World War II was a global catastrophe. Far broader than just the critical struggle between Allies and Axis, its ramifications were felt throughout the world. It was a time of social relocation, reorienting ideas of patriotism and geographical attachment, and forcing the movement of people across oceans and continents. In India at War, Yasmin Khan offers an account of India's role in the conflict, one that takes into consideration the social, economic, and cultural changes that occurred in South Asia between 1939 and 1945-and reveals how vital the Commonwealth's contribution was to the war effort.
Khan's sweeping work centers on the lives of ordinary Indian people, exploring the ways they were affected by a cataclysmic war with origins far beyond Indian shores. In manpower alone, India's contribution was staggering; it produced the largest volunteer army in world history, with 2.5 million men. Indians were engaged in making the raw materials and food stuffs needed by the Allies, and became involved in the construction of airstrips, barracks, hospitals, internee camps, roads and railways. Their lives were also profoundly affected by the presence of the large Allied army in the region, including not only British but American, African, and Chinese troops. Madras was bombed by the Japanese and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands were occupied, while the Bengal famine of 1943-in which perhaps three million Bengalis died-was a man-made disaster precipitated by the effects of the war.
This authoritative account offers a critically important look at the contributions of colonial manpower and resources essential to sustaining the war, and emphasizes the significant ways in which the conflict shaped modern India.
ISBN-13: 9780199753499
Media Type: Hardcover
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication Date: 10-08-2015
Pages: 432
Product Dimensions: 6.20(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.50(d)
Yasmin Khan is an Associate Professor of History at the University of Oxford and a Fellow of Kellogg College. Her first book, The Great Partition: The Making of India and Pakistan, won the Gladstone Prize for History from the Royal Historical Society.
Table of Contents
Prologue
1. An Empire Committed
2. Peasants into Soldiers
3. Into the Middle East and North Africa
4. Free and Willing Human Beings
5. Not a Paisa, Not a Man
6. Bombed to Hell
7. Money Coming, Money Coming
8. An Empire Exposed
9. Urban Panic
10. The World at the Door
11. Thirty Months Too Late
12. Welcome to Bombay
13. Plantations and Paddyfields
14. Living Dangerously
15. Scorched Earth
16. The Cogs in a Watch
17. Longing and Loss
18. Catalyst of Change
19. Man-a-Mile Road
20. Insults and Discriminations
21. Empires, Lost and Found
22. Celebrations and Recriminations
23. The Sepoy's Return
Chronology of Major Events
List of Illustrations
List of Maps
List of Abbreviations
Glossary
Note on Sources
Acknowledgements
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index
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