Part 1 (1/2)
Third cla.s.s in Indian railways.
by Mahatma Gandhi.
I have now been in India for over two years and a half after my return from South Africa. Over one quarter of that time I have pa.s.sed on the Indian trains travelling third cla.s.s by choice. I have travelled up north as far as Lah.o.r.e, down south up to Tranquebar, and from Karachi to Calcutta. Having resorted to third cla.s.s travelling, among other reasons, for the purpose of studying the conditions under which this cla.s.s of pa.s.sengers travel, I have naturally made as critical observations as I could. I have fairly covered the majority of railway systems during this period. Now and then I have entered into correspondence with the management of the different railways about the defects that have come under my notice. But I think that the time has come when I should invite the press and the public to join in a crusade against a grievance which has too long remained unredressed, though much of it is capable of redress without great difficulty.
On the 12th instant I booked at Bombay for Madras by the mail train and paid Rs. 13-9. It was labelled to carry 22 pa.s.sengers. These could only have seating accommodation. There were no bunks in this carriage whereon pa.s.sengers could lie with any degree of safety or comfort. There were two nights to be pa.s.sed in this train before reaching Madras. If not more than 22 pa.s.sengers found their way into my carriage before we reached Poona, it was because the bolder ones kept the others at bay.
With the exception of two or three insistent pa.s.sengers, all had to find their sleep being seated all the time. After reaching Raichur the pressure became unbearable. The rush of pa.s.sengers could not be stayed.
The fighters among us found the task almost beyond them. The guards or other railway servants came in only to push in more pa.s.sengers.
A defiant Memon merchant protested against this packing of pa.s.sengers like sardines. In vain did he say that this was his fifth night on the train. The guard insulted him and referred him to the management at the terminus. There were during this night as many as 35 pa.s.sengers in the carriage during the greater part of it. Some lay on the floor in the midst of dirt and some had to keep standing. A free fight was, at one time, avoided only by the intervention of some of the older pa.s.sengers who did not want to add to the discomfort by an exhibition of temper.
On the way pa.s.sengers got for tea tannin water with filthy sugar and a whitish looking liquid mis-called milk which gave this water a muddy appearance. I can vouch for the appearance, but I cite the testimony of the pa.s.sengers as to the taste.
Not during the whole of the journey was the compartment once swept or cleaned. The result was that every time you walked on the floor or rather cut your way through the pa.s.sengers seated on the floor, you waded through dirt.
The closet was also not cleaned during the journey and there was no water in the water tank.
Refreshments sold to the pa.s.sengers were dirty-looking, handed by dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally unattractive scales. These were previously sampled by millions of flies.
I asked some of the pa.s.sengers who went in for these dainties to give their opinion. Many of them used choice expressions as to the quality but were satisfied to state that they were helpless in the matter; they had to take things as they came.
On reaching the station I found that the ghari-wala would not take me unless I paid the fare he wanted. I mildly protested and told him I would pay him the authorised fare. I had to turn pa.s.sive resister before I could be taken. I simply told him he would have to pull me out of the ghari or call the policeman.
The return journey was performed in no better manner. The carriage was packed already and but for a friend's intervention I could not have been able to secure even a seat. My admission was certainly beyond the authorised number. This compartment was constructed to carry 9 pa.s.sengers but it had constantly 12 in it. At one place an important railway servant swore at a protestant, threatened to strike him and locked the door over the pa.s.sengers whom he had with difficulty squeezed in. To this compartment there was a closet falsely so called. It was designed as a European closet but could hardly be used as such. There was a pipe in it but no water, and I say without fear of challenge that it was pestilentially dirty.
The compartment itself was evil looking. Dirt was lying thick upon the wood work and I do not know that it had ever seen soap or water.
The compartment had an exceptional a.s.sortment of pa.s.sengers. There were three stalwart Punjabi Mahomedans, two refined Tamilians and two Mahomedan merchants who joined us later. The merchants related the bribes they had to give to procure comfort. One of the Punjabis had already travelled three nights and was weary and fatigued. But he could not stretch himself. He said he had sat the whole day at the Central Station watching pa.s.sengers giving bribe to procure their tickets.
Another said he had himself to pay Rs. 5 before he could get his ticket and his seat. These three men were bound for Ludhiana and had still more nights of travel in store for them.
What I have described is not exceptional but normal. I have got down at Raichur, Dhond, Sonepur, Chakradharpur, Purulia, Asansol and other junction stations and been at the 'Mosafirkhanas' attached to these stations. They are discreditable-looking places where there is no order, no cleanliness but utter confusion and horrible din and noise.
Pa.s.sengers have no benches or not enough to sit on. They squat on dirty floors and eat dirty food. They are permitted to throw the leavings of their food and spit where they like, sit how they like and smoke everywhere. The closets attached to these places defy description. I have not the power adequately to describe them without committing a breach of the laws of decent speech. Disinfecting powder, ashes, or disinfecting fluids are unknown. The army of flies buzzing about them warns you against their use. But a third-cla.s.s traveller is dumb and helpless. He does not want to complain even though to go to these places may be to court death. I know pa.s.sengers who fast while they are travelling just in order to lessen the misery of their life in the trains. At Sonepur flies having failed, wasps have come forth to warn the public and the authorities, but yet to no purpose. At the Imperial Capital a certain third cla.s.s booking-office is a Black-Hole fit only to be destroyed.
Is it any wonder that plague has become endemic in India? Any other result is impossible where pa.s.sengers always leave some dirt where they go and take more on leaving.
On Indian trains alone pa.s.sengers smoke with impunity in all carriages irrespective of the presence of the fair s.e.x and irrespective of the protest of non-smokers. And this, notwithstanding a bye-law which prevents a pa.s.senger from smoking without the permission of his fellows in the compartment which is not allotted to smokers.
The existence of the awful war cannot be allowed to stand in the way of the removal of this gigantic evil. War can be no warrant for tolerating dirt and overcrowding. One could understand an entire stoppage of pa.s.senger traffic in a crisis like this, but never a continuation or accentuation of insanitation and conditions that must undermine health and morality.
Compare the lot of the first cla.s.s pa.s.sengers with that of the third cla.s.s. In the Madras case the first cla.s.s fare is over five times as much as the third cla.s.s fare. Does the third cla.s.s pa.s.senger get one-fifth, even one-tenth, of the comforts of his first cla.s.s fellow? It is but simple justice to claim that some relative proportion be observed between the cost and comfort.
It is a known fact that the third cla.s.s traffic pays for the ever-increasing luxuries of first and second cla.s.s travelling. Surely a third cla.s.s pa.s.senger is ent.i.tled at least to the bare necessities of life.
In neglecting the third cla.s.s pa.s.sengers, opportunity of giving a splendid education to millions in orderliness, sanitation, decent composite life and cultivation of simple and clean tastes is being lost.
Instead of receiving an object lesson in these matters third cla.s.s pa.s.sengers have their sense of decency and cleanliness blunted during their travelling experience.
Among the many suggestions that can be made for dealing with the evil here described, I would respectfully include this: let the people in high places, the Viceroy, the Commander-in-Chief, the Rajas, Maharajas, the Imperial Councillors and others, who generally travel in superior cla.s.ses, without previous warning, go through the experiences now and then of third cla.s.s travelling. We would then soon see a remarkable change in the conditions of third cla.s.s travelling and the uncomplaining millions will get some return for the fares they pay under the expectation of being carried from place to place with ordinary creature comforts.
FOOTNOTE: