1 00:01:01,900 --> 00:01:06,580 I want to start by thanking all of you for joining me here today on this afternoon. 2 00:01:06,640 --> 00:01:10,180 I am sure you have better things to do, but thank you for coming. 3 00:01:10,510 --> 00:01:21,790 And I want to start by saying thanks to a great number of people here who have helped me in my research for the time that I was here for three months. 4 00:01:22,600 --> 00:01:26,590 Chris Fletcher, keeper of the Special Collections, Michele Chu. 5 00:01:26,930 --> 00:01:33,249 She's not here, but she facilitated the process of becoming a fellow at the ball in Michael Hughes, 6 00:01:33,250 --> 00:01:38,170 who catalogued the archive and helped me early on to locate some very crucial records. 7 00:01:38,860 --> 00:01:43,629 Alexandra Franklin, Coordinator of the Modelling Centre for the Study of the book, 8 00:01:43,630 --> 00:01:49,810 who also plays the role of personal rescuer for beleaguered foreign scholars in her free time. 9 00:01:50,360 --> 00:01:52,690 To contact you can hear the story from her later on. 10 00:01:53,830 --> 00:02:03,010 The staff at the Western Library Special Collections Reading Room who smilingly and tirelessly respond to requests for records and offer advice. 11 00:02:03,880 --> 00:02:11,530 And most importantly, I would like to convey my gratitude to Douglas Byrne and Gordon Barzee and his family 12 00:02:11,800 --> 00:02:16,450 for protecting the archive and making it accessible to scholars from around the world. 13 00:02:18,250 --> 00:02:24,909 Having said all of that as just a minor correction, I'm currently not working at Jonathan College anymore. 14 00:02:24,910 --> 00:02:33,640 I'm pursuing this fellowship, and I also received another fellowship from the Society for the History of Technology earlier, late last year. 15 00:02:33,910 --> 00:02:37,010 So I've been pursuing that as well. Okay. 16 00:02:38,320 --> 00:02:42,940 Now, to just begin with the presentation, I'd like to say that. 17 00:02:46,030 --> 00:02:53,470 The context needed to be provided for what kind of work I was trying to do here. 18 00:02:53,830 --> 00:02:55,719 And for that reason, 19 00:02:55,720 --> 00:03:06,820 I have tried to lay down the interventions that capitalist concerns were trying to make in the colonial market in late 19th and early 20th centuries. 20 00:03:07,840 --> 00:03:11,649 That would form a bigger chunk of this presentation. 21 00:03:11,650 --> 00:03:19,330 And towards the end, I will be able to give you a peek into the kind of archives that exist for specifically South Asia. 22 00:03:19,510 --> 00:03:23,260 Although my work when I actually did it here was not just limited to that. 23 00:03:23,260 --> 00:03:31,059 I looked at the archives as a whole and how the colonies are implicit in it, and what place then in subcontinent holds in it. 24 00:03:31,060 --> 00:03:32,290 But that more than that. 25 00:03:32,290 --> 00:03:42,610 Towards the end I just became at the turn of the 20th century, colonial empires were heavily engaged in redrawing and fortifying their borders. 26 00:03:43,420 --> 00:03:48,700 Communication technology had been crucial to the enactment of state power for close to half a century, 27 00:03:48,700 --> 00:03:52,750 with railways and telegraphs slowly forming vast global imperial networks. 28 00:03:53,410 --> 00:03:59,740 Indeed, to be an empire was to be a formidable network of information, people and goods, 29 00:04:00,100 --> 00:04:04,510 and it remained the linchpin for the development of newer systems of communication. 30 00:04:05,230 --> 00:04:11,110 This paper will look at the inception and growth of wireless networks with a particular focus on colonial South Asia. 31 00:04:11,770 --> 00:04:17,980 The British Indian domains proved to be an important space for experimentation and installation of wireless. 32 00:04:18,790 --> 00:04:23,080 The colonial space, especially the vast waterbody surrounding it, 33 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:30,880 generated fears and anxieties for the state that it sought to mitigate through a more powerful information system. 34 00:04:31,850 --> 00:04:36,920 Although each emergent communication technology could potentially add to imperial power, 35 00:04:37,400 --> 00:04:45,560 the technology itself had to be regulated through legislation and its usage closely monitored and controlled. 36 00:04:46,460 --> 00:04:50,990 Imperial and commercial ambitions worked in tandem to create modern colonies. 37 00:04:51,470 --> 00:04:55,940 But in the field of communication, the relationship was more complicated. 38 00:04:56,690 --> 00:05:01,280 The enterprise was considered so critical to the functioning of a highly secretive, 39 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:06,560 bureaucratic, imperial state that it led to several struggles for monopolisation. 40 00:05:07,490 --> 00:05:12,160 In this phase of global capitalism, a new kind of multifaceted, 41 00:05:12,590 --> 00:05:18,290 legally empowered international cooperation was trying to intervene in the colonial state. 42 00:05:19,130 --> 00:05:24,680 The presentation would explore the role of various agents of state like the Indian Telegraph Department, 43 00:05:24,680 --> 00:05:32,780 the British Post Office and capital concerns like the Marconi International Marine Communication Company and Lloyd's, 44 00:05:33,140 --> 00:05:37,880 and their mutual life rivalries in attempting to create a viable wireless network. 45 00:05:39,230 --> 00:05:43,070 The paper will also touch upon the ways in which the Marconi Archive at the Bodleian 46 00:05:43,070 --> 00:05:48,080 Library can illuminate new aspects of wireless usage in colonial South Asia. 47 00:05:48,590 --> 00:05:54,830 The archive throws light on how the Marconi wireless company promoted itself in this region, 48 00:05:55,430 --> 00:06:02,030 revealing how it was eventually successful in establishing beam wireless stations in western India. 49 00:06:06,020 --> 00:06:10,340 Right. In 1909. 50 00:06:10,760 --> 00:06:15,680 Captain Ed Gardner from the Indian Service in his report for the Indian government, 51 00:06:16,010 --> 00:06:25,790 said in no uncertain terms that the political condition in India warranted a wireless system under the conditions at present prevailing in India. 52 00:06:26,450 --> 00:06:31,010 The early establishment of wireless telegraphy appears to be of crying importance. 53 00:06:31,700 --> 00:06:38,120 The telegraph via did much to save India in 1857, but it cannot be expected to save India today. 54 00:06:38,780 --> 00:06:47,450 The thousands of miles of wire with which India has now been covered cannot hope to survive the first few hours of any modern outbreak, 55 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:53,209 while their length renders them utterly indefensible in wireless, 56 00:06:53,210 --> 00:07:01,220 with its easily defended stations that could be erected in the heart of defences both with which India is studied, 57 00:07:01,640 --> 00:07:05,540 with which and which could laugh at everything. 58 00:07:05,540 --> 00:07:13,820 But can we have a means of communicating over hundreds of miles with which no catalogue of wireless can interfere? 59 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:21,590 It's a fantastic court because it tells you a great deal about what the people were thinking at that moment with 60 00:07:21,590 --> 00:07:28,880 respect to the wireless and how they were envisaging a new modern imperial state and how it would protect itself. 61 00:07:30,410 --> 00:07:37,970 Wireless was airborne. Unlike the telephone and telegraph, and that rendered it both vulnerable and secure. 62 00:07:38,540 --> 00:07:41,840 It was perceived to have the ability to access points beyond land, 63 00:07:42,350 --> 00:07:49,550 which was prohibitively expensive with ocean cables and moving points of contact like ships and armies and so on, 64 00:07:50,030 --> 00:07:56,750 making it potentially more significant than the existing international network created by telegraph and cable. 65 00:07:57,260 --> 00:08:04,310 Since, as you just mentioned, it's safe from cable cutting as part of the colonial bid to establish wireless networks. 66 00:08:04,430 --> 00:08:07,700 The oceans were chosen as the field of experimentation. 67 00:08:08,900 --> 00:08:14,150 However, its messages could be intercepted by any receivers in its radius. 68 00:08:15,140 --> 00:08:23,270 Broadcasting and an innate property of radio today was exactly what was considered its most debilitating feature. 69 00:08:24,560 --> 00:08:29,600 Interference from outside elements could also not be completely controlled. 70 00:08:30,530 --> 00:08:37,250 This interference could be of a malicious nature. During war, those are his would be malicious. 71 00:08:37,820 --> 00:08:43,220 Wireless could play a role of centralising information and resources for the colonial state. 72 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:48,350 But it could be equally responsible for creating alarm and disruption. 