
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
In 1940s India, revolutionary and nationalistic feeling surged against colonial subjecthood and imperial war. Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British during the Second World War, while 3 million civilians were killed by the war-induced Bengal Famine, and Indian National Army soldiers fought against the British for Indian independence. This captivating new history shines a spotlight on emotions as a way of unearthing these troubled and contested experiences, exposing the personal as political.
Diya Gupta draws upon photographs, letters, memoirs, novels, poetry and philosophical essays, in both English and Bengali languages, to weave a compelling tapestry of emotions felt by Indians in service and at home during the war. She brings to life an unknown sepoy in the Middle East yearning for home, and anti-fascist activist Tara Ali Baig; a disillusioned doctor on the Burma frontline, and Sukanta Bhattacharya’s modernist poetry of hunger; Mulk Raj Anand’s revolutionary home front, and Rabindranath Tagore’s critique of civilisation.
This vivid book recovers a truly global history of the Second World War, revealing the crucial importance of cultural approaches in challenging a traditional focus on the wartime experiences of European populations. Seen through Indian eyes, this conflict is no longer the ‘good’ war.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Dedication
- Photos
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: âVâ for Victory?
- 1. âThe Thing That Was Lostâ: Re-Conceptualising Home in Indian Life-Writing
- 2. âEvery Day I Witness Nightmaresâ: Hunger and the Homeland
- 3. âClose to Me as My Very Own Brotherâ: Male Friendships in Indian War Writing
- 4. âAn Anguished Heartâ: Witnessing the Indian Home-Front
- 5. âCrisis in Civilisationâ: How Poetry Becomes Testimony
- Afterword
- Notes
- Works Cited
- Index
- Back Cover