Shunting the nation: Survival strategies of Indian (and Pakistani) railway workers (1939–1949)

Abstract

Between 1939 and 1949, a million men, women and children worked for the railways in India and Pakistan. Drawing on memoires, newspapers and government documents, this article seeks to examine the survival strategies these workers adopted in this tumultuous decade. It starts with a study of their efforts to survive the challenges of the Second World War. The article highlights how they rose to these challenges and played a crucial role in India’s war effort. It also examines how these workers navigated the demands of the Quit India movement. The article discusses evidence that sheds light on how they chose to remain at their posts while extending moral support to the freedom struggle. The article also explores how Indian and Pakistani railway workers coped with the challenge of partition. During what was certainly the greatest challenge faced by any railway workforce on the planet, these workers transported three million refugees over the newly created boundaries. The article discusses the challenges of class conflict that are endemic to modern industrial relations, specifically, how railway workers used acts of everyday resistance as well as organised strikes to protect their interests. Finally, the article discusses how Indian and Pakistani railway workers rose to the challenge posed by the initial years of independence, when both countries were vulnerable. The article argues that the workers adopted a multitude of survival strategies to overcome the challenges of the 1939–1949 decade. The article further argues that survival strategies culminated in a constructive relationship with nationalist politics, consolidated through the crucial decision of railway workers to work through independence and the partition crisis.