India, March 18 -- The colonial legacy of Indian Railways and its role in the country's freedom struggle was the focus of a public lecture by bureaucrat-author Mukul Kumar on Tuesday.

Speaking at the Prime Ministers Museum and Library, Kumar explored how the infrastructure built by the British to tighten their grip on India became a powerful tool for both mass mobilization and revolutionary attack. The event, organised by the Ministry of Culture, was attended by dozens of scholars and researchers.

In his talk, "Steel, Steam and Swaraj: How Railways Carried India to Freedom", Kumar argued that while the railways were introduced by the colonial rulers primarily to facilitate resource exploitation and troop movement, they were later effect...