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 Indianhistory-it saw the tumult of the SecondWorldWar, the unrest during theQuit India movement and the final phase of the freedom struggle, and thehorrors of Partition.While most studies of this time focus chiefly on thedefining contributions of the Indian nationalist leaders and the role played bythe British, it is also important to record the efforts of millions of others inmeeting the enormous challenges of the period. Shunting the Nation records thecontribution of the workers-men, women and children-who ensured thesmooth functioning of the railway-based travel and communication system in theSubcontinent, even as regimes changed, new borders were drawn and everythingseemed 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 ofcoal supplies, communal riots and an administration close to collapse, in order toensure humanitarian relief, swift movement of troops and weapons, and transportof over three million refugees. Equally remarkable was the workers' successfulnegotiation of the contrary demands of their employment-by the British-andtheir nationalist, pro-independence sentiments; as was the class-based solidarityof their unions which triumphed over barbaric sectarian divisions.Drawing on memoirs, newspaper reports and government documents,AniruddhaBose's passionate narration of railway history brings to light the inspiring andvaluable role played by these unsung heroes in the modern histories of India andPakistan.