Shunting the Nation India's Railway Workers and the Most Tumultuous Decade in Modern Indian History (1939-1949)

The period 1939-1949 was the most turbulent decade in modern Indian

history-it saw the tumult of the SecondWorldWar, the unrest during the

Quit India movement and the final phase of the freedom struggle, and the

horrors of Partition.While most studies of this time focus chiefly on the

defining contributions of the Indian nationalist leaders and the role played by

the British, it is also important to record the efforts of millions of others in

meeting the enormous challenges of the period. Shunting the Nation records the

contribution of the workers-men, women and children-who ensured the

smooth functioning of the railway-based travel and communication system in the

Subcontinent, even as regimes changed, new borders were drawn and everything

seemed to be falling apart.

During perhaps the most demanding time in the history of any railway workforce,

these workers navigated overcrowded trains, food shortage, famine, disruption of

coal supplies, communal riots and an administration close to collapse, in order to

ensure humanitarian relief, swift movement of troops and weapons, and transport

of over three million refugees. Equally remarkable was the workers' successful

negotiation of the contrary demands of their employment-by the British-and

their nationalist, pro-independence sentiments; as was the class-based solidarity

of their unions which triumphed over barbaric sectarian divisions.

Drawing on memoirs, newspaper reports and government documents, Aniruddha

Bose's passionate narration of railway history brings to light the inspiring and

valuable role played by these unsung heroes in the modern histories of India and

Pakistan.