BOOK
REVIEW
TITLE:
THE INDIAN EMPIRE AT WAR-from Jihad to victory-The untold story of the Indian
Army in the First World War
AUTHOR:
GEORGE MORTON-JACK
PUBLISHER:
LITTLE BROWN, HACHETTE INDIA, 2018
PRICE:
Rs. 699/-
Indians
Fighting For The Empire
For the strapping, if illiterate, peasants from the “martial
races” recruited into the Indian Army it meant a salary plus additional
allowances for overseas posting, and fifty acres of “irrigated land” that no
money-lender could usurp, plus an “inheritable pension” on retirement. For
those who joined up voluntarily during the First World War that ended a century
ago in 2018, it was fit occupation for men who liked being soldiers.
Indians who joined as sepoys were not promoted to the King’s
Commission then. They could never be officers commanding British and Indian
troops alike, but enjoyed native ranks like Jemadar, Subedar, and internal
promotions instead. Nor did they enjoy equivalent pay or facilities of White soldiers, though in the European
theatre they were well fed and cared for. This included excellent medical treatment
and hospitalisation if injured.
And yet, did the Indians fight, a half million strong at
1918, bravely and with zeal, for the Empire? Yes, and in theatres as widespread
as France/Germany and British interests in Africa and Iraq. A number of Indians
won Victoria Crosses, the highest award for valour, just like the European
soldiers in the Great War, and not all of them posthumously either.
Politically, the Indian nationalists decided to back the
British war effort without reservation in the expectation of concessions
towards Indian “self-government” in line with the White colonies of Australia and
Canada that enjoyed “Dominion status”.
Instead, there was an extension of the Defence of India Act
of 1915, with its “powers to detain without proof and sentence to death without
appeal”. And it was soon after the war, in April 1919, that the infamous
Jallianwala Bagh massacre took place. The British betrayal was acutely felt and
sharpened the move towards independence.
In terms of anti-British activity in the period under review
- mutinies, murders, desertions - provoked by British high-handedness, the lead
belonged not to the subjects of British India or the Princely States, but to
the “independent Pukhtun tribal areas of Waziristan”.
The Mahsud and Afridi
tribes resisted the British always, and with considerable success, irrespective
of whether they joined their Army, or raided their positions in British India.
Indeed, author George Morton-Jack dwells on the
preoccupation the British had with Muslim sentiment as they confronted the “Sick
man of Europe” or the “Ottoman Empire”. This mainly because Turkey was the
custodian of Mecca, and how the Muslim of British India would react to fighting
against the Sultan of Turkey and the Caliph, was an issue of the greatest
concern. As it turned out, there were
isolated outbreaks of Islamic fervour against British imperialism, but these
were easily contained. For the most part, the Indian Muslim had no real problem
fighting against the “other” Muslim or anyone else their officers indicated.
The genesis of the extensive use of independent India’s
armed forces for UN Peace Keeping activities may have its origins in the lead
up to WWI, during it, and its aftermath, when the British found themselves with
27% more territory, quite a lot of it in West Asia, which they intended to hang
on to. The British Indian Army was used extensively for this purpose too, and
post 1918.
The Great War also went some way to advance the cause of
racial equality as heavy losses, particularly in Europe, prompted the Allies to
lay less stress of the ‘colour-bar”.
The civilians of France treated the Indian soldiers with
great kindness and as “Liberators” from the German yoke, and opened their eyes
to democratic notions of liberty, equality and fraternity. Many were able to
comprehend for the first time the demands of a new nationalism that would have
to exclude the British in the end.
The Germans, of course, wanted to provoke a Jihad amongst
the Muslim Indian troops and dropped leaflets into the trenches they occupied.
While conditions in the Indian front in France were bad at first, the British
countered with a massive increase in “logistical support” and “unprecedented
quantities of food”.
Top leadership, at least till 1916, such as Kichener,
Willcocks,and medical care head Walter Lawrence were all distinguished old
India hands, familiar with the manners and mores of their charges.
Things were a lot meaner in the West Asian theatre. The
infamous Mesopotamia Report put the finger on the Viceroy Charles Hardinge and Commander-in-Chief in
India Beauchamp Duff for grave lapse that had thousands of Indian soldiers
perishing in pitiable circumstances. It received a lot of media play and debate
in parliament at Westminster. Rudyard Kipling, the celebrated author and poet
of the Raj took up for the slaughtered Indian soldiers. He asked for those responsible
for the British defeats in Iraq, the mismanagement and neglect, to be pilloried
and punished.
And yet, there was a mood amongst the top Allied Military
Brass as the war dragged on, to use the Indians for front-line action in various
theatres on a relentless basis. It even claimed British Indian Army General
James Willcocks’ job, as his superior Douglas Haig ,did not think much of his
efforts to shield his Indian troops from attrition and casualties. Willcocks became
persona non grata in the War Office after being fired by Haig,
and could only get a job as the Governor of Bermuda thereafter. The old style caring and
nurturing of troops that Willcocks practiced was replaced by a more ruthlessly “scientific”
approach.
And then, there were the uneven regulations. Apart from
much lesser pay than their European counterparts, when an Indian was
invalidated he had to return to the front after recovery. The option to retire
and return to his country after being injured or wounded was denied him. Only
European troops enjoyed this privilege.
This book, one for the war history buff as much as the
general reader, travels year by year from 1914 to 1918 with a masterful account.
It follows the ups and downs of military strategy and tactics, the dramatis personae, and the sheer blood
loss of trench warfare. The European
theatre, particularly the Battle of the Somme, was priority number one, but
Indian troops were sent to a number of lesser strategic spots around the globe
simultaneously. Recently, Israel made special mention of Indian troops in
connection with the liberation of Haifa.
The so called “War to end all Wars” was not successful,
despite its millions in war dead. But it certainly made an international
fighting force of the Indian soldier and added to the regimental histories of
many Indian formations that survive to the present day.
(1,082
words)
For:
The Sunday Pioneer, AGENDA, BOOKS
January
4th, 2019
Gautam
Mukherjee
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