73 00:08:48,950 --> 00:08:53,989 Information nodes spread across dispersed colonial territories could be used to 74 00:08:53,990 --> 00:08:59,420 direct power to the metropolis or often obtain greater leeway at the periphery. 75 00:08:59,900 --> 00:09:03,710 Hence, like most other forms of technology, wireless was dynamic. 76 00:09:05,090 --> 00:09:10,970 In actual fact, wireless telegraph had not yielded good results in the battlefield. 77 00:09:11,780 --> 00:09:22,130 Experts also differed in their views of the subject and could not commit to full knowledge of this domain or of new developments by other inventors. 78 00:09:23,240 --> 00:09:32,120 This paradoxical situation of knowing less by experimenting more has had been commented on by contemporary writers. 79 00:09:36,320 --> 00:09:40,920 For instance. It was difficult to comprehend the nature of electricity. 80 00:09:41,580 --> 00:09:50,550 Writing about ten years before, in 1899, ten years before, Captain Gardener J.J. Fahey quoted Faraday from memory and said, 81 00:09:51,330 --> 00:09:54,780 Had you asked me 40 years ago, I think I would have answered the question. 82 00:09:54,960 --> 00:09:59,760 But now, the more I know about electricity, the less prepared am I to tell you what it is. 83 00:10:01,050 --> 00:10:08,220 The fog and the mystery around working of wireless had to be made intelligible through science and practice. 84 00:10:09,780 --> 00:10:16,829 W.H. Preece, the gentlemen was pictured is you're the injured and chief engineer and chief of British 85 00:10:16,830 --> 00:10:21,300 post office was one of the most credited experts in the field of communication, 86 00:10:21,660 --> 00:10:26,790 and his opinion held a lot of weight within Indian technocratic circles. 87 00:10:27,750 --> 00:10:35,550 The success of Cross Atlantic experiments with wireless in 1902 caused panic among the stockholders of cable companies. 88 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:42,540 Deep Count Alighieri Chaudry points out that by 1907, the vast cable network, 89 00:10:42,540 --> 00:10:50,010 especially the millions sunk in the ocean in the form of submarine cables, were steadily becoming obsolete. 90 00:10:51,000 --> 00:10:58,440 But in PCs, opinion wireless was a costly substitute with high working costs and less efficiency. 91 00:10:59,280 --> 00:11:07,410 The British post office itself had not started using wireless for commercial communication with any of the smaller islands within the British Isles. 92 00:11:08,700 --> 00:11:12,060 The reports of its success were not sufficiently reliable, 93 00:11:12,390 --> 00:11:20,280 since it could not survive over long distances or for long periods while evaluating the various cases of wireless telegraphy. 94 00:11:20,550 --> 00:11:28,830 Priest reminded that, as is quoted here, in all cases it was a question of bone chilling and fence and it is not even cheap. 95 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:37,980 The cable companies realised the same. They used violence to supplement their own feeders and fitted several repairing ships to aid operations. 96 00:11:39,210 --> 00:11:48,360 These reported in 1905 that British men of war had been fitted by the Admiralty, who worked separately and secretly over their operations. 97 00:11:48,870 --> 00:11:55,379 From this point, you would see the unfolding of how the steed really works at multiple levels and very, 98 00:11:55,380 --> 00:12:04,110 very many times one arm doesn't know what the other is doing. They had paid £20,000 to the Marconi Company to use its patent. 99 00:12:04,860 --> 00:12:10,140 The system was improved upon by Captain Orin Jackson before being installed on carriers. 100 00:12:11,040 --> 00:12:16,020 The Marconi company had fitted 16 mail steamers and liners of different missions. 101 00:12:16,740 --> 00:12:24,150 Passengers of some of these boats were enlivened, as they said, with news and messages en route across the Atlantic. 102 00:12:25,020 --> 00:12:28,649 There are actually several ocean newspapers available in the Marconi Archive. 103 00:12:28,650 --> 00:12:36,240 Very fascinating newspapers were published on board and news could be received from land stations and passing steamers. 104 00:12:37,080 --> 00:12:40,830 The post office, where Marconi had demonstrated his oldest experiment, 105 00:12:41,130 --> 00:12:50,340 had also entered into an agreement with them for sending messages across the Atlantic from the company's shore station at Beaulieu in Cornwall. 106 00:12:51,270 --> 00:13:00,660 By 1905, many French, Dutch, German and Belgian Belgium steamers were fitted with wireless technology, 107 00:13:00,990 --> 00:13:05,980 spread through complex processes of circulation of information and knowledge. 108 00:13:06,330 --> 00:13:13,980 Even as this knowledge was monopolised and protected, technocrats and scientists visited various countries. 109 00:13:14,940 --> 00:13:22,860 Many big corporations, often associated with specialist inventors, with established interests in various parts of the world, 110 00:13:23,130 --> 00:13:27,840 were vying with each other to send agents and obtain monopoly rights everywhere. 111 00:13:28,530 --> 00:13:35,130 Each imperial power favoured one or another kind of system, preferably one developed within its own territory. 112 00:13:35,700 --> 00:13:45,600 However, this wasn't always applicable. Each of them departments, governments, armies, navies, individuals, colonies, 113 00:13:45,870 --> 00:13:52,080 imperial powers and commercial bodies were all trying to humanise the new technology through patenting, 114 00:13:52,320 --> 00:13:56,880 legislating, regulating and convening international conferences. 115 00:13:57,660 --> 00:14:02,490 However, wireless offered new opportunities and challenges in same measure. 116 00:14:03,510 --> 00:14:09,930 Companies were negotiating with each other, with different countries and their colonies and the local elites, 117 00:14:10,110 --> 00:14:15,810 and meanwhile experimenting and trying to prove that their systems really did work. 118 00:14:20,180 --> 00:14:25,130 Now I'm going to start talking about specifically what was happening in India. 119 00:14:26,930 --> 00:14:36,530 The Bay of Bengal was a prime area of British concern for commercial, administrative, meteorological, strategic and geographic reasons. 120 00:14:37,670 --> 00:14:42,050 The Port of Calcutta itself was extremely significant in this matrix. 121 00:14:42,590 --> 00:14:49,790 It was one of the most important circuits in the bay other than the circuit between Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Burma. 122 00:14:50,810 --> 00:14:54,710 First in January and then again in September 1904. 123 00:14:55,280 --> 00:15:03,440 Shaw, Wallace and Company, the local agents of Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd in Bengal, 124 00:15:03,950 --> 00:15:08,360 applied to establish wireless telegraph between Chagford Island, 125 00:15:08,810 --> 00:15:17,870 which is pictured here Chagford Island, the southernmost point of Bengal in the bay, and pilot brig at Sandhills. 126 00:15:18,830 --> 00:15:26,390 A pilot brig. Sure. But a little bit later is basically a brig, which is rigged with two mos, two squared masks, 127 00:15:26,780 --> 00:15:33,560 and sometimes they carry the carried guns and usually they they would carry cargoes. 128 00:15:33,830 --> 00:15:42,260 But essentially devastation. A little further away from land and water to help pilot the ships that were coming in from the ocean and from the. 129 00:15:44,780 --> 00:15:54,230 Scarborough Island was already connected to Calcutta by land, by the holy waters that flowed down to the bay before Hooghly is pictured here as well. 130 00:15:55,040 --> 00:16:00,829 Throw down to the bay were understood to be perilously difficult to navigate both upstream and downstream. 131 00:16:00,830 --> 00:16:08,899 This does it. There's a very emotive kind of vocabulary that is always used for waters around Calcutta and in the Bay of Bengal, 132 00:16:08,900 --> 00:16:15,020 which often indicates danger in the parlance of the colonial officials. 133 00:16:16,340 --> 00:16:22,249 A grand example is coming up of Rudyard Kipling in his story. 134 00:16:22,250 --> 00:16:30,290 An unqualified pilot was just published first in 1895 and later collected in land and sea deals for scouts and guides in 1923. 135 00:16:30,560 --> 00:16:37,140 This is the second version that I have brought here. Begins with an evocative description of the risks of piloting on the Hooghly. 136 00:16:37,850 --> 00:16:42,350 Almost any pilot will tell you that his work is much more difficult than you imagine, 137 00:16:42,890 --> 00:16:50,090 but the pilots of the Hooghly know they have 100 miles of the most dangerous river on earth running through their hands. 138 00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,650 The who leave between Calcutta and the Bay of Bengal and they say nothing. 139 00:16:55,370 --> 00:17:00,260 Their service is picked and sifted as carefully as the bench of the Supreme Court. 140 00:17:00,890 --> 00:17:05,510 For a judge can only hang the wrong man or pass a bad law. 141 00:17:06,230 --> 00:17:13,820 But a careless pilot can lose a 10,000 ton ship and cargo in less time than it takes to reverse her engines. 