Though the history of the line is intertwined with the ugliness of colonialexploitation and the bygone era of big-game hunting, passengers on the Lunatic Express sought the same kicks that safari-goers in Kenya look to experience today.
The central pillar of the policy was import substitution, the belief that India needed to rely on internal markets for development, not international trade - a belief generated by a mixture of socialism and the experience of colonialexploitation.