Had Gandhi Lived!!!

Recently, I happened to read an article written by Mahatma Gandhi(“Third Class In Indian Railways”)way back in 1917, in which he describes the awful state of the railways then. It begins by accusing the railways for allowing the carriages to ferry passengers more than their maximum capacity, and criticised the shabby state of these compartments which were supposed to be the shelter for passengers for days at a stretch. These compartments were hardly ever cleaned or swept. The refreshments served in the trains or the railway stations were “dirty –looking, handed by dirtier hands, coming out of filthy receptacles and weighed in equally unattractive scales”. Gandhi further mentions the frustrating state of “gadiwalas” (cabbies now) who refused to adhere to the official fare and charge the passengers with whatever fare they wanted. The closets in the compartment were “pestilentally dirty” and very seldom had the luxury of running water. He even describes the bribe-for-seat system prevalent then. The condition at the stations was even worse, where people sat anywhere because of lack of seating facilities, and littered wherever they sat because of lack of dustbins.

As I read through the pages of this article, I felt as if it had been written only yesterday. I could find a lot of connection in it with the present scenario.  I believe all of you must have experienced atleast one, if not all, of the problems Gandhi has mentioned. He believed that the situation could be changed if those in power took the pain of travelling in these compartments, and experiencing these problems themselves. But frankly speaking, what change has the much hyped Rahul Gandhi’s travel in Mumbai local brought for its commuters.

The Indian Railways has been the lifeline of this country ever since its inception more than a century and a half ago. But even after nine decades of this article from the Father of the Nation, its state is still equally terrible. The only major change that the Indian Railways has seen is probably the reduction in travel time, so that the commuters have to suffer for a shorter period. But the suffering still prevails. Had Gandhi lived to see the condition of Indian Railways today, he would have surely and deeply regretted his wastage of time in the fight for Independence.