The Indian empire at war : from Jihad to victory, the untold story of the Indian army in the First World War / George Morton-Jack.
By: Morton-Jack, George [author.]
.Publisher: London : Little, Brown, 2018Description: 582 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of plates : illustrations (colour), map.Content type: text | still image Media type: unmediated Carrier type: volumeISBN: 9781408707692 ; 9781408707708.Subject(s): India. Army -- History -- World War, 1914-1918 | Great Britain. Army. British Indian Army -- History -- World War, 1914-1918 | World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Sikh | World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Hindu | World War, 1914-1918 -- Participation, Muslim | World War, 1914-1918 -- IndiaAdditional Physical Form: Print version : 9781408707692DDC classification: 940.41254 | Item type | Current library | Class number | Status | Date due | Barcode | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | House of Lords Library - Palace Dewey | 940.41254 MOR (Browse shelf(Opens below)) | Available | 016217 |
Part one: the road to World War -- 1. 'The peasant's university' -- 2. 'Inferiors in the scale of humanity' -- 3. 'He merely obeys orders' -- Part two: 1914 -- 4. 'Vivent les Hindous!' -- 5. 'In the nick of time' -- 6. 'The riff-raff' -- 7. 'That God-forsaken ground' -- 8. 'enterprises and surprises' -- Part three: 1915 -- 9. 'An anti-British crusade' -- 10. 'I could not bear the news' -- 11. 'Just like the photos' -- 12. 'Keskersay' -- 13. 'As when the leaves fall off a tree' -- Part four: 1916 -- 14. 'The pasha of Baghdad -- 15. 'A tin full of kerosene -- 16. 'Looking for Germans' -- Part five: 1917 -- 17. 'A cemetery of reputations' -- 18. 'An ambulating refrigerator' -- 19. 'No longer a Cinderella' -- 20. 'Why did I leave my little trench in France?' -- 21. 'Bonjour petite fille Louise' -- Part six: 1918 -- 22. 'The political self-development of the people' -- 23. 'We alone have got to keep southern Asia' -- 24. 'Each one of us must fight on to the end' -- Part seven: veterans -- 15. 'Which side their bread is buttered.
"A brilliantly original take on the First World War, tracing the Indian army's journey from a small professional service to a crucial part of the conflict.
Almost two million volunteers served the Indian army in the Great War, always under British regimental officers, high commanders and staff. 150,000 of them were long-serving pre-war professional soldiers; most of the remainder were wartime recruits, drawn from across South Asia. Half of the Indian soldiers were sent overseas, and those who returned did so with a very different outlook on life.
In most histories of the war, the Tommies, pals and poets have dominated the tales - but what of the war as experienced by their Indian counterparts? George Morton-Jack's remarkable, fresh take on the First World War sets this right, telling the Indian army's story of 1914-18 through the voices of the service's officers and ranks, and of the princes, priests, prostitutes and others who encountered them across the continents. It reveals their journeys to the greatest battlefields mankind had ever seen, their experiences as prisoners of war in Germany, Romania and elsewhere, and their missions as secret agents that took them down rivers, across deserts and through mountain ranges from Transylvania to Afghanistan and beyond.
The Indian Empire at War is a fascinating, necessary book that illuminates a central part of the Great War that has too often been overlooked." -- Little, Brown site.
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