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Tracking modernity: India's railway andthe culture of mobilityIrfanullah Farooqi aa Jawaharlal Nehru University , IndiaPublished online: 08 Nov 2012.

To cite this article: Irfanullah Farooqi (2013) Tracking modernity: India's railway and the culture ofmobility, Contemporary South Asia, 21:1, 75-76, DOI: 10.1080/09584935.2012.737639

To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2012.737639

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BOOK REVIEWS

Tracking modernity: India’s railway and the culture of mobility, by Marian Aguiar,Minneapolis, MN, University of Minnesota Press, 2011, xxiv + 226 pp., ISBN9780816665617

Marian Aguiar’s Tracking modernity is a well-researched work that unfolds the complex-ities inherent in the conception of the modern. Examining the idea of modernity in thecontext of India – one referred to as colonial modernity – Aguiar has systematicallyexplored the rhetoric of modernity, one that was predicated on its repeated emphasis onmobility. The idea of tracking illuminates ‘how modernity came to be constituted withinthe Indian context through a body of images inspired by a particular technology of move-ment’ (xiii).

Followed by an unusually detailed preface that provides a meaningful outline of thework, the introduction acquaints readers with the thematic flow of the work. With referenceto India, the colonial state’s interest in enhancing mobility – a development that paved theway for rapid laying down of railway tracks – can be traced to the years that followed therebellion of 1857. The rebellion urged the colonial state to stress on technology which iswhy it is argued that the ‘colonial modernity was born out of travel’ (9). Since the ideaof difference lay at the heart of the imperial rule, mobility was portrayed as somethingthat was new and offered privilege. The introduction of the railway indirectly alsobrought about a well-conceived rupture with the past, a fundamental characteristic ofmodernity.

In the first chapter Aguiar articulates at length how, as the work of the colonial govern-ment, the railway introduced a distinction between the new and the old within Indiansociety. In the context of social construction of space the author rightly argues that ‘itwas the train that articulated the colonial rule’ (27). The chapter also contains an in-depth analysis of the works of Rudyard Kipling and Flora Annie Steel who explored themultiple folds of the coloniser–colonised relationship through engagement with railwaysand the natives’ response to it. The second chapter deals with the ideas of Gandhi,Tagore, Vivekananda and Aurobindo who openly criticised reforms that had an inclinationtowards industrialisation. Referring to their writings the author informs us how theseleaders were the first ones to realise colonial domination in the realm of culture. This iswhy they constructed an Indian (read Hindu) identity by turning to ‘ethical ideals basedon spiritual teachings as a counterpoint to the machine’ (72).

The third chapter deals with partition, trains and violence. With reference to fiction,films and memoirs, Aguiar argues the event distanced train from travel and linked it to dis-placement. The narratives that surfaced as a result of the massive bloodshed during partitioncountered the colonial discourse by highlighting the ‘overlap between the sacred and thesecular’ in the train (99). The fourth chapter deals with how the train was perceived inthe postcolonial period. Using the works of R.K. Narayan and Satyajit Ray, the authorargues that the experience generated by the train was a blend of freedom and constraint.Aguiar argues the train journey serves as a metaphor for the ideal course of the Indiannation. The fifth chapter looks at how the train has been perceived and portrayed in the

Contemporary South Asia, 2013Vol. 21, No. 1, 75–84

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film industry, especially Bollywood, pointing out the nuances of some of the classic films ofindependent India, noting the gendered character of the culture of mobility. One omission isthat the chapter overlooks the strong argument that the interpretive frame of Bollywood isbest applied to films released from the early 1990s onwards. The conclusion looks at therelationship of train with terrorism. Bringing in the idea of global modernity and the amend-ments it introduced, Aguiar argues further differences get exposed in the train consequentlydiluting its secular character.

Tracking modernity is an excellent resource for those interested in modern South Asia.Its sociological dimension and extensive references to fiction, memoirs and films make it aninteresting read for those acquainted with cultural studies, sociology of literature andknowledge, and film studies. Overall, this is an extremely informative work that makes ahighly persuasive argument.

Irfanullah FarooqiJawaharlal Nehru University, India

irfan1982@gmail.com© 2013, Irfanullah Farooqi

http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/09584935.2012.737639

Dead reckoning: memories of the 1971 Bangladesh war, by Sarmila Bose, London,Hurst, 2011, x + 239 pp., ISBN 978-1-84904-049-5

For reasons that await fuller understanding, modern South Asian wars have had more inter-esting afterlives. Popular perceptions have usually converged less on actual events that con-stituted these wars and more on their subsequent narratives. This has been especially true ofthe 1962 Sino-Indian war and the 1971 Bangladesh war – the latter arguably more dramaticand decisive than most of its modern regional variants. Though that conflict may be over,Sarmila Bose suggests, its memories remain at war. And given that brute facts – the ‘whats’,the ‘wheres’, and the ‘hows’ – have been unsuccessful in helping people reconcile with it,she hopes that a fair chronicling of these memories in conflict will also help us understandthe war less incorrectly.

At the heart of this book are the carefully presented memories of more than 39 personsin Bangladesh and a similar number in Pakistan (4 who refused to be interviewed are alsonamed). In seven of the nine chapters, apart from the Introduction, they recall their sense ofthe war through such topics as the attitude of the armed forces, special operations, violencein the countryside, urban unrest, minority persecution, acts of revenge and fratricide. Theseare sandwiched between two conventionally written chapters with provocative suggestions:Chapter 1 seeks to show how, contrary to Bengali nationalist perception, the Bengali rebel-lion was un-Gandhian; Chapter 9 deflates the claim that ‘genocide’ of ‘three million’ ‘inno-cent Bengalis’ was carried our during the war. Bose reckons that the total number ofpersons who perished during the war could be 50,000–100,000, but is unlikely to havebeen higher.

A notable feature of the book is that people are placed in the middle of key events.These events are narrated in separate chapters which then form the larger narratives ofthe book and the war. This approach delivers to a significant extent as the themesbecome ‘evident’ in the course of reading. Two such themes warrant mention. First, thewriter’s conscious attempt to appear neutral – ‘systematic, dispassionate and evidence-based’ (6) – throughout the text, especially when, as in Chapters 1 and 9, long-cherished

76 Book reviews

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