Great Indian Peninsula Railway
Also called: GIPR · Topic: Colonial Economy: Land Revenue, Drain, Deindustrialisation · NCERT: Class 12, Ch 1 "Colonialism and the Countryside"
Meaning
The Great Indian Peninsula Railway (GIPR) was a British railway company in western India. It ran India's first passenger train, from Bombay to Thane, in 1853. Its lines later crossed the Western Ghats into the Deccan. This linked the inland cotton-growing areas to the port of Bombay.
Example
During the cotton boom of 1861–65, the American Civil War cut Britain off from American cotton. Raw cotton from the Deccan then moved by rail to Bombay and was shipped to Lancashire's mills. Lines like the GIPR's helped tie Deccan farmers to the world cotton market. That also exposed them to the crash that followed.
Don't confuse with
- East Indian Railway: this was a different company that built lines in the east, starting from Calcutta (Howrah). The GIPR worked in the west, from Bombay.
Related concepts
- Drain of wealth
- William Digby
- Dadabhai Naoroji
- Poverty and Un-British Rule in India
- Romesh Chunder Dutt
- Economic History of India
- Home charges
- Colonial railways
- First railway line 1853
- Guaranteed interest system