The Reminiscences of Zafrulla Khan — Page 89
89 REMINISCENCES OF SIR MUHAMMAD ZAFRULLA KHAN accepted what you were doing, so that your mind and heart have been opened to the recognition and acceptance of the light. " R R R R R INTERVIEW - JUNE 2, 1962 Question : I wonder if we might now discuss the period between 1935 and 1941, in which you were in the Viceroy's Executive Council, and perhaps the most expedient way to handle this would be to discuss the internal periods, that is, on the basis of what portfolios you held: Commerce and Railways from 1935 to 1938, and then perhaps you would like to discuss the 1937 election in India, and then Commerce, Industry and Labour and Public Works in 1938 and 1939, and then at the onset of the war, Law and War Supply. Khan : To start with the period 1935 to 1938, I have already indicated that I had two very important portfolios committed to my care during that period, Railways and Commerce. To an outsider, Railways may not mean very much, but in the then situation in India, Railways was an extremely important portfolio. In the first place, the railway budget, which had to be presented by the Railway Minister to the Assembly, exceeded the whole budget of India, including the defence estimates. That would be some indication of how important that portfolio was. When I took over charge, I found that, though my immediate predecessor, Sir Joseph Bhore, was an Indian, the spirit of railway administration was altogether too official, as if the railways were a government department to be run along the same lines as any other government department. There was too much red tape, and too little consideration of the human element. The passengers were treated as incidental to the running of the system. I could have to some degree understood that attitude while the portfolio had been in the charge of successive British ministers, but during five years Sir Joseph had been in charge, and he had not paid the slightest attention to the railways. He had been occupied most of the time with the no doubt important questions that arose in the Commerce portfolio. But there were certain discounting factors in the case of Sir Joseph Bhore. In the first place, he was an Indian Christian, and Indian Christians, especially those in high positions, somehow or other looked