142 00:17:14,960 --> 00:17:24,230 No one better than Rudyard Kipling to say so. So this is a Victorian ization of what the pilot Brook may have looked like. 143 00:17:24,240 --> 00:17:32,980 I don't know where the Royal Museums of Greenwich has found this, but this is the only picture I could look at. 144 00:17:33,350 --> 00:17:38,870 Very odd Kipling. I won't read this. Rudyard Kipling goes on to say that of course there is. 145 00:17:39,200 --> 00:17:42,800 Once the Hooghly has got you in its current, you are going down. 146 00:17:43,220 --> 00:17:46,820 And every season the Hooghly makes new, new channels. 147 00:17:46,820 --> 00:17:50,870 And it is so hard to fathom how to find your way through that. 148 00:17:52,160 --> 00:17:56,209 Men have fought the Hooghly for 200 years, he says, and now there is a building. 149 00:17:56,210 --> 00:18:03,860 And that battle of which which is which is necessarily located for protecting the shipping that is coming in. 150 00:18:04,130 --> 00:18:09,360 It has its own telegraph department as well and it has its own port commissioners, etc., etc. 151 00:18:09,430 --> 00:18:16,760 He he that is a long description of what a great life the port officer has and how he's paid so well. 152 00:18:17,150 --> 00:18:22,280 And he only talks to who to his brothers. And there is information coming in to the Telegraph. 153 00:18:22,280 --> 00:18:29,509 But he he is the man who decides how how the shipping will be carried on will come back to regard 154 00:18:29,510 --> 00:18:35,900 Kipling a little later after we've discussed what happens with one of the agents for Marconi Company 155 00:18:35,910 --> 00:18:41,930 stating that before long steamers running towards the east will adopt wireless and the local time 156 00:18:41,930 --> 00:18:47,570 community and the mercantile community only need be shown that such a system could work satisfactorily. 157 00:18:47,930 --> 00:18:53,000 And then ships that traded regularly with the Port of Calcutta would be fitted soon enough. 158 00:18:53,690 --> 00:18:59,239 These steamers would likely adopt the Marconi Marconi system because they had to communicate with 159 00:18:59,240 --> 00:19:05,569 already existing European show stations and future stations to be established east of the cities, 160 00:19:05,570 --> 00:19:13,520 which would include stations in India. They already had agreements with shore stations of British and Italian Admiralty and Lloyd's, 161 00:19:13,640 --> 00:19:18,170 specifying that they correspond only with ships using Marconi equipment. 162 00:19:18,260 --> 00:19:22,790 That is absolutely in no uncertain terms. Marconi is a man who believes in cancelling it. 163 00:19:22,790 --> 00:19:26,869 It looks to monopolise the imperial market in one way or the other. 164 00:19:26,870 --> 00:19:31,790 And there is there is, in fact, lot of evidence to that fact. 165 00:19:32,930 --> 00:19:37,579 The representatives of Marconi company lobbied hard and gave the impression that they 166 00:19:37,580 --> 00:19:42,140 dominated the usage of wireless sets in mercantile marine ships of all countries, 167 00:19:42,440 --> 00:19:48,680 while in fact a variety of systems were in use and being experimented with across the world. 168 00:19:49,670 --> 00:19:54,590 The lieutenant governor for Bengal was keen to have at least an experimental 169 00:19:54,590 --> 00:19:58,520 system set up between the aforementioned locations by the Marconi Company. 170 00:19:59,060 --> 00:20:05,570 He believed that it was a worthwhile expenditure if in the end it meant a reliable form of communication that 171 00:20:05,570 --> 00:20:12,200 worked during monsoon months in the trying atmospheric conditions that prevailed at the head of the pier. 172 00:20:12,590 --> 00:20:17,300 So he's he's echoing the the sentiment of Kipling here. 173 00:20:18,140 --> 00:20:26,840 However, the pWt was not very impressed with these achievements and denied permission for establishment of even an experimental system. 174 00:20:26,840 --> 00:20:29,900 The beta reduced, the public works department befuddled. 175 00:20:30,020 --> 00:20:36,080 The Marconi company wondered why the government of British India refused to support a British company, 176 00:20:36,290 --> 00:20:43,760 especially since it had no financial large financial backing from London in January 1905. 177 00:20:44,330 --> 00:20:50,780 Says Schroeder, Smith and Company. The representatives of another company called the Wireless Telegraph Company, 178 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:58,490 also wrote to the Electrical Engineer of Government of Bengal to establish a system between Schlegel Island and Calcutta. 179 00:21:01,150 --> 00:21:11,559 They also promoted what they called Systems Lab Arco as one of the as one of the principal systems and very largely in use in the United States, 180 00:21:11,560 --> 00:21:19,870 in Russia, Germany, Spain, etc. And the portable type for military purposes has been supplied to most of the European powers, including the UK. 181 00:21:21,010 --> 00:21:28,600 They were keen to send an engineer from Sindh for the express purpose of demonstration and were willing to bear all expenses. 182 00:21:29,140 --> 00:21:34,750 They also wanted to establish another link between of Fort William and Diamond Harbour in Calcutta. 183 00:21:35,320 --> 00:21:40,629 They pointed out that the most European countries and United States wanted the 184 00:21:40,630 --> 00:21:46,300 social stations to have more than one system to work efficiently with all ships, 185 00:21:46,540 --> 00:21:51,579 with diverse range of systems crossing their waters so that they are putting forward their 186 00:21:51,580 --> 00:21:55,870 case and saying that there are so many different types of systems you must have as well. 187 00:21:57,160 --> 00:22:00,760 Lloyd's, a shipping news and insurance giant, 188 00:22:01,270 --> 00:22:06,489 also approached the Indian Telegraph Department in August 1904 for putting up 189 00:22:06,490 --> 00:22:12,040 stations in outlying points of intelligence for shipping and commercial community. 190 00:22:12,850 --> 00:22:16,210 Eden, Bombay. Malabar Hill in Bombay. 191 00:22:16,600 --> 00:22:20,620 Cape Cameroon, which is the southernmost point of of India. 192 00:22:20,860 --> 00:22:29,920 Madras Meridian Point, which is a place in short order and Point de Gaulle, which is in Sri Lanka, where the peace is under discussion. 193 00:22:30,790 --> 00:22:36,609 Lloyd's wanted exclusive license in India and elsewhere to establish Maritime Sigma station 194 00:22:36,610 --> 00:22:42,250 because they believe that any other such stations could impede or intercept their messages, 195 00:22:43,030 --> 00:22:46,690 that signals would be nullified and rendered practically useless. 196 00:22:47,170 --> 00:22:53,350 That is in what I am trying to say today. I am only presenting a political and commercial discourse around wireless, 197 00:22:53,350 --> 00:22:58,270 but interspersed in that you will hear echoes of a scientific discourse also. 198 00:22:59,350 --> 00:23:05,650 But in 1901 lords so things are not as simple as they seem on the surface. 199 00:23:06,670 --> 00:23:12,820 In 1901, Lloyd's had entered into an agreement with the Marconi International Marine Communication Ltd, 200 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:20,350 which had been authorised by the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company Ltd, to install systems on its behalf. 201 00:23:21,010 --> 00:23:25,120 Now I'm going to call the Murray International Company. 202 00:23:25,120 --> 00:23:32,350 What am I am C now am I? And C wanted to establish Marconi installations wherever Lloyd's had stations in colonies. 203 00:23:32,860 --> 00:23:40,720 Obviously, the rivalry between Lloyd's and Marconi International had emerged over the classification of wireless messages into two types, 204 00:23:40,740 --> 00:23:44,830 which I have indicated to, and that is maritime signalling, which is basically news, 205 00:23:44,830 --> 00:23:48,910 which is concerned with shipping, with cargo, with their comings and goings, 206 00:23:49,270 --> 00:23:56,920 etc. and c deliberately another term that they were using for basically private messages that were sent via the wireless. 207 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:04,120 And the former was supposed to be the preserve of lawyers and the latter was supposed to be with Marconi. 208 00:24:05,960 --> 00:24:12,140 They accused each other of incompetence and obstruction and prevented the British Admiralty 209 00:24:12,140 --> 00:24:17,299 from taking a decision in favour of one or the other due to the legal quandary involved, 210 00:24:17,300 --> 00:24:19,190 because they were already in contract with each other. 211 00:24:19,190 --> 00:24:25,010 But always remember that British Admiralty would also look for excuses to not give the contract to anyone. 212 00:24:25,970 --> 00:24:29,000 Lloyd's and Marconi seemed in dispute everywhere. 213 00:24:29,980 --> 00:24:35,040 There are several places Cyprus, Malta, Gibraltar, where Lloyd's and Marconi were all fighting with each other. 