The Indian trains are known for many things, not one of which is their toilets, which let’s be honest, are only to be used in only a life and death situation.
Considering their state and condition, as well as the smells, they are not exactly any passenger’s first choice. However, in today’s times, we at least have the luxury of our trains having a toilet in the first place.
Imagine a time when Indian trains had no toilets at all.
Yes, for around 56 years, since the inception of passenger trains in India, toilets were not available to the people, and they had to get off the train in order to relieve themselves. That is, until 1909, when one passenger’s letter to the authorities changed everything.
What Was This Letter?
The first passenger train in India was introduced in 1853, during India’s period of colonial rule. However, they were missing a very key component by today’s standard, a toilet on board.
But it wouldn’t be until almost 55 years later that a passenger would raise this as an issue that led railway authorities to make a change. The person responsible for this was named Okhil Chandra Sen.
Sen wrote a letter to the Sahibganj Divisional Railway Office in West Bengal, on July 2, 1909, about his harrowing experience while travelling in the train and the lack of toilets there. Okhil, while travelling by a passenger train, got down at the Ahmedpur railway station to relieve himself.
However, to his horror, the train started to pull out of the station while he was still in the midst of doing his business. This led to him getting frantic, trying to sprint after the train, and not to be left behind.
In his letter, he complained, asking whether the guard would not wait even five more minutes for someone in distress. Sen demanded a “big fine” for the guard or threatened to take his grievance to the newspapers.
Sen, writing in broken English, pointed light on a very concerning issue that was a problem for the regular person.
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He wrote,
“Dear Sir,
I am arrive by passenger train Ahmedpur station and my belly is too much swelling with jackfruit. I am therefore, went to privy. Just I doing the nuisance that guard making whistle blow for train to go off and I am running with ‘lotah’ in one hand and ‘dhoti’ in the next when I am fall over and expose all my shocking to man and female women on plateform. I am got leaved at Ahmedpur station.
This too much bad, if passengers go to make dung, the damn guard not wait train five minutes for him? I am therefore pray your honour to make big fine on that guard for public sake otherwise I am making big report to papers.
Your’s faithfully servent Okhil Ch. Sen.”
Despite the rough grammar, his message had guts and apparently triggered the railway authorities to make some much-needed changes.
It was only after this that, according to researchers, including a paper by G. Raghuram of IIM Ahmedabad, toilets were installed in all lower-class compartments of trains running more than 50 miles (around 80 km).
The letter, or some version of it at least, is now preserved at the National Rail Museum in New Delhi. The letter also reveals deeper insights into how rail infrastructure evolved. As scholar commentary notes, it took 55 years since the first passenger train in India (in 1853) for such a facility to become standard.
Some historians suggest that while wealthier compartments already had toilet wagons in the 1870s, the lower-class travellers had to wait until Sen’s outcry for proper provisions.
Loco pilots had to wait even longer to get this facility in rail engines, and it was only introduced recently in 2016.
Image Credits: Google Images
Sources: Moneycontrol, India Today, News18
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This post is tagged under: Indian Trains, Indian Trains toilets, history, letter, complaint letter, history trivia, Indian Train history, Indian Train trivia, indian railways, indian railways history, indian railways interesting, indian railways trivia
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