Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on road building in the process of colonial expansion in northeast India — how the State made roads and how it remade states and their subjects, how the colonial state organized capital and labour needed for public works, and how roads circulated goods and humans.

Paper long abstract:

Road construction served not only as a base for territorial expansion, but also as a vehicle for commerce in Northeast India. In the aftermath of the Anglo-Burmese war (1824-26), the British East India Company (EIC) felt a strategic need for a road from Bengal through inland Burma. Road construction came to be folded into the politics of access. Therefore, this paper focuses on the politics of road building and the historical importance of road construction. A route from Sylhet settlement in British Bengal connected Upper Burma via Cachar and Manipur. The EIC reinstalled the Rajas of Cachar and Manipur with an understanding that these states would reciprocate the favour by providing labour to the Company. Being a protectorate state, Cachar and Manipur Raja agreed to remain as caretakers of the newly constructed road. Whereas, the direct link between Sylhet and Assam was via the Khasi Hills. The Khasi chiefs, however, readily perceived that a road constructed through the heart of their country would facilitate all sorts of interventions by lowlanders; it would signal and aid colonial conquest of their hills. In 1829, the Khasi chiefs objected to this action of the Company Government and released convicts exploited for road construction. Conceived as a joint stock company, the EIC embodied characteristics of a trade agent, a mercenary force and a tributary overlord in Bengal. The construction and maintenance of public works (including roads) transformed this Company into an imperial state, aptly known as the 'Raj.'