"Colonial infrastructure policy served imperial commercial interests more than Indian development needs." Discuss with reference to roads and motor transport in the 1920s.

In November 1926, Sir Reginald Ford, speaking for the British motor trade, predicted a "great expansion" of India's car market. He expected a 30% cut in car import duty and a petrol tax set aside for roads [1]. The road policy that followed, the Jayakar Committee (1927–28) and the Central Road Fund (1929), largely bears out the statement. Its development gains were mostly a by-product, but they lasted.

Imperial commercial interests dominated

• Winning back the market: About 75% of India's cars were non-British, so Ford's main demand was a British sales agent for India [1]. The policy debate centred on foreign sellers, not Indian road users.
• Roads as demand-creation: Putting petrol tax into roads [1] widened the market for imported cars and fuel. India had no car industry of its own, so this road spending largely helped foreign manufacturers.
• Centralised, tied control: Provinces got grants only for projects approved by the Governor General in Council, on the advice of a Standing Committee on Roads [2]. Priorities were set from the top, not by local need.
• Narrow base: The fund was financed by an additional excise duty on petrol [3], a tax tied to the small car-owning elite rather than to rural mass mobility.

Yet the developmental gains were real

• Indian participation: The committee was chaired by M.R. Jayakar [4], and the fund's arrangements were debated in the Council of State [2]. The process was not purely imperial.
• Dedicated road finance: The CRF created an earmarked, user-pays fund for provincial roads [3]. This gave roads a steadier source of money than yearly budget decisions.
• Lasting institutions: The Indian Roads Congress (1934) grew out of the Jayakar Committee's recommendations [5]. The earmarking model survives in the Central Road Fund Act, 2000, which levies a cess on petrol and high-speed diesel [6].

Roads and motor transport in the 1920s were shaped mainly by imperial trade interests; the development gains came largely as a side effect. Independent India kept the colonial idea of earmarked fuel-tax funding for roads. The task now is to point it at inclusive connectivity, in line with SDG 9 (resilient infrastructure), so that road money serves Indian citizens and not just the sellers of vehicles.