<\/p>\nEnduring Signs<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n
British and Anglo-Indian communities established clubs, churches and residential colonies that shaped Ajmer\u2019s colonial character. The Railway Institute became a major social centre with ballrooms, and sports and cultural events.The workshop also reshaped Ajmer\u2019s urban landscape: planned colonies, churches, officers\u2019 bungalows and institutional campuses grew around the railway zone, leaving a colonial imprint that still survives in parts of the city.<\/p>\n\n
![\"Ajmer](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/photo\/msid-131981596\/ajmer-railway.jpg\" "\\"Ajmer")
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Ajmer railway workshop<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
Bengalis arrived largely as teachers, clerks and railway officials. Institutions like Mayo College attracted Bengali educators who contributed to literature, theatre and music in the city. Gujarati traders expanded businesses in textiles, grain trade and transport, while Agarwal businessmen became deeply linked with Ajmer\u2019s commercial economy.Prashant Patel, a fourth-generation Gujarati tobacco businessman, recalled stories of his great-grandfather, who moved from Gujarat to Ajmer for business after the railways arrived. \u201cAjmer embraced us like its own. Not only have we preserved our cultural practices, but Gujarati continues to be widely spoken in Ajmer\u2019s trading communities,\u201d said Patel.Sister Pearl, principal of Sophia College, said the railways also helped seed institutions such as Mayo College, Sophia College, St. Anselm\u2019s School and several convent schools, laying the foundation for the city\u2019s educational culture. \u201cEven the railways opened a school for British children and others. The attendance sheets are still preserved, and many people who spent their childhood here continue to visit the place,\u201d she said.Parsis played an important role in the workshop\u2019s technical development, arriving as engineers, technicians and supervisors. Their mechanical expertise made them indispensable in the early decades of railway expansion. Hosi Dorabshah, 78, living in Mount Abu, represents the fourth generation of his family to serve in railways. \u201cMy great-grandfather came to Ajmer from Gujarat and served in the railways. I also retired as a guard,\u201d he said.Calling himself part of the \u201clast generation\u201d of Parsis in railway service, Dorabshah said there are now around 28 Parsis living in Mount Abu and about 15 in Ajmer \u2014 among the last remaining members of the community in the state. \u201cMy children have discontinued the tradition of joining the railways, and I expect that the younger generation will eventually move to Mumbai or Gujarat,\u201d said Dorabshah.Many old Parsi and AngloIndian homes now stand locked or have been sold as younger generations migrate to Mumbai, Pune and abroad. Some railway quarters that once housed large Parsi families are now occupied by elderly couples or caretakers.Ajmer\u2019s small Jewish community also arrived in the railway era. Nearly 300-400 Jews once lived in the city, many linked to railways. Today, the Jewish cemetery near Ana Sagar remains among the few visible traces of Rajasthan\u2019s Jewish heritage.The workshop has continued evolving with railway technology. From nearly 15,000 at its early-20th-century peak, the workforce now stands at around 4,500 due to modernisation, and restructuring. Today, it maintains modern coaches and locomotive stock, freight wagons and premium trains, including Palace on Wheels and Vande Bharat.<\/div>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Some of the sounds of Ajmer are age-old. Like the cry of the azaan at the dargah of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti. Or the bells of Mayo College, ringing through corridors trod by the sons of the well-known and well-heeled. A third, perhaps less perceptible now, is provided by the sirens at Ajmer Railway Workshop, which […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":26398,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26397","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-country"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26397","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26397"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26397\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26398"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26397"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26397"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26397"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"An](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131982148,imgsize-230489,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/131982148.jpg\")
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