214 00:24:35,090 --> 00:24:41,960 The Colonial Office, India office and war office were intimated by the Admiralty in August 1901. 215 00:24:42,290 --> 00:24:43,189 It says that, 216 00:24:43,190 --> 00:24:51,230 though departments should take a concerted and considered decision with regard to Lloyd's since they were stuck in litigation with Marconi. 217 00:24:51,950 --> 00:24:56,660 Also, the Navy warned that it needed the whole system to work in tandem during war. 218 00:24:57,200 --> 00:25:03,080 So you can see all these forces, they are all advising each other and there is a lot of confusion going on. 219 00:25:04,010 --> 00:25:12,620 In December 1905, Lloyd's stated that matters had been settled between Marconi and themselves, but the terms of the settlement were not clear. 220 00:25:13,340 --> 00:25:18,080 Also, the government of India was not clear whether it could legally grant licences. 221 00:25:18,380 --> 00:25:26,630 Hence, no action was taken. Initially, wireless telegraphy did not fall within the communication monopoly of British postmaster general. 222 00:25:27,590 --> 00:25:34,370 The postmaster did not have power over communication with foreign countries or ships beyond territorial waters. 223 00:25:34,940 --> 00:25:40,130 They needed to approach the parliament for legislative powers. An act was brought out in 1904. 224 00:25:40,610 --> 00:25:46,339 The Parliament was in a doubly complicated situation as awarding exclusive rights 225 00:25:46,340 --> 00:25:51,710 to postmaster general would deprive patent holding companies of their profit. 226 00:25:53,480 --> 00:26:01,190 This decade that I am dealing with, the one at the turn of the century, up until 1910, is a very interesting day because nothing is clear. 227 00:26:01,580 --> 00:26:07,309 Nothing is written in stone. The rules are not clear. The technology itself is not clear. 228 00:26:07,310 --> 00:26:10,670 The attitude of the government and the departments is not very clear. 229 00:26:10,970 --> 00:26:21,650 So this year in these shifting sands, these are the are the most fundamental precepts of how a technology is incorporated into a state. 230 00:26:22,100 --> 00:26:32,780 So even in this situation, the legal aspects of of of using the technology are absolutely unclear. 231 00:26:33,140 --> 00:26:42,080 And. The companies are making certain very important criteria clear in their proposals. 232 00:26:44,030 --> 00:26:49,430 Now, the companies in the respective proposals touched upon certain crucial aspects of wireless enterprise, 233 00:26:50,120 --> 00:26:55,280 the capitalist technological narrative stressed on the revolutionary potential of their product. 234 00:26:55,970 --> 00:27:02,260 The political and scientific discourse around wireless considered it best suited for shipping purposes, 235 00:27:02,270 --> 00:27:06,620 which of course, is not the way in which we look at wireless today. 236 00:27:07,790 --> 00:27:10,399 Their usefulness for mercantile, administrative, 237 00:27:10,400 --> 00:27:18,170 social and strategic purposes was premised on connecting across vast distances with all varieties of installations. 238 00:27:18,620 --> 00:27:25,760 But these networks were developed and maintained with much difficulty, as rival systems could be incomprehensible to each other. 239 00:27:26,300 --> 00:27:30,980 So by with wireless, there was no need to physically safeguard lines of communication. 240 00:27:31,310 --> 00:27:40,340 Another type of international imperial cooperation was required to facilitate transport, mercantilist activities and emergency warnings. 241 00:27:40,880 --> 00:27:46,910 So you want to keep it closed and isolated, but you have to cooperate to use it. 242 00:27:48,140 --> 00:27:54,920 Large corporations large corporations span the globe as multifaceted and multi-functional entities that 243 00:27:54,920 --> 00:28:01,880 could use the legal privileges obtained in one global area to make claims of monopoly in another. 244 00:28:01,910 --> 00:28:10,340 Remember, the Indian subcontinent does not need to follow the dictates of the American court or the British court for that matter. 245 00:28:10,340 --> 00:28:17,030 The government of India is on its own trying to deal with these technologies, with these monopolies. 246 00:28:18,470 --> 00:28:26,270 It also showed how, while in the metropolis, the state may or may not contest these claims within colonies such as India, it did. 247 00:28:27,200 --> 00:28:32,270 The modern imperial state formed the other big stakeholder in the technological enterprise. 248 00:28:32,840 --> 00:28:37,910 Since the BWT did not encourage private efforts in this decision, in this direction. 249 00:28:38,210 --> 00:28:42,470 It is important to understand what alternatives were being explored by them. 250 00:28:43,160 --> 00:28:47,450 The story of the Indian Telegraph Department is very interesting and I'm going to take you forward with that. 251 00:28:47,450 --> 00:28:52,340 But before that I just wanted to share with you that this is a very recent map of the Kolkata. 252 00:28:53,030 --> 00:28:59,390 For example, it's the it's the most, you know, comprehensive map I could find. 253 00:28:59,780 --> 00:29:12,650 The only way to make all of you understand. You see those those violent stations you see towards many a red one and a black one in agreement. 254 00:29:13,040 --> 00:29:20,960 And the Shovel Island Tower is on the left corner of of the know of the island. 255 00:29:21,290 --> 00:29:27,410 And there is also another tower, Fraser Island, at the bottom, if you see in the in the pink circle. 256 00:29:27,650 --> 00:29:32,630 So later on, whatever was built in chocolate island, another dollar was also meditating. 257 00:29:32,990 --> 00:29:36,240 Fraser mentioned this. This actually this map is very useful. 258 00:29:36,260 --> 00:29:39,320 So that's why I put it in that. Right. 259 00:29:42,440 --> 00:29:52,130 But look. In the case of colonial India, the Indian Telegraph Department offered a counter-narrative to capitalist rhetoric. 260 00:29:53,030 --> 00:29:57,140 It continued to press the government to not favour one company or system. 261 00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:02,060 Bureaucratic experts, mainly from the British post office, were consulted, 262 00:30:02,120 --> 00:30:05,780 but the Indian Telegraph Department maintained its own authority on the subject. 263 00:30:06,230 --> 00:30:12,680 Drawing on the tradition established by William O'Shaughnessy, the first director general of India Telegraph Department. 264 00:30:13,040 --> 00:30:19,669 They performed extant, extensive local experiments to test instruments delivered from Britain to combat peculiar 265 00:30:19,670 --> 00:30:25,850 Indian conditions using Indian label and indigenously manufactured parts in Calcutta workshops. 266 00:30:26,360 --> 00:30:30,650 They also sent their own representatives to learn the newest international techniques. 267 00:30:31,250 --> 00:30:36,320 The technocracy often gave an argument about the majority of the new form of communication. 268 00:30:36,350 --> 00:30:39,650 The narrative also flowed unmistakeably towards progress. 269 00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,280 But there was an understanding that there was a pinnacle to be achieved before 270 00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:47,660 it became viable as an alternative to existing systems of communication. 271 00:30:48,290 --> 00:30:55,940 In India, the Governor-General and Council alone had the right to work and establish or grant or like a licence for a telegraph. 272 00:30:56,870 --> 00:31:05,450 Legal regulation identified various forms of leak of information and prescribed a heavy list of fines and punishments. 273 00:31:05,690 --> 00:31:10,520 So the control over means of communication is very strong. 274 00:31:12,260 --> 00:31:19,400 Rules would be laid down for rates, interception or disclosure of messages, the conditions of reservation of telegrams and so on. 275 00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:27,499 In March 1905, the director general of Telegraphs at just as at Sea Hutchinson proposed a wireless connection between 276 00:31:27,500 --> 00:31:33,590 Short Island at the mouth of his Hooghly River and two stations pilot Brigg and Eastern Channel Lightship. 277 00:31:33,740 --> 00:31:38,030 Eastern Bailiwick. I've already told you Eastern Channel Lightship is basically a ship which has these 278 00:31:38,300 --> 00:31:43,240 beacons of light which would show the way to the ships when they turned over. 279 00:31:43,250 --> 00:31:49,130 If Department first made attempts in 1899 to obtain wireless instruments for use in India. 280 00:31:49,160 --> 00:31:55,250 They were of the Marconi type, and even though the Government of India agreed to the read the agreed, 281 00:31:55,250 --> 00:31:58,670 the Secretary of State barred them from employing the Marconi system. 