SOAS Research Online

Abstract

Imperial Military Transportation in British Asia sheds light on attempts by royal engineers to introduce innovations devised in the UK to wartime India, Iraq, and Burma, as well as the resistance of local groups of colonial railwaymen to such metropolitan innovations. Arguing that the literature on military adaptation and imperial circulation of knowledge is oversimplified, Michael W. Charney shows how some kinds of military technology – as an example of imperial knowledge – faced resistance due to 1930s-era colonial insularity. He also covers the efforts made by one engineer to revive the railways during the Japanese invasion of Burma in 1942 and why this effort was responsible for the development of a truly imperial technology that was suitable for extra-European contexts and finally won acceptance in India. Additionally, he looks at the role of the railways in the First Burma Campaign, the first attempt to introduce an extra-national approach to integrated transport that is at the heart of all modern urban planning today. Incorporating newly accessible primary source material from the files of the military Director of Transportation, this book highlights a major hole in the archival record and presents a new perspective on the 1942 Japanese invasion of Burma. Contents: List of Abbreviations Introduction 1. Metropolitan Transportation Technique from Britain to India and Iraq 2. Local, Colonial Railway Experience 3. A Colonial Railway in Wartime 4. Militarisation 5. Kings of the Road 6. The Technical Limits of Military Supply 7. Dark Territory and the Collapse of the Burma Defense 8. After the Campaign: India Learns from Burma Notes Bibliography Index