Introduction

The role of Richard Strachey as Chairman of the EIR and Assam–Bengal Railway in the 1890s provides a good illustration of the thin dividing line between public servants and private industrialists in British India. In Theodore Hope, Public Works member of the Viceroy's Council, and later enthusiastic rail promoter, a cruder example of ‘gamekeeper turned poacher’ may be observed. In both cases, the detail of their negotiations with the ICS, India Office, and other private companies highlight the extent to which energetic individuals could influence GOI spending patterns. Strachey and Hope prospered under the unwritten constitution of British India, with weak checks and balances provided by Westminster. Parliamentary committees and commissions, designed to scrutinize ill-directed public-works spending and guarantees, were normally used as safety valves to relieve Indian public pressure, while failing to incorporate dissenting opinions in their recommendations and conclusions. Rare critical participants at these forums, like Henry Fawcett and Romesh Dutt, railed against private-sector lobbying activities, but could not hope to counterbalance the influence of energetic insiders.

Sir Richard Strachey was a model for the active and public-spirited ‘eminent’ Victorian gentleman. He would have made a suitable study for his fifth son Lytton's dissection of Victorian behaviour and ethics. Strachey's range of interests spanned military, scientific, horticultural, meteorological and public works matters, all in the context of India where he spent much of his life.