282 00:32:00,590 --> 00:32:09,870 In December 1900, the BWT allowed the Telegraph Department to purchase the Duke Credit Wireless Telegraph at the cost of Rupees thousand, 283 00:32:09,890 --> 00:32:18,469 but the instruments did not arrive until March 1902. The experiments in June 1902 showed that communication could be successfully maintained over 284 00:32:18,470 --> 00:32:23,720 a distance of nine miles in Calcutta and somewhat partially for 18 miles over Hooghly. 285 00:32:24,470 --> 00:32:31,790 The system was unable to survive the distance from Sherwood Island to pilot trick in May Day in May 1902. 286 00:32:31,820 --> 00:32:34,310 The teenager who was on furlough in England. 287 00:32:34,400 --> 00:32:41,600 Recommended, though, recommended the government of India to requisition six Marconi sets of the Royal Navy pattern. 288 00:32:41,610 --> 00:32:46,760 Remember, the Royal Navy had ordered them. The order was telegraphed within five days. 289 00:32:46,940 --> 00:32:51,770 However, it was November before the DG stores replied that none could be provided. 290 00:32:52,340 --> 00:32:59,330 They tried their luck a third time in February 1904, with a large more ahead system as recommended by M.G. Samson, 291 00:32:59,360 --> 00:33:03,320 the electrician in the Indian Telegraph Department on special duty in England. 292 00:33:03,800 --> 00:33:05,660 Experiments conducted in March, 293 00:33:05,810 --> 00:33:17,150 April and May of the same year at the mouth of Irrawaddy River yielded negative results due to what was dubbed atmospherics since the large moon had 294 00:33:17,150 --> 00:33:21,379 systems were not sufficiently strong to use between Burma ananda when it was 295 00:33:21,380 --> 00:33:27,170 decided that they would try and use it or work over the chaparral and circuit. 296 00:33:29,150 --> 00:33:34,790 Now, J.C. Shields, who was an assistant superintendent in the telegraph department, 297 00:33:34,790 --> 00:33:40,850 represented India at the International Electrical Congress in the St Louis exhibition in 1904. 298 00:33:41,540 --> 00:33:46,640 He found a DEFOREST system. You can see pictures of this. This is the these are pictures from the exhibition. 299 00:33:47,030 --> 00:33:49,250 So he saw this and he was very impressed. 300 00:33:49,670 --> 00:33:58,790 He found that they work 290 miles from St Louis to Chicago with the power of 20 horsepower, and as against the large monad system, 301 00:33:58,790 --> 00:34:07,760 which was only using half a horsepower day, he believed that they would be able to override atmospherics or whatever they understood as atmospherics. 302 00:34:08,120 --> 00:34:11,300 So they thought DeForest was the answer to the problems. 303 00:34:11,930 --> 00:34:19,580 So the D.A. decided that it should be ordered for the Andaman Circuit, which was 300 miles, but first it should be used in Scarborough Island. 304 00:34:20,510 --> 00:34:24,739 Meanwhile, more and more practical experience was being gained with the launch. 305 00:34:24,740 --> 00:34:31,580 More had instruments in tandem. And so again, in many ways there was a global cooperation for collectivisation of knowledge. 306 00:34:31,970 --> 00:34:38,750 The officials were introducing better techniques through their own initiative and on advice from Dr. Moorehead himself. 307 00:34:39,440 --> 00:34:44,420 This new understanding, coupled with new alternators, fitted into all large more. 308 00:34:44,490 --> 00:34:47,010 What had sense was giving improve results, 309 00:34:47,460 --> 00:34:53,430 but communication was liable to be interrupted at the close and beginning of monsoon with the same atmospherics. 310 00:34:57,690 --> 00:35:04,259 The director general observed that no matter what system was adopted, this installation, like all of the wireless installations, 311 00:35:04,260 --> 00:35:09,960 will be subject to periodic interruption due to climatic causes and no system at present. 312 00:35:09,990 --> 00:35:12,990 Noone would entirely eliminate this trouble. 313 00:35:13,560 --> 00:35:16,860 Hence there was no way to know whether DeForest is actually going to work. 314 00:35:16,860 --> 00:35:26,160 And he goes on to say that they can only hope that unavoidable climatic interferences will prove of infrequent occurrence and decreasing duration. 315 00:35:26,760 --> 00:35:35,430 Notice that in the narrative that I have just related officials are taking making great effort to learn from what is going on internationally. 316 00:35:35,430 --> 00:35:41,370 They officially send representatives everywhere. They learn all these techniques they are trying to implementing them. 317 00:35:41,370 --> 00:35:46,260 Says this stems from how William O'Shaughnessy actually anglicised the telegraph department. 318 00:35:46,620 --> 00:35:52,530 He himself, apart from Wheatstone and others, was experimenting with the telegraph line. 319 00:35:52,800 --> 00:36:04,080 He successfully was able to deliver messages in Calcutta over a few miles, and he actually believed that his system was very good. 320 00:36:04,410 --> 00:36:10,290 He did not use in solution on his voice, but he believed that his system was very effective and that is what was used 321 00:36:10,290 --> 00:36:13,859 in India for a very long time and did come through in his analysis says that, 322 00:36:13,860 --> 00:36:17,610 well, it was William Marshall and he did a great work, but he was so arrogant, 323 00:36:17,820 --> 00:36:23,370 used his own system, you know, which was detrimental to the health of that network, etc., etc. 324 00:36:23,400 --> 00:36:26,580 So David, system in India was not as effective as it is thought to be. 325 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:32,459 However, the tradition continued in the telegraph department and that is what I am trying to lay down over here, 326 00:36:32,460 --> 00:36:39,300 that they are very crucial decision makers, although they are somewhat at the bottom of this global game that is going on. 327 00:36:42,000 --> 00:36:45,180 However, the Marconi company was not so easily refused. 328 00:36:46,080 --> 00:36:48,870 The newspaper pioneer of May 14th, 1905, 329 00:36:48,870 --> 00:36:55,259 reported that the US court had given its decision in favour of Marconi patent in a suit brought against owners of 330 00:36:55,260 --> 00:37:03,570 DeForest patents for infringement by American Wireless telegraph company American Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company. 331 00:37:03,900 --> 00:37:11,100 It was a legal question whether this would preclude using the apparatus in India of note was also the fact that the US 332 00:37:11,100 --> 00:37:18,270 Navy had chosen to go ahead with the German telephone system in spite of the impressive St Louis exhibit by DeForest. 333 00:37:19,470 --> 00:37:24,720 There is really no there is no the the logic of the capital doesn't always work. 334 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:28,680 That is, there is a lot that is going on in this in this area. 335 00:37:29,220 --> 00:37:34,110 Why technical departments policy maintained clear opposition to capitalists funds. 336 00:37:34,500 --> 00:37:41,130 Their superiors were more ambivalent informed by several experts legal, technical and by merchant commercial bodies. 337 00:37:41,280 --> 00:37:46,559 Their opinions swayed very often in the case of wireless matters were made more complicated, 338 00:37:46,560 --> 00:37:50,790 as seaborne communications meant that it was no more merely a domestic matter. 339 00:37:51,510 --> 00:37:56,400 The commander in Chief of naval forces in India and SEAL on Commerce and Industry Department 340 00:37:56,610 --> 00:38:01,200 and military department were intermittently busy discussing that the systems at Port Blair, 341 00:38:01,440 --> 00:38:08,819 Diamond Island and Slipper Island, popular dominance on Diamond and Slipper Islands are part of the Andaman and Nicobar Circuit. 342 00:38:08,820 --> 00:38:12,720 Andaman and Nicobar, unfortunately, in the map I showed you, is not a feature there, but it is. 343 00:38:12,840 --> 00:38:22,380 It is at the bottom of the bay. It is closer to the Indonesian archipelago than than the other than towards than the Indian landmass. 344 00:38:22,650 --> 00:38:25,770 But it was very, very crucial. There's a whole story related to that. 345 00:38:25,770 --> 00:38:35,760 But I have another part of my thesis anyway. They pointed out that no telegrams could be exchanged between various systems. 346 00:38:35,800 --> 00:38:43,150 The same quality was not maintained. Plus regulations and instructions laid down for one station may not be applicable in another. 347 00:38:43,810 --> 00:38:48,820 Signalling from any station would interfere with other wireless telegraph instruments in the same area. 348 00:38:49,060 --> 00:38:54,300 Therefore, all installations needed to be under the Government of India during war or mobilisation. 349 00:38:55,030 --> 00:39:01,300 These stations, it was discussed, were part of a general scheme to erect stations at strategic locations. 350 00:39:01,930 --> 00:39:04,630 Marconi system was being favoured for the German scheme. 351 00:39:05,050 --> 00:39:11,020 The British Admiralty and Shipping were using Marconi's apparatus and so new systems shouldn't be incompatible to them. 352 00:39:11,470 --> 00:39:18,400 The local scheme was in great demand with the port authorities of Calcutta, Bengal, the Chamber of Commerce and Bengal government. 