Description

During the British colonial period, the Madras Presidency comprised most of Southern India.  It included many areas of vast agrarian and mineral wealth, although traditionally the economic potential of many of the interior regions was held back due to the generally poor state of the roads.  In many cases, it was prohibitively expensive to transport cash drops to the major cities or to seaports for export.  During times of famine in some areas, food could often not be moved in from regions of relative bounty in a time to alleviate tragedy.  Moreover, in cases of civil unrest or rebellion, if could take ages to deploy forces to restore order.

To rectify the situation, in the early 1850s, the Madras Government dedicated unprecedented funds to improve the trunk roads (highways / main arteries) across the presidency, with the view to creating a uniformly high-quality integrated system by which all major parts of the presidency could be reached within a reasonable time.  The government entrusted Captain C.C. Johnston, a military engineer, with being the Superintendent of Roads, with the responsibility of developing an integrated ‘masterplan’ for reforming the system.

The present work is the first printing of Johnston’s official design for improving Madras’s trunk road system, with his report dated July 4, 1854 (pp. 1- 48).  The system covered 13 different trunk roads extending a total of 2,212 miles across all regions of the presidency.  The main body of the present work consist of 120 points concerning the technical specifications and finances of improving the thirteen trunk roads, including several pages of detailed statistical charts.

A highlight of the work is the custom folding (untitled) map of the Madras trunk road system, colour coding all thirteen the arteries, lithographed in Madras by E. Clinton.  The main part of the map shows the southern part of the Indian Peninsula below roughly 15 degrees North, while the register above depicts the northeastern continuation of presidency along the Circars.

The thirteen trunk roads of the Madras Presidency, as described by Johnston, are as follows (please consult while viewing the map):

No. 1, Trunk Road from Madras to the Mysore Frontier beyond Oosoor, 189½ miles.

No. 2, Trunk Road from Frazerpett bridge via the Sumpaygee Ghaut, to Mangalore, 105 miles.

No. 3, Trunk Road from the North Western frontier of Mysore, via the Muzerabad Ghaut to Buntwall, 46 miles.

No. 4, Trunk Road from the Mysore frontier, via the Periambaddy Ghaut to Connonore, 68 miles.

No. 5, Trunk Road from near Vaniembaddy on Trunk Road No. 1, to Ponany on the Western Coast, 279 miles.

No. 6, Trunk Road from Madras to the Bengal Frontier, 686½ miles.

No. 7, Trunk Road from near Ongole on Trunk Road No. 6, to the Hyderabad frontier at Pondigul on the South bank of the Kistna, 91 miles.

No. 8, Trunk Road from Madras to Trichinopoly and the Salem boundary, 225 miles.

No. 9, Trunk Road from Pauprumpett on Trunk Road No. 8, to Combaconum, 75½ Miles.

No. 10, Trunk Road from Arcot on Trunk Road No. 1, the Mysore frontier beyond Palmanair, 65 Miles.

No. 11, Trunk Road from Chittoor on No. 10, to Cuddapah, 99 Miles.

No. 12, Trunk Road from Mahal on Trunk Road No. 11, to Bellary, 119½ miles.

No. 13, Trunk Road (2D Class.) from Madras to Naggerry and Kurcumbaddy, to Cuddapah, 163 Miles.

The final section of the report features an ‘Extract from the Minutes of Consultation, under date the 19^th August 1854’, containing fourteen points on road improvements from the deliberations of the Madras Government at the highest levels, as rescored by the presidency’s Chief Secretary, H.C. Montgomery.

As an epilogue, Johnston’s masterplan was generally realized, resulting in dramatic improvements to travel times across the Madras Presidency, contributing to the process of industrialization and economic growth that Southern India experienced during the second half of the 19^th century.

 

A Note on the Publication of the Series

In 1854, the government of the Madras Presidency decided to publish a series of works, each separately issued, called the Records, focusing upon different initiatives of the regime’s public works or policy.  In many cases, such as in the present instance, the Records represented the first time that such important matters were explored in print, making them valuable primary sources on key events in South Indian history.

The present work is the fourth issue of the Records, with numbers continuing to be published regularly, on a wide variety of topics, for decades thereafter.  The series was relaunched at some point, such that the present issue is sometimes retroactively referred to as ‘No. IV, First Series’.  All issues of the Records are very rare, as they were printed in only a small run for a rarified readership.

 

A Note on Rarity

The present work is very rare.  We can trace only 3 institutional examples, held by the

British Library, University of Oxford and the University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).  Moreover, we are not aware of any sales records for other examples.

 

References:

British Library: Asia Pacific & Africa IOR/V/23 Holdings: no.1 (1854)- 66(1880); University of Oxford: (IND) 98 C 51 (1); University of London – School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS): India Papers /9998; Accounts and Papers of the House of Commons, vol. XVIII (London, 1857), p. viii; John Merriman SIMS, Selections from the Records of the Government of India, 1849-1937 (London, 1987), p. 95.