The Grand Trunk Road from Ashoka to Aurangzeb – A 2,300-Year Path Dependency Long before the British ever macadamised it, the Grand Trunk Road was already one of the greatest engineering and commercial achievements in human history. Born as the Mauryan Uttarapatha in the 4th century BCE, dramatically rebuilt by Sher Shah Suri in 1540–45 and perfected under the Mughals, it stretched 2,500–2,700 km from Sonargaon in Bengal to Kabul, shaded by continuous avenues of trees, lined with thousands of sarais, and wide enough for twenty-five horsemen to ride abreast. For two millennia it remained the single most important east–west artery of the Indian subcontinent, outlasting empires while dictating where cities rose, armies marched, and trade flowed. European travellers who had seen the Roman Via Appia or the Persian Royal Road repeatedly declared it “the finest highway in the world”. Its path dependency – the stubborn persistence of a single alignment across centuries – locked north...
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India’s Invisible Rails: The Enduring Path Dependence of Empire British rule did not merely govern India for 190 years—it rewired its economic, political, and institutional DNA through a cascade of self-reinforcing choices. From QWERTY-like lock-ins in railway gauges to Westminster scaffolding in Parliament, colonial decisions created increasing returns that amplified small historical accidents into century-long trajectories. Paul David’s 1985 insight that “history matters” finds vivid proof: India’s 54,000 km broad-gauge network, English-medium IITs, and IAS bureaucracy are all third-degree path-dependent artifacts. Post-1947, Nehru’s socialism and 1991 liberalization operated within these rails, not outside them. The result? A services superpower ($250 bn IT exports) riding colonial English, but a manufacturing dwarf (14 % GDP) trapped by extractive ports and fragmented farms. Politically, FPTP coalitions and judicial PILs thrive on British foundations, delivering stabil...