353 00:39:18,670 --> 00:39:23,469 But the larger scheme could get stopped, for it required several levels of authorisation. 354 00:39:23,470 --> 00:39:26,890 So they were saying, well, let's let's just decide on some system right now. 355 00:39:27,190 --> 00:39:33,790 If the general scheme adopts a different system, we can move this, we can enlarge it, we can put it somewhere else, etc., etc. 356 00:39:35,980 --> 00:39:40,389 So in some ways vital messages were unclear between different systems. 357 00:39:40,390 --> 00:39:44,830 They were still they could be delivered and they may not always be comprehensible. 358 00:39:44,830 --> 00:39:49,719 And from the Berlin Conference of 1903 onwards, they were trying to make regulations. 359 00:39:49,720 --> 00:39:51,160 Those regulations were not binding. 360 00:39:51,520 --> 00:39:57,550 They would go out and these conferences say that, okay, we should have this law, we should always pass on emergency messages and so on. 361 00:39:57,910 --> 00:40:01,930 But they were not always following it, but they were trying to make rules. 362 00:40:03,610 --> 00:40:13,120 Meanwhile, in August 1905, the Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company again tendered an estimate of 20 £300 for the Shagari Island Circuit, 363 00:40:13,120 --> 00:40:19,130 including three months of working if the department was willing to do the same with £1,066. 364 00:40:19,480 --> 00:40:23,350 Now, again, again and again, there is this there's this tussle going on between the two. 365 00:40:23,530 --> 00:40:27,370 Marconi would propose one amount. The department would say, I can do it. 366 00:40:27,460 --> 00:40:28,240 We can do it for less. 367 00:40:29,500 --> 00:40:37,810 The break up of the costs of the DBA, DeForest Instruments showed a bigger budget than proposed C actually, they are going to use up more resources. 368 00:40:38,650 --> 00:40:45,100 But the DTT clarified that while DeForest Instruments would have a range of 300 miles, Shaw Volts was limited to 50 miles. 369 00:40:45,550 --> 00:40:51,940 So in fact, for the same said that the Marconi were giving, they would in fact only cost £600. 370 00:40:53,080 --> 00:40:57,880 The DeForest Company, by the way, flopped a little like it was a big flop. 371 00:40:58,300 --> 00:41:03,310 So so I mean, all of this is going on without realising. 372 00:41:03,310 --> 00:41:12,520 I mean, in hindsight, that is the situation. There is no clear understanding of how what is more interesting from from my perspective and for my 373 00:41:12,520 --> 00:41:19,090 work is that we don't know how they were using instruments from the early workshops in Calcutta, 374 00:41:19,570 --> 00:41:24,640 but they were being used and they would cause infringement of dissent patterns. 375 00:41:25,420 --> 00:41:32,350 But what they would do to circumvent that is that they would ask Oliver Lodge and 376 00:41:32,350 --> 00:41:37,120 Moorehead for their patterns and they would say that please cover up for us for this, 377 00:41:37,120 --> 00:41:46,389 for this much usage. So it was decided that before us instruments would be used and Marconi Company would be paid an indemnity. 378 00:41:46,390 --> 00:41:51,670 So they said that, look, we can do it for cheaper, we will take our own instruments, will fit in around with them. 379 00:41:52,060 --> 00:41:56,530 They are all tinkerers by excellence, so they want to do their own thing. 380 00:41:56,530 --> 00:41:59,919 And that's what they tried to do. In March 1907, 381 00:41:59,920 --> 00:42:03,969 it was agreed by the Government of India that wireless would not be entrusted 382 00:42:03,970 --> 00:42:08,860 to any corporation because the state was accruing no tangible advantages. 383 00:42:09,550 --> 00:42:15,340 Even though the case between Marconi and Lloyd's seemed somewhat settled in practice, Lloyd's would be hampered by Marconi. 384 00:42:16,240 --> 00:42:18,100 Importantly, at this point, 385 00:42:18,100 --> 00:42:24,969 they did not consider inter communication necessary between different stations because information could always be sent by telegraph lines. 386 00:42:24,970 --> 00:42:32,800 On mainline two things are happening. One is the constantly think of wireless as an appendage to the main telegraph lines. 387 00:42:33,190 --> 00:42:39,520 So they are not really trying to circulate vast amounts of information through wireless networks too. 388 00:42:39,850 --> 00:42:44,979 They are very scared. Whatever. I'm listening to that information and somebody else will be able to intercept that. 389 00:42:44,980 --> 00:42:55,930 So now they're not even willing to send sensitive information. So so security is what is being envisaged as the first sort of usage of wireless. 390 00:42:55,930 --> 00:43:00,729 However, it is compromised in certain ways in the colonial mind. 391 00:43:00,730 --> 00:43:08,410 And so it is also what prevents them from using it now. 392 00:43:10,420 --> 00:43:19,860 Right. So I don't want to get into or there is a small section on I was going to talk about this isn't enough time that there's a small section on. 393 00:43:19,870 --> 00:43:24,610 I was going to talk about how the military is also experimenting at another level. 394 00:43:24,970 --> 00:43:28,240 So Captain Gardner that I spoke about earlier, he. 395 00:43:28,620 --> 00:43:31,979 Several experiments with several different systems. 396 00:43:31,980 --> 00:43:42,780 He did an extensive survey of these systems in UK and elsewhere and he surmised that a sufficiently mobile system has not been invented yet. 397 00:43:43,260 --> 00:43:50,420 And every time the military will have to use it, they will have to take a system, pull it apart, take it somewhere else, put it back together. 398 00:43:50,430 --> 00:43:53,430 And every time they do that, it's going to have damages. 399 00:43:53,790 --> 00:43:59,310 And when it is damaged, it could be night, it could be day, and they wouldn't know how to detect those damages. 400 00:43:59,490 --> 00:44:03,360 So actually, wireless was not workable in the battlefield as yet. That is what he says. 401 00:44:03,780 --> 00:44:11,550 However, he feels that so much anxiety that that Indian government has associated with disturbance, 402 00:44:12,360 --> 00:44:16,200 interference, that what they are imagining is basically 1857. 403 00:44:16,290 --> 00:44:25,800 For those who don't know already, 1857 was the great rebellion where the British were almost nearly taken out of the colony, 404 00:44:26,280 --> 00:44:30,420 but they succeeded in pushing back the Indian rebels. 405 00:44:30,750 --> 00:44:38,820 And one of the reasons why, traditionally considered to be extremely important in that pushback and that repression was the telegraph, 406 00:44:39,090 --> 00:44:46,140 the fact that it conveyed news so fast and had the telegraph not been there, India would not have been saved, is what they see. 407 00:44:46,470 --> 00:44:54,750 However, the it is arguable whether that was really the final determining factor. 408 00:44:56,130 --> 00:45:03,330 But he says here we are unnecessarily worried about historians, unnecessarily worried about interference, 409 00:45:03,660 --> 00:45:12,960 because actually the trans frontier Indian tribes or the instigators of an internal rebellion may just not know how to interfere with the lessons. 410 00:45:13,270 --> 00:45:18,840 They never not how to know how to jam them or they will not know how to create disturbances in it. 411 00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:25,830 What he believed they needed to keep in mind was that if Germany gets it, if other powers get it, 412 00:45:26,130 --> 00:45:29,940 get violence before us, then they will have an advantage for we need to have it. 413 00:45:31,260 --> 00:45:36,300 So there is that you that whole thing with arms and ammunition. 414 00:45:36,330 --> 00:45:41,760 Same logic is applied here. Some military men like Captain Gardiner, 415 00:45:43,830 --> 00:45:49,469 they they were painstakingly serving installations and they were forming another level of 416 00:45:49,470 --> 00:45:55,830 analysis while they were trying to be cognisant of the strategic needs of the colony. 417 00:45:56,460 --> 00:46:03,900 And while they were testing all these things, they were also saying certain, very important things in the context of India, 418 00:46:03,900 --> 00:46:13,830 like we should keep it in the hands or hands of Europeans only, and this would free us from malicious scientific interference. 419 00:46:14,100 --> 00:46:26,160 After 1857, of course, apart from the you see Labour and those who are helping in the construction, the many labour that is and peons, 420 00:46:26,880 --> 00:46:35,190 there are very few people who are used for that as actual officials who in the new telegraph department, native officials who will do the work. 421 00:46:35,940 --> 00:46:39,510 So yeah, so this is one of the things that is going on. The colonial state. 