Buy this book on-line BASU, SHRABANI: : FOR KING AND ANOTHER COUNTRY: INDIAN SOLDIERS ON THE WESTERN FRONT 1914-18LONDON.BLOOMSBURY,2015. ISBN 9789384052911.
UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn.[Complete number line 10 - 1 descending.] FINE/FINE.No owner inscrptn and no price-clip to dw/dj. Bright,crisp,clean,matt,monochrome photographic illustrated front panel of dw/dj,with black ink,fluorescent mauve and fluorescent gilt lettering; with negligible shelf-wear and creasing to edges and corners - no nicks or tears present.Top+fore-edges bright and clean; contents bright,tight,clean,solid and sound - near pristine - no dog-ear reading creases to any pages' corners,appears unread - apart from my own collation. Bright,crisp,clean,sharp-cornered, publisher's original plain maroon cloth bds with bright,crisp,stamped fluorescent mauve+gilt letters to spine/backstrip,a mauve+white striped headband and immaculate contemporary historical b/w photographic (Indian cavalry soldiers and Indian foot soldiers) front+rear respectively,endpapers.UK,8vo HB+dw/dj,1st edn,xiv-xxviipp+2-224pp [paginated] includes recto page of Dramatis Personae, an introduction,13 chapters and an epilogue,16pp contemporary sepia+colour photographs and illustration reproductions in 1 block,between pp100/1,appendix,notes, a biblio,acknowledgements and an index, plus [unpaginated] half-title+title pages, dedication,poetry extract (Sarojini Naidu, 'The Gift of India',1915) with author's note to it's recto,contents list/table,b/w Frontline,Western front,1914 map,and verso page of Dramatis Personae.
Over a million Indian soldiers fought in the First World War,the largest force from the colonies and dominions.They travelled from remote villages in India to the harsh trenches of Flanders and France,for a war they could not comprehend.They fought with unquestioning valour and went on to win the highest bravery awards,but their contribution has been mostly forgotten.
'For King and Another Country' tells,for the first time,the personal stories of some of these Indians who went to the Western Front: from a grand turbaned Maharaja raring to fight for the Empire to an illiterate peasant who won the Victoria Cross; from a sweeper who accompanied the troops only to die in an English hospital to a young pilot,barely out of school,who brought down German airplanes.
Shrabani Basu delves into narratives buried in villages in India and Pakistan, as well as British archives,to recreate the War through the eyes of the Indians.
There are tales of courage and heroism as well as those of despair and desperation. The book examines the relationship that developed between the Indians and their British officers.Above all,it is about how the Great War changed India and led, ultimately,to the call for independence.
[For India,the first experience of Western warfare was to be a turning point as a nation.The country's educated elite began staking their claim for greater autonomy as a prize for the nation's contribution to the war.The Indians had proved their worth and their loyalty,but unfortunately,there was to be no reward.
Barely five months after the guns were silenced,General Reginald Dyer opened fire on a gathering largely made up of Sikh men, women and children on 13 April 1919 at Jallianwala Bagh near the Golden Temple in Amritsar.Despite the loyalty of the Sikh troops,their contribution to the war and sacrifice,Dyer ordered his soldiers to continue till the last bullet was fired.It was an act that alienated the nation.The poet Rabindranath Tagore,who had so inspired Wilfred Owen,returned his knighthood in protest,and the Indian freedom struggle took on a new momentum. See my book ID rja388111 Arthur Swinson's: 'SIX MINUTES TO SUNSET' for a related book about the incident.]
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