Download or read book Brown Warriors of the Raj written by Kaushik Roy and published by Manohar Publishers. This book was released on 2008 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Sepoy Army was one of the pivots of Britain's overseas empire. After 1857, this army policed the subcontinent as well as Britain's extra-Indian overseas possessions. The importance of the Sepoy Army for the Raj could be gleaned from the fact that it consumed about 30 per cent of the government's revenue. For the colonised also, the colonial army was one of the largest government employers in India. Nevertheless, it remains an underdog both in Indian and the British-Imperial historiography. This volume focuses on recruitment and the mechanics of command. It attempts to answer pertinent questions like: who were recruited and why, how the recruits were conditioned into soldiers, etc. Recruitment was the product of two opposing ideologies: the Martial Race ideology and the Anti-Martial Race ideology. The Sepoy Army was the largest volunteer army in the world. The Indians joined the army and remained loyal to it mostly because of a host of tangible and intangible incentives offered to the soldiers and institutionalisation of the coercive apparatus by the British command. The Study begins at 1859 and ends at 1913. This is because after the 1857 Uprising, the Bengal Army experienced a sea change in its organisation and social architecture. And again, 1914 constituted a break since the army went through a fivefold expansion. The author attempts a cross-cultural comparative analysis with other armies in order to flesh out the specificity of the Sepoy Army. This much awaited study is invaluable for scholars of military and modern Indian history.

Download or read book Citizen Soldiers and the British Empire 1837 1902 written by Ian F W Beckett and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British amateur military tradition of raising auxiliary forces for home defence long preceded the establishment of a standing army. This was a model that was widely emulated in British colonies. This volume of essays seeks to examine the role of citizen soldiers in Britain and its empire during the Victorian period.

Download or read book The Army in British India written by Kaushik Roy and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New interpretations of the Indian army of the Raj.

Download or read book The British Indian Army written by Rob Johnson and published by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. This book was released on 2014-06-26 with total page 230 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book True to Their Salt written by Robert Johnson and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the last decade an Iraqi Army and an Afghan National Army were created entirely from scratch, the founding of which was deemed to be a crucial measure for the establishment of security and the withdrawal of Western forces from Iraq and Afghanistan. Raising new armies is always problematic, especially during an insurgency, but doing so outside the sovereignty of one's own state raises questions of legality, concerns about their conduct and the risk of an over-empowered local military. The recruitment of proxies, including former insurgents, or the arming of local fighters and auxiliaries, levies and militias, may also exacerbate an internal security situation. In seeking answers to this conundrum Robert Johnson turns to history. His book sets out how recruitment of local auxiliaries was an essential component of European colonialism, and how, in the transfer of power and security at the end of that colonial era, the raising of local forces using existing Western models became the norm. He then offers a comprehensive survey of the post-colonial legacy, particularly the recent utilization of surrogates and auxiliaries, the work of embedded training teams, and mentoring.

Download or read book The British Empire and the First World War written by Ashley Jackson and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-06-26 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The British Empire played a crucial part in the First World War, supplying hundreds of thousands of soldiers and labourers as well as a range of essential resources, from foodstuffs to minerals, mules, and munitions. In turn, many imperial territories were deeply affected by wartime phenomena, such as inflation, food shortages, combat, and the presence of large numbers of foreign troops. This collection offers a comprehensive selection of essays illuminating the extent of the Empire’s war contribution and experience, and the richness of scholarly research on the subject. Whether supporting British military operations, aiding the British imperial economy, or experiencing significant wartime effects on the home fronts of the Empire, the war had a profound impact on the colonies and their people. The chapters in this volume were originally published in Australian Historical Studies, The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History, First World War Studies or The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs.

Download or read book From Policemen to Revolutionaries A Sikh Diaspora in Global Shanghai 1885 1945 written by Yin Cao and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In From Policemen to Revolutionaries, Yin Cao elaborates the rise and fall of the Sikh community in Shanghai by the turn of the twentieth century.

Download or read book The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars written by Gajendra Singh and published by A&C Black. This book was released on 2014-01-16 with total page 245 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the two World Wars, hundreds of thousands of Indian sepoys were mobilized, recruited and shipped overseas to fight for the British Crown. The Indian Army was the chief Imperial reserve for an empire under threat. But how did those sepoys understand and explain their own war experiences and indeed themselves through that experience? How much did their testimonies realise and reflect their own fragmented identities as both colonial subjects and imperial policemen? The Testimonies of Indian Soldiers and the Two World Wars draws upon the accounts of Indian combatants to explore how they came to terms with the conflicts. In thematic chapters, Gajendra Singh traces the evolution of military identities under the British Raj and considers how those identities became embattled in the praxis of soldiers' war testimonies – chiefly letters, depositions and interrogations. It becomes a story of mutiny and obedience; of horror, loss and silence. This book tells that story and is an important contribution to histories of the British Empire, South Asia and the two World Wars.

