[Reader-list] railway posting

[vandana swami]

MORE ON RAILWAYS AND TIMBER MARKETS IN 19TH CENTURY
WESTERN INDIA

In this final posting, I would like to pick upon my
previous posting and discuss further documents on the
theme of wood, timber and timber markets in the
context of railway construction in mid to late 19th
century western India. The following note is based on
a letter written by John Blackwell, a railway engineer
to Thomas R Wall, Esquire and Secretary to the Great
Indian Peninsula Railway Company on 6th February 1857
on the subject of the sale of timber as observed by
Blackwell on his journeys.

Blackwell notes “the result of his enquiries
consequent on the sale of timber here, the market of
which was held yesterday” and he observes that “300
cart loads of timber were brought into the mart of
which the principal portion of 275 carts consisted of
teak, the remaining 25 of khair
” (which, I felt was a
HUGE amount of wood being cut for a SINGLE market
day). However, not all of this wood that is brought in
is useful for sleepers, since requirements for railway
sleepers are of a very specific kind. As Blackwell
says, “out of this, only 75 carts of teak contained
timber of the dimensions that would cut into
sleepers
all the khair being of the size required for
conversion into that article” (pg 595).

Discussing the market value of the teak logs,
Blackwell goes on, “ the rate of these 100 carts were
Rs. 4 ea. And would average 4 sleepers a cartload, but
owing to the length of the logs which were from 15 to
16 feet, a very great waste would result. This
imperfection could be removed should it be necessary
for the company (GIPR) to cut their own sleepers by
giving Bheels the dimensions of the timber required.”
In other words, the railway company is not fully
satisfied by the kind of timber that is available in
the market and would rather directly procure its own
raw materials by negotiating directly with Bheel
labor.

However, questions of ownership rights and control
over forests do come in and Blackwell seems wel aware
of them. He writes, “ this timber is brought from the
jungles of Gondwalee and Sagabaree, both of which I
proceed to visit this day, and are under no
conservancy restrictions, but belong to Bheel Rajas
who merely levy a toll of 4 annas on each cartload.”
Clearly, since the Bheels would know their own forests
best, Blackwell and the railway company have found the
best way to harvest these forests : by letting the
Bheels do it directly, based upon instructions
provided by the railway company.

Providing further details of the timber market,
Blackwell writes, “the night preceding the market day,
merchants and buyers flocked in from all parts of
Khandesh, so that it is very evident that this place
is the source of supply whereby the demands of this
province are satisfied and further, that parties when
paying for their purchases generally did so in the old
currency of the country and in copper, the Rupee and
government copper coins being held by Bheels at a
depreciation from their ignorance, whether real or
assumed.” (pg 596) I found this paragraph quite
fascinating because it symbolized and clearly
suggested the fact that the colonial state has only a
very tenuous existence at this point – not only does
it not have any significant widespread legitimacy at
this point, even the monetary systems that the
colonial state is trying to put in place are far from
being a mainstream phenomena. As revealed in the
observation by Blackwell, “the terms used by these
people (the natives) in asking a price are ‘lukkas’ ;
a lukka consists of 1/8th of a paisa”.

To conclude this posting for the moment then, what I
was able to garner from the letter written by
Blackwell was the following:

(a)	The existence of a highly active timber market.
One is forced to think why such a timber market exists
and how this timber is being consumed in
local/regional situations? How does demand for timber
as necessitated by railways in the British colonial
economy affect this local economy? What kinds of
changes does this bring about? Through the lenses of
timber trade, one also gets the opportunity to think
about and ask questions related to : 

(i)	British capitalism as an agent of modernity in
India.
(ii)	Existence of capitalism and capitalist structures
in the pre-colonial economy.
(iii)	Nature of the pre-colonial economy.
(iv)	Nature of market in pre-colonial India.

(b)	Competing monetary and financial structures as in
local currency (here lukka) versus Government of India
currency. The presence of a situation where the
colonial economy is still not well-entrenched and
managed to intrude local space.
(c)	The situation seems to be that labor is plentiful
but there is sheer lack of infrastructure eg : roads,
means of transportation, carts, trucks and wheeled
carriers slow down production.
(d)	Curious why only Bheel tribal labor gets a mention
in colonial documents, not others. 
(e)	Khandesh really seems to be the area where a lot
is happening in terms of railway construction, timber
market, labor situations, financialization of economy,
forest surveys, teak forests etc. So it might be
worthwhile to focus on this area for a study of
railways from the vantage points I mention.
(f)	Forest conservation does not really seem
widespread at this point. Many forests are open to
‘exploitation’ by both the ‘locals’ and the colonial
state. Therefore, what does this really mean for
environmental history at this point? 


 

  


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