422 00:46:39,540 --> 00:46:46,110 The colonial state was extremely busy getting all kinds of systems inspected and tested, but could not reach any reliable conclusion. 423 00:46:46,560 --> 00:46:51,990 The state was getting itself involved in the scientific discourse, but could not imagine the better informed for it. 424 00:46:52,350 --> 00:46:59,820 But its involvement was giving and was given an urgency by political upheaval in the period following the partition of Bengal, 425 00:47:00,000 --> 00:47:04,590 Bengal, the partition in 1905 and the constant memory of 1857. 426 00:47:04,590 --> 00:47:09,570 The constantly tormented by what happened in 1857, and they do not want a repeat of that. 427 00:47:10,920 --> 00:47:14,790 From here on, my presentation is largely about what? 428 00:47:16,590 --> 00:47:23,880 Yeah, what the what I have found in the Marconi archive and how it aids, whatever I have talked about until now. 429 00:47:24,840 --> 00:47:29,610 A reprint of retired Kipling story in 1923 carried an added reference to wireless. 430 00:47:29,610 --> 00:47:34,770 So what I narrated to you in the beginning of of the presentation continues somewhat like this. 431 00:47:35,280 --> 00:47:39,899 Some million tonnes of shipping must find their way to and from Calcutta each 12 432 00:47:39,900 --> 00:47:45,720 month unless the holy world watched as closely as his keeper watches an elephant. 433 00:47:46,200 --> 00:47:54,330 There is a fear that it might silt up as it has silted up around the old Dutch and Portuguese ports 20 and 30 miles behind Calcutta. 434 00:47:55,080 --> 00:48:03,299 So the port office sounds and scours and dredges the river and builds spores and devices for coaxing the currents and labourers, 435 00:48:03,300 --> 00:48:07,950 all the boys with their proper letters and attends to the semaphores and the lights 436 00:48:07,950 --> 00:48:13,740 and the drum ball and corn storm signals and the pilots of the who do the rest. 437 00:48:14,490 --> 00:48:21,480 But in spite of all care and the very best of attention the Huguely swallows her ship or to every year. 438 00:48:22,020 --> 00:48:28,050 Even the coming of the wireless demographic does not spoil hood update so that you know they are complaining. 439 00:48:28,120 --> 00:48:34,690 Somebody who met Marconi. And I don't know what great interest he had intel in wireless, but he wrote a story about that. 440 00:48:35,110 --> 00:48:42,940 There was a science was performed and John Keats's spirit visited the experimenter and he started writing his poetry. 441 00:48:43,420 --> 00:48:46,569 So it's it's a fun story. And I couldn't include it here. 442 00:48:46,570 --> 00:48:55,360 But it's but but it's there are Kipling himself had great interest in the wireless for some reason clearly by 1923 is a little disillusioned. 443 00:48:55,930 --> 00:49:03,370 So what is happening in India by 1922, 23, however, by 1922 or 23, 444 00:49:03,370 --> 00:49:09,160 the Marconi company's attempts at establishing wireless in the Indian subcontinent had become more vigorous than ever. 445 00:49:11,940 --> 00:49:18,059 Promotional literature titled What Wireless Telegraphic Can Do for India, obtained from the Marconi Archive in the Bodleian Library, 446 00:49:18,060 --> 00:49:24,120 carries details of desert demonstrations, photographs and snippets of reports published in Indian newspapers. 447 00:49:24,720 --> 00:49:32,040 Newspapers reported that contact was established with Metcalf House in Delhi from varying distances up until Agra. 448 00:49:35,430 --> 00:49:40,469 Live. Details of a release were transmitted from the Barrack Racecourse to the newspaper. 449 00:49:40,470 --> 00:49:49,830 The Statesman 30 seat mass were established at the Statesman's office, while the reporter conveyed news from Portable Marconi set in a motorcar. 450 00:49:50,580 --> 00:49:57,390 The report also stated, Apart from the undoubted value in the newspaper world, it is claimed for these bought. 451 00:49:58,170 --> 00:50:04,979 It is claimed for these portable stations that they are used for rapid communication between jute mills, big ordnance collieries, 452 00:50:04,980 --> 00:50:11,640 etc. and their headquarter offices is of the greatest service, while the capital outlay is not excessive. 453 00:50:12,330 --> 00:50:18,060 The maintenance of miles of wire is not involved and the station is practically foolproof. 454 00:50:19,110 --> 00:50:27,120 So this is Marconi using a number of things that it is promoting. 455 00:50:27,930 --> 00:50:32,940 I just want to say that news is a very important the news and media at this moment is a very 456 00:50:32,940 --> 00:50:37,440 important domain for the capital firms because they mediate the opinion of the public. 457 00:50:38,340 --> 00:50:48,720 It's very crucial. And previous article has written an article in 2010 about how the British warfare state was engaging with violence. 458 00:50:49,050 --> 00:50:54,540 And she points out how how very often they would take recourse to the newspapers. 459 00:50:55,380 --> 00:50:59,670 So this is this is one of those things and I'm sorry, 460 00:50:59,670 --> 00:51:06,960 I forgot to sort of if you can read the Times of India snippet here, which says that in any disturbed country, 461 00:51:07,350 --> 00:51:14,560 either on the North-West Frontier or the other part of the world and unpredicted, it is an irresistible temptation to the but much. 462 00:51:16,740 --> 00:51:26,640 It's an extremely it's almost sort of inviting attention to like sure there is a naked violence. 463 00:51:26,760 --> 00:51:32,940 You know, the march is going to come in attack with the recorded advance in violence, telegraphy and telephony. 464 00:51:32,950 --> 00:51:41,639 Is there now any need for telegraph wire? I mean, this is this is these are the domains in which the news promotes these ideas. 465 00:51:41,640 --> 00:51:49,350 So it's it's quite fascinating. You can see the two pictures here, one of the motorcar, which is stationed in the racecourse, 466 00:51:49,350 --> 00:51:54,180 and the other one is a showroom of the Marconi Company in Calcutta. 467 00:51:55,590 --> 00:51:58,980 Right. Another paper, the Englishman asked, 468 00:51:59,580 --> 00:52:04,350 is the day near at hand in Calcutta when we shall no longer waste time to get 469 00:52:04,350 --> 00:52:10,440 wrong numbers on the telephone in the context of tests done on the Calcutta Madam, 470 00:52:11,190 --> 00:52:19,230 the same newspaper also reported on 10th February 1923 of a concert being delayed at the Calcutta exhibition grounds from three miles away. 471 00:52:19,920 --> 00:52:24,840 It stated that there was none of the metallic harshness associated with the best of gramophones, 472 00:52:25,050 --> 00:52:30,150 and listeners were treated to a sound quality equal to a live performance. 473 00:52:30,540 --> 00:52:39,899 So such great words for foreign for another experiment was done between the am I and SES officers, 474 00:52:39,900 --> 00:52:49,040 the marine communication company's office in Old Post Office Street at Calcutta and pulled the waterworks to make the proceedings even more dramatic. 475 00:52:49,050 --> 00:52:56,670 A song was sung to the accompaniment of a piano that was heard as distinctly in Calcutta as though they were in the same room. 476 00:52:59,400 --> 00:53:10,410 A concert was also organised for the men of the Calcutta Battalion and the Calcutta Presidency Battalion at a concert opera on the Eastern Bengal. 477 00:53:10,410 --> 00:53:19,350 Really, Major General Cubitt, commanding the presidency and Azzam District, also delivered a speech wirelessly. 478 00:53:19,620 --> 00:53:24,420 You can see the men here lined up and listening to the speech and the music. 479 00:53:25,950 --> 00:53:31,740 Similarly in Bombay, experiments were done between the Esplanade, Maidan and Willingdon Sports Club, 480 00:53:32,040 --> 00:53:39,839 where the Advocate of India reported on 31st March 1922 that there was none of that vexatious. 481 00:53:39,840 --> 00:53:45,660 Hello. Hello. Hello. In times which one gets accustomed to with the local telephone service? 482 00:53:48,330 --> 00:53:52,650 So most importantly, aside from the presidency towns. 483 00:53:52,680 --> 00:53:59,210 But this is my favourite picture as whoever has met me since the time I have seen this picture move. 484 00:53:59,850 --> 00:54:06,540 Most importantly, aside from the presidency towns, the princely states were also great sites for these demonstrations like Hyderabad, 485 00:54:06,540 --> 00:54:11,410 Gwalior, Mysore and Cartier were the maharajas of Jamnagar in mind. 486 00:54:11,430 --> 00:54:20,610 We spoke across a distance of 70 miles in the Gulf of Kutch, lending some celebrity charm to the proceedings. 487 00:54:21,420 --> 00:54:24,780 Once again, music on the gramophone records was conveyed. 488 00:54:26,400 --> 00:54:31,020 Now, this brings me to the last, very last section. 489 00:54:31,020 --> 00:54:38,990 I'm sorry. I have taken up so much time. I will just take. Two more minutes of your time, right? 490 00:54:40,190 --> 00:54:46,440 In 1920 627, the Post Office Beam Services had been established within UK, India and Indian Radio. 