Postal Empires: Communication Infrastructure and Imperial Control in British India

This paper examines the role of communication infrastructure—particularly postal and telegraph systems—in consolidating imperial control in British India. It explores how these technologies served colonial objectives by enabling administrative coordination, economic integration, and military surveillance across a vast and diverse subcontinent. Drawing on historical records, comparative colonial analysis, and primary cartographic sources, the paper shows how Indian actors adapted, resisted, and subverted these systems in various ways. The study situates British India's communication infrastructure within a broader imperial context by comparing it to parallel developments in Africa, Southeast Asia, and the Caribbean. It further explores the afterlives of colonial communication systems in post-independence India, highlighting their influence on national integration and bureaucratic rationality. Ultimately, the paper argues that the legacy of these infrastructures extends beyond their technical function—they were and remain powerful socio-political assemblages that shaped the contours of both empire and postcolonial nationhood.