such imperialist phrasing remains fiercely debated, as it should be, given that the British certainly didn’t create the railway network to connect Indians with one another, or even primarily for passengers. The railways were built to help transport raw materials and finished goods, to speed up the opening of the Indian market to the colonial economy -- and British private investors were guaranteed returns by the government, based on Indian revenues.