The Republic of India inherited several British armoured trains, one of which has been restored, and is today preserved at the National Railway Museum in New Delhi (see the chapter on Great Britain). On 15 August 1947, the very day of the declaration of independence which was to see the majority of the states of former British India merged into the new Indian Union, the State of Hyderabad declared its independence from the rest of India.1 It was the largest of the princely states, situated in the very centre of the continent, and had a certain degree of administrative autonomy, having its own standing army and a militia, and running its own railway network. The new Indian Government refused to accept the situation, and after fruitless negotiations, on 13 September 1947 began Operation ‘Polo’ to annexe the state by force. Two main attacks were launched, from east and west, with a secondary attack from the south, the latter principally intended to secure the railway network, with three regiments of the Indian Army and two armoured trains. The whole operation benefitted from air cover, and Hyderabad was finally conquered on 17 September.
On 28 May 2010, the Jnaneswari Express derailed following sabotage of the track carried out by Maoist guerillas.2 More than 170 passengers were killed. Initial responses included only running trains by day, which caused severe passenger disruption. Faced with the guerilla threat in the region of Jangalmahal, the state of West Bengal was obliged to introduce armoured locomotives, plus a widespread system of surveillance cameras along the most vulnerable stretches of track. Currently the railway network is guarded by the Railway Protection Force, an armed militia which is also a major employer.
SOURCES:
Sharma, Gautam, Valour and Sacrifice: Famous Regiments of the Indian Army (New Delhi: Allied Publishers, 1990).
1. For its part, the state of Kashmir refused to integrate into the new Pakistan, and requested Indian military assistance when the Pakistanis invaded.
2. No-one ever claimed responsibility for the attack, however. This guerilla movement which has affected virtually half of the states of the Indian Republic, began in 2005 after the formation of groups of Maoist insurgents, the ‘Naxals’, who preach revolt against the central government. Attacks against the trains began in 2006.