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Why Did Railways Carry Grain Past Starving Villages? - The Guaranteed Returns of the Great Indian Peninsula Railway | Sleepy Facts About History
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In 1853, the first passenger train in India ran from Bombay to Thana, promising to shrink the subcontinent. The Great Indian Peninsula Railway was celebrated as a marvel of modern engineering, but the reality of how it was built and who it served is far more complicated. This episode examines the financial mechanisms behind the colonial railway system, particularly the guaranteed return model that transferred all financial risk to Indian taxpayers while securing profits for British…
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