GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF INDIA 205
per to,OOO inhabitants in order that it might rank as a
•• great" or a •• first class" power in politics, military
strength and culture. Similarly, there is no minimum
Tailway~equipment for free peoples or sovereign states .
.For 1925, comparative statistics does not assert that in
,order to possess political independence or to be able to
maintain it in the teeth of competition in world politics
the railway~coeffi::ient will have to be indicli\ted by a
.certain lowest figure.
Let us, then, suppose that India's highest railway
.ambition for the time being consists in catching up to
the japanese co~efficient, viz., 2·7 km per 10,000
inhabitants. This would involve at once an expansion of
railways to the extent of 1·42 times the existing mileage
(62,074 km).
It is only if India to~day were by some engineering
.and financial fiat to possess 87,145 km instead of 62,074
km that she would just be on a par with japan as regards
per capita railway wealth. Similar caiculations can be
-carried on in regard to the relations between India and
.other countries or between several foreign countries and
we shall then get an idea of the backwardness or progress
.of industrialism in each region vis a vis the other regions
-of the world. And it is on the strength of such equa~
tions that comparative statistics can hope to establish
world~economy on a scientific basis.
The relations between japan and India on the score
-of route~mileage furnish us, for a single point of time,
'. .
namely 1925, ,the two followmg equatIOns:
India
2 japan
(62,074)
(2'7)
=3·3 japan (17,516)+
= 1·42 India (1'9)