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India General Steam Navigation Company was established in India in 1844 to compete with the steamers of the Indian government on the Ganges, later turning its attention to Assam, where the tea industry was developing and in need of improved communications.
From the 1870s onwards, the company faced much competition from Rivers Steam Navigation Company Limited (CLC/B/123-47), as a result of which various working agreements between the two companies were reached in the 1880s. As a result of one such agreement, made in 1889, the two companies came generally to be known as the Joint steamer companies, operating many joint services but maintaining separate management.
In 1899, India General went into liquidation, partly in order to raise more capital, and partly in order to register in London. The new company was named India General Navigation and Railway Company Limited (so called because a few years earlier India General had undertaken the construction of an extension of a railway to the banks of the Brahmaputra at Jaganathganj).
During both world wars, vessels of the Joint steamer companies were impresssed for military use in India, and also in Iraq during the First World War. After the Second World War the partition of India caused difficulties in the transport of commodities from Assam to Calcutta for export, as they had to pass through Pakistan as well as India. As a result, the fleets of the Joint companies were divided and separate repair workshops set up to service the Pakistani fleet (in addition to those set up by India General in the 1880s at Raja Bagan).
In 1959, Pakistan River Steamers Limited was formed to manage the Pakistani fleets of the Joint companies, as the government of Pakistan would not Company-operate except with a company incorporated in Pakistan (for further details of PRS Limited see the introductory note to Rivers Steam Navigation Company Limited.)
In 1962 a strike by crews in Pakistan nearly brought about the collapse of India General, but Rivers Steam Navigation Company Limited bought out its Indian assets and liabilities, India General retaining its Pakistani interests. India General was managed in India by Kilburn and Company and in London by Kilburn, Brown and Company. (The Inchcape group archives include some records of Kilburn, Brown and Company, CLC/B/123-37).
India General had London offices successively in St. Helen's Place, New Broad Street and Mincing Lane.