India, Aug. 27 -- In January 1936, the GIP Railway decided to introduce dining cars on all trains connecting Bombay with Poona and some other cities. It also published a circular requiring all first-class passengers to dine in the separate dining cars instead of in their compartments.

Many of the older Anglo-Indians who had been accustomed to the privacy of compartments wherein tiffin baskets were utilised for refreshments were loud in condemnation of this "democratic installation". According to 'The Locomotive, Railway Carriage and Wagon Review' (vol 42, 1936), a 'high military officer' who frequently travelled between Bombay and Poona wrote to the government, worried about "diluting the spirit of the Empire".

Some objects become part ...