Indian Soldiers in World War I

Indian Soldiers in World War I
Author: Andrew T. Jarboe
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 342
Release: 2021-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 1496227190

More than one million Indian soldiers were deployed during World War I, serving in the Indian Army as part of Britain’s imperial war effort. These men fought in France and Belgium, Egypt and East Africa, and Gallipoli, Palestine, and Mesopotamia. In Indian Soldiers in World War I Andrew T. Jarboe follows these Indian soldiers—or sepoys—across the battlefields, examining the contested representations British and Indian audiences drew from the soldiers’ wartime experiences and the impacts these representations had on the British Empire’s racial politics. Presenting overlooked or forgotten connections, Jarboe argues that Indian soldiers’ presence on battlefields across three continents contributed decisively to the British Empire’s final victory in the war. While the war and Indian soldiers’ involvement led to a hardening of the British Empire’s prewar racist ideologies and governing policies, the battlefield contributions of Indian soldiers fueled Indian national aspirations and calls for racial equality. When Indian soldiers participated in the brutal suppression of anti-government demonstrations in India at war’s end, they set the stage for the eventual end of British rule in South Asia.

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.

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.

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.

India, Empire, and First World War Culture

India, Empire, and First World War Culture
Author: Santanu Das
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 495
Release: 2018-09-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107081580

This is the first cultural and literary history of India and the First World War, with archival research from Europe and South Asia.

The Indian Empire At War

The Indian Empire At War
Author: George Morton-Jack
Publisher: Hachette UK
Total Pages: 594
Release: 2018-09-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 1408707721

'Essential to a proper understanding of the war and of our world of today' Michael Morpurgo 1.5 million Indians fought with the British in the First World War - from Flanders to the African bush and the deserts of the Islamic world, they saved the Allies from defeat in 1914 and were vital to global victory in 1918. Using previously unpublished veteran interviews, this is their story, told as never before.

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.

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 the Two World Wars

The Indian Army in the Two World Wars
Author:
Publisher: BRILL
Total Pages: 578
Release: 2011-10-14
Genre: History
ISBN: 9004211454

There is no single volume which covers the Indian Army’s experiences during the two World Wars. And this is what the present edited volume attempts to do. This collection of 17 essays analyze the army as an institution and also touch upon the cultural ethos of the army and related social issues. Thus, this edited volume is a cross between ‘traditional military history’ (study of campaigns, tactics, leadership) and ‘new military history’ (impact of warfare on society and culture). While some of the essays take a pan Indian perspective, a few essays also focus on those regions within India (like Punjab) which were intimately related with the army. A few contributors also turn the spotlight on the overseas theatres like Mesopotamia, France and Burma, where the Indian Army played a very important role. Contributors are Alan Jeffreys, Andrew Syk, Daniel Marston, David Kenyon, Dennis Showalter, Gajendra Singh, Gavin Rand, James Kitchen, Nick Lloyd, Nikolas Gardner, Rajit K. Mazumder, Raymond Callahan, Rob Johnson, Ross Anderson, Tarak Barkawi and Tim Moreman.