Author: S. C. MenezesPublisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
Book Description
Fidelity and Honour : the Indian Army from the ...
Fidelity and Honour
Author: S. L. MenezesPublisher:
ISBN: 9780195650471
Category : India
Languages : en
Pages : 655
Book Description
The author traces the evolution of the Indian army from its beginings under the East India Company to its present status as one of the largest armies in the world.
Fidelity & Honour
Author: S. L. MenezesHonour and Fidelity: India's Military Contribution to the Great War 1914-1918
Author: Captain Amarinder SinghPublisher: Roli Books Private Limited
ISBN: 9351940543
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 360
Book Description
When the First World War raged from 1914 to 1918, hundreds of thousands troops fought valiantly and millions of lives were lost. Much has been written about the allies (Britain, France and other European powers, Russia, the United States, Canada) battles with the opposing central powers (Germany, Austria - Hungary, Italy, Turkey) but few know that 1.38 million men from India were also sent to various theatres of war. As many as seven Indian expeditionary forces fought battles far from home. Whether it was the damp, flat fields of Flanders or the burning sands of Mesopotamia, the rocky, cold and windy hills of Gallipoli or unhealthy uplands and stifling jungles of East Africa, Indian soldiers left indelible imprints of their heroism, winning world-wide acclaim. For the first time, this book fills in the abysmal gap in the records of the war. Drawn from archives, regimental histories and other sources, this book tells the story of the tremendous contribution of the Indian corps to the victory of the allied forces.
Honour and Fidelity
Author: Amarinder SinghPublisher: Roli Books
ISBN: 9788174369888
Category : World War, 1914-1918
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The First World War is tremendously significant to India's history. Largely considered a European war, it actually involved the participation of more than a hundred countries, allowing for it to be also known as, The Great War. In 1914, it was thought by Indian political leaders, that offering support to the British would further the cause of India's independence. Accordingly, Indian soldiers were sent to fight alongside the British in Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), Egypt, Palestine, France, Aden, Belgium, East Africa, Gallipoli and Salonika. About twenty-five princely states contributed over 26,000 combatants. The Dalai Lama offered his support through Tibetan troops, and Gurkhas were deployed from Nepal as well. They accompanied Britain's soldiers in the artillery, cavalry, infantry, engineers, signals service, sappers, and miners, arms of the army. Indian services to Britain extended to the Royal Navy as well as the Queen Alexandra's Imperial Military Nursing Service. Indian troops who fought in Europe, had stepped outside their homeland, across the kala pani, for the first time. The sophistication of the artillery used abroad, required remarkable adaptation on the part of the soldiers. The drastically different landscape and colder weather was a shock as well. Socially too, they felt displaced among the Europeans, with their vastly different cultures and mannerisms. This was a very new scenario for Indian men; to fight side-by-side the people who were their colonizers back home. Though the Indian combatants received care matching their British counterparts, a close eye was kept on their outings, making them feel trapped. The entire experience of fighting overseas was culturally alienating for many Indians, as mentioned in their letters home, which were also often subject to military censorship. Though mentally ill equipped to deal with an emotional and physical relocation as vast as this, Indian soldiers fought valiantly. Inder Singh, in a letter back home from the Somme in September 1916, wrote, 'It is quite impossible that I should return alive. [But] don't be grieved at my death, because I shall die arms in hand, wearing the warrior's clothes. This is the most happy death that anyone can die'. By the end of the war, about 60,000 troops from India had fought for Britain. Eleven Victoria Crosses were awarded and over 13,000 gallantry medals were earned. Despite India backing it s efforts during the Great War, Britain s denial to grant India independence, created conflict and unrest among Indians, leading to the beginning of the uprising for independence. The author, Captain Amarinder Singh is himself a product of the Indian army. He served as ADC to the GOC-in-C, Western Command, during the 1965 war with Pakistan. A published military historian, he painstakingly retraces the footsteps of the Indian battalions during the First World War, using official battle details, war diaries, and maps.
Loyalty & Honour
Author: Chris KemptonPublisher:
ISBN: 9780854202485
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
Book Description
The Indian Army in the Two World Wars
Author: Kaushik RoyPublisher: BRILL
ISBN: 900418550X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 579
Book Description
This collection of seventeen essays based on archival data breaks new ground as regards the contribution of the Indian Army in British war effort during the two World Wars around various parts of the globe.
Indianization, the Officer Corps, and the Indian Army
Author: Chandar S. SundaramPublisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1498579523
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 284
Book Description
The decision by the British Raj in 1917 to permit Indians into the Indian Army's officer corps was a key turning point in modern South Asian military history. This book analyzes the political, military, and ideological factors in the forgotten hundred-year-long debate culminating in this ruling.
The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army
Author: Raymond A. Callahan Publisher: University Press of Kansas
ISBN: 0700630414
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 296
Book Description
In 1945, the Indian British XIV Army inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma the worst defeat in its history. That campaign, the most brilliant and original operational maneuver conducted by any British general in the twentieth century, largely forgotten until now, is a full and fresh account utilizing a full range of materials, from personal accounts to archival holdings—including the bits the official historians left out, such as the attempt by a jealous British Guards officer to have Slim sacked at the conclusion of the campaign. After the retreat from Burma in 1942, Lieutenant General Sir William Slim, commander of the British XIV Army, played a crucial role in the remarkable military renaissance that transformed the Indian Army and then, with that reborn army, won two defensive battles in 1944, and in the 1945 campaign shredded his Japanese opponents. Behind this dramatic story was another: the war marked the effective end of the Raj. This great transformation was, of course, brought about by many factors but not the least of them was the “Indianization” of the Indian Army’s officer corps under the pressure of war. As Slim’s great victory signposted the change from the army Kipling knew to a modern army with a growing number of Indian officers, the praetorian guard of the Raj evaporated. “Every Indian officer worth his salt is a nationalist,” the Indian Army’s commander-in-chief, Claude Auchinleck, said as the XIV Army took Rangoon. The Burma campaign may not have contributed in a major fashion to the final defeat of Japan, but it was of first-rate importance in the transformation of South Asia, as well as underlining the continuing importance of inspired leadership in complex human endeavors.
The British Indian Army
Author: Rob JohnsonPublisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1443862851
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 230
Book Description
The British Indian Army was a distinctive phenomenon, a curious combination of Western imperial and South Asian military cultures. It was first and foremost a military instrument for garrison duties, but it was rarely used in internal security and most of its history is concerned with expeditionary wars. While the British regarded the Indian Army as a source of pride and a vital source of imperial manpower, it was not a simple case of exploitation of local indigenous labour by an indifferent colonial system, but rather an evolving and often imperfect partnership, with shared identities, varying degrees of proficiency, and a particular ethos. The Indian Army was transformed under British direction, and arguably enjoyed its greatest triumph in defeating Imperial Japan in 1945. Paradoxically, at the same time, the Indian Armed Forces were also the most potent vehicles for the concept of a free and independent India. This new edited work is a selection of the Indian army’s long history of development and modernisation, drawing out themes such as leadership, discipline, racial categorisation, mechanisation, and operational performance. It ranges from the campaigns of the eighteenth century to the agonized decisions to break up the old army between the new nations of South Asia. Chapters also cover the operations in Afghanistan, Persia and China in the nineteenth century; the gruelling conditions of Mesopotamia and Gallipoli in the First World War; auxiliaries on the North West Frontier; ambiguities over internal security in the Inter-War Years; air power and armoured warfare; the paradoxes of race; and operations in Malaya during the army's nadir in 1941–42. The collection represents renewed interest in the Indian armed forces during the British period and offers a wide range of themes for consideration.