Indian Tommies

CHANDRIKA KAUL welcomes a history of the Great War told through the experiences of those born on the subcontinent The Indian Empire at War by George Morton-Jack Little Brown, 592 pages, £25

Clearly timed for the finale of the First World War’s centenary commemorations, this engaging soldiers’ history of the conflict is unashamedly populist in tone. The protagonists are the troops (and noncombatants) from the Indian subcontinent who fought for the British and Allied cause, sometimes willingly, but mostly because they had little choice, or were signing up under economic duress. Some 1.5 million recruits were to serve in the Indian army until 1918.

Arranged chronologically, the book exposes the fate of these troops as they were deployed across an astonishing geographic landscape, from the bitter cold of the western front to the baking deserts of the Middle East, traversing 50 present-day countries across Asia, Africa and Europe. George Morton-Jack successfully brings together these various arenas of conflict – “a global epic”– allowing us to better comprehend the totality of the Indian contribution. He is at pains to stress their heroism and military effectiveness as well as underline the camaraderie that existed on the battlefield despite prevalent racism. The Indian army was in “a state of perpetual evolution”, and the author deftly incorporates policy issues and political grand strategies into his narrative.

He also shines a spotlight on the “personal discoveries” of these soldiers – good, bad and ugly. Culled from an impressive range of sources, every chapter contains a wealth of evocative contemporary reflections from and about men who represented a “uniquely multicultural” army. Among my favourites are those that provide the more unexpected insights into their everyday lives – such as when, in 1915, a Pathan asked a Sikh comrade “crawling

along the road” in France, “Keskersay?” (phonetic French for ‘What is it?’) and smiling, the Sikh replied, “Pied, mal” (‘Foot, bad’). With no shared language to communicate in, these Indians turned to conversing between themselves in French.

I would have appreciated a more detailed analysis of the wider impact of the troops’ deployment over the longer term. And occasionally the profusion of reminiscences does threaten to overwhelm the reader and obfuscate the bigger picture. Yet these life stories are also the book’s greatest strength, helping provide a fascinating socio-cultural history of the subaltern soldier.