GIPE-PUNE-OIIOI2 - DSpace@GIPE

212 THE RAILWAY INDUSTRY AND COMMERCE OF INDIA
And so far as railway mileage per 100 square km of
area is concerned,
Germany (1880) 6·23=4·7 India (1925) 1·3.
India in ;]925 with 1·3 km per 100 sq kmof terri·
tory was still very much behind the Gennan conditions of
1880. Germany with 6·23 km per .100 sq km was at
that time 4· 7 times as railway-equipped as India 45 years
since then. Germany did not stop at that point. Her
advance since 1880 is indicated below (km per 100 sq
km):
1880
1885
1890
1895
6'23 km
6·88 "
7·74 ..
8·36 ..
1900
1904
1923
9·22 km
9·44 ..
12·30 ..
It is dear on both counts that the primitiveness of
railway-India in 1925 by the German standard is to be
measured by a much longer period than half a century.
Let us go another decade backwards and we find that in
1870 Germany's go-aheadness in comparison with India
(1925) was as follows (km per 10,000):
Germany (1870) 4·5=2'4 India (1925) 1·9.
At this point German:y and France were almost at
par, the latter being slightly ahead. .
We shall now an~lyze the chronological distance
between France and India in railway industrialism. In
1870 France with 36,100,000 inhabitants possessed
17,824 km of railways, i.e., 4·9 km per 10,0GO. In
other words, .
•
France (1870) 4'9=2'6 India (1925) 1·9.
At that time France was, then, 2·6 times as advanced
in railway construction as India in 1925.