What American steel baron Andrew Carnegie thought of Varanasi and the Taj

In 1878, in the middle of building a steel empire, American industrialist Andrew Carnegie decided to go on a world tour with his friend John Vandervort. The two set off from the Pacific Coast of the United States, spending time in Japan and China, before arriving in Ceylon and India.

The Scottish-born industrialist, whose parents immigrated to the US when he was 12, was raised in a traditional Christian family and harboured a range of odd ideas about India. His biggest obsession was the caste system. Starting from Ceylon, he kept observing its visible manifestations and wrote about them, along with other reflections, in his travelogue Round the World.

Entering India from Madras, Carnegie and Vandervort went to Calcutta and from there took a train to Benares, travelling in the most comfortable manner.

“We had all to ourselves a first-class carriage compartment containing two sofas lengthwise of the car and one across; above these were three upper berths, to be let down, if necessary, and used as beds,” Carnegie wrote in Round the World. “ A smaller compartment contained dressing-room, etc., for all of which there is no extra charge.”

“Our route lay through the opium-growing district, and the white poppies were just beginning to bloom,” he said. “I did not...

Read more