Indians on the Line: Everyday Histories of Race, Class and Empire in the Telegraph Service, 1920-1950

The historiography of telegraphy has predominantly examined state-level institutional narratives while understating the technology's impact on colonised populations. This thesis joins nascent scholarship on colonised subjects' interactions with telegraphy in India and Persia, addressing significant gaps regarding wired telegraphy's impact on Indian, Eurasian, and Anglo-Indian staff, technological knowledge transfer, and its application within a colonial economy, society, and polity. This thesis challenges prevailing assumptions about telegraphy's impact in India between 1920 and 1950 by arguing that telegraphy was an inadequate tool of governance, technological advancement, and social progress. The research employs life history methodology to study rare biographies of telegraphic staff, extracting perceptions of their families, acquaintances, and society from such recollections and from content analysis of telegraph company magazines including The Zodiac and Cooper's Hill Magazine. A close study of which isolates architecture, space, language, and memory as powerful functions of omnipresent imperial power whose effects persisted long after independence in 1947.The findings establish several key points. First, telegraphy proved ineffective for urgent decision-making and failed to achieve preventive governance. Second, the department institutionalised racial and class-based hierarchies through disciplinary mechanisms penetrating workers' domestic spheres. Third, hierarchised skilling prevented professional advancement for non-elite Indians. The nationalist movement forced partial compromise through Indianisation, formally reducing white recruitment to 25%, though the positive effects of this policy were severely delayed and limited. The thesis culminates in assessing how we look at telegraphic histories from the vantage point of today. Through the morays of institutional resistance to decolonial public history, ‘India on the Line: Communicating in Colonial India’ is interrogated as an exhibition undertaking a new approach. Understanding how colonial histories can be presented in accessible, interactive, engaging, and empathetic ways.<p></p>

Author dc:creator

• Shibani Das (21041789)

• Colonial India
• Life Histories
• Social History
• Telecommunications
• Telegraphy

Statement dc:rights

• All rights reserved
• Open Access after 2027-06-08

Identifier

10779/exe.32604411.v1

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:figshare.com:article/32604411