491 00:54:46,460 --> 00:54:54,140 Telegraph Company was formed in October 1933, which obtained license in radio telegraphy from both governments in India and UK, 492 00:54:54,470 --> 00:55:02,500 as well as Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company of London. They created a connection between quirky near puny transmitting, 493 00:55:02,540 --> 00:55:10,280 which was the transmitting station and Doon which was the receiving station in India and Grimsby and Skegness in UK. 494 00:55:11,090 --> 00:55:20,510 It was part of the scheme to erect direct high speed stations at India, South Africa, Australia and Canada that link with the UK. 495 00:55:20,810 --> 00:55:23,990 It was begun in 1923 and completed by 1927. 496 00:55:24,710 --> 00:55:29,840 The Bodleian possesses a copy of the original contract between the Indian Radio Telegraph Company, 497 00:55:30,050 --> 00:55:37,790 which cites the following names as directors Ibrahim, Raheem Tula and Ed Badia and secretaries and Treasurers as FMG, 498 00:55:37,790 --> 00:55:44,299 Roy and Company and the Postmaster General and a whole range of telegraphs and the Postmaster 499 00:55:44,300 --> 00:55:50,270 General and a whole range of telegrams passed between the various parties between India and UK. 500 00:55:50,420 --> 00:55:54,080 Some of them are displayed here on the commencement of the service. 501 00:55:54,560 --> 00:55:59,390 Whatever is written in this telegrams is not legible. I know. This is the transcript of those telegrams. 502 00:56:01,280 --> 00:56:05,269 The service in India was put through a seven day test by the post office, 503 00:56:05,270 --> 00:56:13,550 wherein the equipment largely exceeded their expectations by sending about one lakh 80,000 words per day in each direction. 504 00:56:14,360 --> 00:56:17,300 It even sustained during Indian Monsoon with the gate better. 505 00:56:18,380 --> 00:56:25,730 The records show that the company predicted for their capacity to deliver voice, printed matter drawings and photographs. 506 00:56:26,210 --> 00:56:35,880 So it's quite fantastic. I have found the records for all seven days of experiments and how they were experimenting, 507 00:56:35,930 --> 00:56:41,749 and it is what I already knew about the establishment of the Beam station a great deal because 508 00:56:41,750 --> 00:56:46,790 it tells me how this was being carried out technically and politically and what it meant. 509 00:56:49,610 --> 00:56:53,690 These photographs I have come across only last week. They're just fantastic for me. 510 00:56:55,380 --> 00:57:08,010 Because they have pictures of the actual people who do the work, uh, in a, in a fine statement made by a thing called Friends in Scotland. 511 00:57:08,430 --> 00:57:16,590 But when he said that sometimes it is written as do the British construct everything themselves, then not really. 512 00:57:17,910 --> 00:57:21,690 So I have found these lovely photographs. 513 00:57:21,690 --> 00:57:24,930 I like to use them. I, I hope the Bodleian gives me permission. 514 00:57:25,760 --> 00:57:29,910 So this is the key station. 515 00:57:30,600 --> 00:57:39,270 You can see the power hose on the right corner. You can see the labour trying to set up masts which are looking towards the west at the bottom. 516 00:57:39,540 --> 00:57:44,849 And you can see the switchboard and electrical machinery at the top and the crooked beam station itself, 517 00:57:44,850 --> 00:57:49,310 those towers at the back with those triangular things at the top of the station towers. 518 00:57:50,100 --> 00:57:56,249 And this is the receiving station and fantastic structures that were built up at that time. 519 00:57:56,250 --> 00:57:59,820 And. Well, yes, very interesting. 520 00:58:00,240 --> 00:58:07,680 On July 23rd, 1912, 1927, the system was inaugurated by the Viceroy, who was accompanied by Sir Leslie Wilson, 521 00:58:07,980 --> 00:58:14,670 the governor of Bombay, and Ibrahim Rahim Tula, on behalf of the Indian Radio Telegraph Company at the Central Telegraph Office. 522 00:58:15,120 --> 00:58:17,610 He dwelt on the potentialities of the new service. 523 00:58:18,090 --> 00:58:24,210 The system was capable of transmitting messages in both directions at a speed in the neighbourhood of 200 words a minute. 524 00:58:24,720 --> 00:58:28,890 A message to King George returned a reply in 38 seconds. 525 00:58:30,300 --> 00:58:35,010 And here's what it said. This intent, this intangible link between Empire and Britain, 526 00:58:35,010 --> 00:58:44,040 was gratuitously praised in this message as remarkable marvel at the speed and certainty with which it was carried on unseen rings, 527 00:58:44,040 --> 00:58:52,920 ignoring all obstacles on sea and land. We feel we have witnessed an arresting exhibition of man's scientific knowledge and achievement, 528 00:58:53,160 --> 00:58:57,209 and we are pleased to think that the first application of this knowledge should 529 00:58:57,210 --> 00:59:02,520 have been to establish so swift a direct personal contact between the King, 530 00:59:02,520 --> 00:59:10,139 Emperor and his Indian subjects. Oh, lovely. So few things happened. 531 00:59:10,140 --> 00:59:17,250 After this event. The Radio Telegraph company went on to purchase other rights for cables in Bombay and nearby areas, 532 00:59:17,610 --> 00:59:22,760 and eventually it was bought out by the Indian government in 1946. 533 00:59:22,800 --> 00:59:29,940 Like all the other telephone companies and so on, the Marconi Company never gave up. 534 00:59:31,230 --> 00:59:39,570 So it also I have found records of it proposing projects to the newly independent Indian government. 535 00:59:40,740 --> 00:59:49,469 So I it's fascinating stuff. I am full of gratitude for the fact that I have found those things and now I can use it to, you know, 536 00:59:49,470 --> 00:59:57,330 create a larger, more a fuller picture of of what was going on and the issues here and manage. 537 00:59:57,330 --> 01:00:00,809 And I had a word about his work, which is also extremely interesting. 538 01:00:00,810 --> 01:00:05,670 And he is talking from the point of view of the Indian businesses in Bombay, 539 01:00:05,910 --> 01:00:12,900 which bought the rights to the to the company's patent and were instrumental in this. 540 01:00:13,320 --> 01:00:19,170 I don't know who they are. And but he's his work is likely to tell you all about that. 541 01:00:19,590 --> 01:00:22,860 So fascinating exchanges were going on. 542 01:00:23,280 --> 01:00:28,530 I would like to conclude this presentation, though. I think I have both of you gave enough this presentation. 543 01:00:28,530 --> 01:00:33,900 Try to unpack the ways in which commerce, politics and geographies are revealed and shaped through technology, 544 01:00:34,170 --> 01:00:38,280 as technology itself is constituted by its historical context. 545 01:00:39,030 --> 01:00:47,310 Communication networks became the circuits of power, capital and imperial prowess, but were also shaped by these same categories. 546 01:00:48,180 --> 01:00:54,240 The proliferation of violence was being prompted by military and strategic interests of imperial states. 547 01:00:54,810 --> 01:01:00,780 But technology often proved to be symbolic capital rather than an actual advantage, as evidenced above. 548 01:01:01,290 --> 01:01:03,869 If anybody wants to know during question answer, I'll tell you more why? 549 01:01:03,870 --> 01:01:11,730 I'm saying that the conversations around usage and acceptance of technology reveal that the colonial enterprise was often contradictory in nature. 550 01:01:12,210 --> 01:01:17,970 The irony is, while wireless was intended to be global in scope, purpose and intent, 551 01:01:18,450 --> 01:01:23,700 the actual experimentation remained within within 3 to 300 miles for a very long time. 552 01:01:24,750 --> 01:01:28,950 Lectures, demonstrations and exhibitions were used to create a space in the imperial market, 553 01:01:28,950 --> 01:01:33,720 where rivalries between colonising nations could be played off to bargain for business. 554 01:01:34,530 --> 01:01:41,580 However, some extremely complex legal negotiations between various capitalist entities plagued the establishment of wireless networks. 555 01:01:42,270 --> 01:01:46,980 The process for collectivisation of knowledge about wireless was a deeply political process 556 01:01:47,250 --> 01:01:52,140 through which certain kinds of use for the wireless were enhanced and others muted. 557 01:01:53,100 --> 01:01:54,480 There was, at this point, 558 01:01:54,510 --> 01:02:02,549 no one wireless but a multiplicity of wireless apparatus that were neither completely technically sound nor financially tenable, 559 01:02:02,550 --> 01:02:07,040 with a high degree of ambivalence then displayed by other forms of communication. 560 01:02:07,980 --> 01:02:17,820 Nevertheless, dominant ideology about technology dictated that it would acquire phenomenal reach and meanwhile perhaps a purpose for usage. 561 01:02:18,750 --> 01:02:24,570 These events directly affected the colonial discourse surrounding installations and stations in British India. 562 01:02:24,810 --> 01:02:25,830 Thank you so much.