Army of Empire

Army of Empire
Author: George Morton-Jack
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 586
Release: 2018-12-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465094074

Drawing on untapped new sources, the first global history of the Indian Expeditionary Forces in World War I While their story is almost always overlooked, the 1.5 million Indian soldiers who served the British Empire in World War I played a crucial role in the eventual Allied victory. Despite their sacrifices, Indian troops received mixed reactions from their allies and their enemies alike-some were treated as liberating heroes, some as mercenaries and conquerors themselves, and all as racial inferiors and a threat to white supremacy. Yet even as they fought as imperial troops under the British flag, their broadened horizons fired in them new hopes of racial equality and freedom on the path to Indian independence. Drawing on freshly uncovered interviews with members of the Indian Army in Iraq and elsewhere, historian George Morton-Jack paints a deeply human story of courage, colonization, and racism, and finally gives these men their rightful place in history.

Soldiers of Empire

Soldiers of Empire
Author: Tarak Barkawi
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 341
Release: 2017-06-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107169585

Barkawi re-imagines the study of war with imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second World War.

The Indian Army in World War I, 1914-1918

The Indian Army in World War I, 1914-1918
Author: Ian Cardozo
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2019-06-19
Genre: History
ISBN: 1000458679

This volume recounts India’s contribution to World War I. Please note: Taylor & Francis does not sell or distribute the Hardback in India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka

The Late Colonial Indian Army

The Late Colonial Indian Army
Author: Pradeep Barua
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 365
Release: 2021-11-04
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498552218

The Indian Army was one of the most important colonial institutions that the British created. From its humble origins as a mercantile police force to a modern contemporary army in the Second World War, this institution underwent many transitions. This book examines the Indian Army during the later colonial era from the First Afghan War in 1839 to Indian independence in 1947. During this period, the Indian Army developed from an internal policing force, to a frontier army, and then to a conventional western style fighting force capable of deployment to overseas’ theaters. These transitions resulted in significant structural and doctrinal changes in the army. The doctrines, and tactics honed during this period would have a dramatic impact upon the post-colonial armies of India and Pakistan. From civil-military relations to fighting and structural doctrines, the Indian and Pakistani armies closely reflect the deep-seated impact of decades of evolution during the late colonial era.

India's War

India's War
Author: Srinath Raghavan
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 591
Release: 2016-05-10
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465098622

Between 1939 and 1945 India underwent extraordinary and irreversible change. Hundreds of thousands of Indians suddenly found themselves in uniform, fighting in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Europe and-something simply never imagined-against a Japanese army poised to invade eastern India. With the threat of the Axis powers looming, the entire country was pulled into the vortex of wartime mobilization. By the war's end, the Indian Army had become the largest volunteer force in the conflict, consisting of 2.5 million men, while many millions more had offered their industrial, agricultural, and military labor. It was clear that India would never be same-the only question was: would the war effort push the country toward or away from independence? In India's War, historian Srinath Raghavan paints a compelling picture of battles abroad and of life on the home front, arguing that the war is crucial to explaining how and why colonial rule ended in South Asia. World War II forever altered the country's social landscape, overturning many Indians' settled assumptions and opening up new opportunities for the nation's most disadvantaged people. When the dust of war settled, India had emerged as a major Asian power with her feet set firmly on the path toward Independence. From Gandhi's early urging in support of Britain's war efforts, to the crucial Burma Campaign, where Indian forces broke the siege of Imphal and stemmed the western advance of Imperial Japan, Raghavan brings this underexplored theater of WWII to vivid life. The first major account of India during World War II, India's War chronicles how the war forever transformed India, its economy, its politics, and its people, laying the groundwork for the emergence of modern South Asia and the rise of India as a major power.

The Indian Army on the Western Front South Asia Edition

The Indian Army on the Western Front South Asia Edition
Author: George Morton-Jack
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 349
Release: 2015-02-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107117658

Recasts the role of the Indian Army on the Western Front, questioning why its performance was traditionally deemed a failure.

The Indian Army and the End of the Raj

The Indian Army and the End of the Raj
Author: Daniel Marston
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2014-04-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521899753

A unique examination of the role of the Indian army in post-World War II India in the run-up to Partition. Daniel Marston draws upon extensive archival research and interviews with veterans of the events of 1947 to provide fresh insight into the final days of the British Raj.

The Indian Contingent

The Indian Contingent
Author: Ghee Bowman
Publisher: The History Press
Total Pages: 333
Release: 2020-05-21
Genre: History
ISBN: 0750995424

'An incredible and important story, finally being told' - Mishal Husain On 28 May 1940, Major Akbar Khan marched at the head of 299 soldiers along a beach in northern France. They were the only Indians in the British Expeditionary Force at Dunkirk. With Stuka sirens wailing, shells falling in the water and Tommies lining up to be evacuated, these soldiers of the British Indian Army, carrying their disabled imam, found their way to the East Mole and embarked for England in the dead of night. On reaching Dover, they borrowed brass trays and started playing Punjabi folk music, upon which even 'many British spectators joined in the dance'. What journey had brought these men to Europe? What became of them – and of comrades captured by the Germans? With the engaging style of a true storyteller, Ghee Bowman reveals in full, for the first time, the astonishing story of the Indian Contingent, from their arrival in France on 26 December 1939 to their return to an India on the verge of partition. It is one of the war's hidden stories that casts fresh light on Britain and its empire.

The Forgotten Army

The Forgotten Army
Author: Peter Ward Fay
Publisher: University of Michigan Press
Total Pages: 596
Release: 1995
Genre: India
ISBN: 9780472083428

The first complete history of the Indian National Army and its fight for independence against the British in World War II.

The Coolie's Great War

The Coolie's Great War
Author: Radhika Singha
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages:
Release: 2020-12-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 0197566901

Though largely invisible in histories of the First World War, over??550,000 men in the ranks of the Indian army were non-combatants. From the porters, stevedores and construction workers in the Coolie Corps to those who maintained supply lines and removed the wounded from the battlefield, Radhika Singha recovers the story of this unacknowledged service. The labor regimes built on the backs of these 'coolies' sustained the military infrastructure of empire; their deployment in interregional arenas bent to the demands of global war. Viewed as racially subordinate and subject to 'non-martial' caste designations, they fought back against their status, using the warring powers' need for manpower as leverage to challenge traditional service hierarchies and wage differentials. The Coolie's Great War views that global conflict through the lens of Indian labor, constructing a distinct geography of the war--from tribal settlements and colonial jails, beyond India's frontiers, to the battlefronts of France and Mesopotamia.