Download or read book The Indian Army in the Two World Wars written by and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2011-10-14 with total page 578 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Soldiers of Empire written by Tarak Barkawi and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-27 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How are soldiers made? Why do they fight? Re-imagining the study of armed forces and society, Barkawi examines the imperial and multinational armies that fought in Asia in the Second World War, especially the British Indian army in the Burma campaign. Going beyond conventional narratives, Barkawi studies soldiers in transnational context, from recruitment and training to combat and memory. Drawing on history, sociology and anthropology, the book critiques the 'Western way of war' from a postcolonial perspective. Barkawi reconceives soldiers as cosmopolitan, their battles irreducible to the national histories that monopolise them. This book will appeal to those interested in the Second World War, armed forces and the British Empire, and students and scholars of military sociology and history, South Asian studies and international relations.

Download or read book The Imperial Army Project written by Douglas E. Delaney and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-01-25 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did British authorities manage to secure the commitment of large dominion and Indian armies that could plan, fight, shoot, communicate, and sustain themselves, in concert with the British Army and with each other, during the era of the two world wars? What did the British want from the dominion and Indian armies and how did they go about trying to get it? Douglas E Delaney seeks to answer these questions to understand whether the imperial army project was successful. Answering these questions requires a long-term perspective — one that begins with efforts to fix the armies of the British Empire in the aftermath of their desultory performance in South Africa (1899-1903) and follows through to the high point of imperial military cooperation during the Second World War. Based on multi-archival research conducted in six different countries, on four continents, Delaney argues that the military compatibility of the British Empire armies was the product of a deliberate and enduring imperial army project, one that aimed at standardizing and piecing together the armies of the empire, while, at the same time, accommodating the burgeoning autonomy of the dominions and even India. At its core, this book is really about how a military coalition worked.

Download or read book Islam and the Army in Colonial India written by Nile Green and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2009-05-14 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in Hyderabad in the mid-nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this book, a study of the cultural world of the Muslim soldiers of colonial India, focuses on the soldiers' relationships with the faqir holy men who protected them and the British officers they served. Drawing on Urdu as well as European sources, the book uses the biographies of Muslim holy men and their military followers to recreate the extraordinary encounter between a barracks culture of miracle stories, carnivals, drug-use and madness with a colonial culture of mutiny memoirs, Evangelicalism, magistrates and the asylum. It explores the ways in which the colonial army helped promote this sepoy religion while at the same time attempting to control and suppress certain aspects of it. The book brings to light the existence of a distinct 'barracks Islam' and shows its importance to the cultural no less than the military history of colonial India.

Download or read book Indian Army and the First World War written by Kaushik Roy and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-06-29 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Accustomed to conducting low-intensity warfare before 1914, the Indian Army learnt to engage in high-intensity conventional warfare during the course of World War I, thereby exhibiting a steep learning curve. Being the bulwark of the British Empire in South Asia, the ‘brown warriors’ of the Raj functioned as an imperial fire brigade during the war. Studying the Indian Army as an institution during the war, Kaushik Roy delineates its social, cultural, and organizational aspects to understand its role in the scheme of British imperial projects. Focusing not just on ‘history from above’ but also ‘history from below’, Roy analyses the experiences of common soldiers and not just those of the high command. Moreover, since society, along with the army, was mobilized to provide military and non-military support, this volume sheds light on the repercussions of this mass mobilization on the structure of British rule in South Asia. Using rare archival materials, published autobiographies, and diaries, Roy’s work offers a holistic analysis of the military performance of the Indian Army in major theatres during the war.

Download or read book Approaches to History written by Sabyasachi Bhattacharya and published by Primus Books. This book was released on 2011 with total page 377 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: History as a social science is arguably more self-reflective than associated disciplines in that family. Other social scientists seem to see little reason to look beyond the paradigm they are developing in the present times. Historians on the other hand, tend to depend on the cumulative process of the development of their craft and the fund of accumulated knowledge. Yet, while this is acknowledged in the practice of research, Historiography in itself as a subject of study has rarely found its place in the syllabi of Indian universities. Knowledge of Historiography is taken for granted when a scholar plunges into research. In an attempt to address this lacuna, the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) has planned a series of volumes on Historiography comprising articles by subject specialists commissioned by the ICHR. The first volume in the series, Approaches to History: Essays in Indian Historiography brings to the readers the first fruits of that endeavour. While the essays encompass areas of research presently at the frontiers of new research, scholars will also find the bibliographies accompanying the essays of significant appeal.

Download or read book Culture Conflict and the Military in Colonial South Asia written by Kaushik Roy and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2017-08-25 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book offers diverse and original perspectives on South Asia’s imperial military history. Unlike prevailing studies, the chapters in the volume emphasize both the vital role of culture in framing imperial military practice and the multiple cultural effects of colonial military service and engagements. The volume spans from the early East India Company period through to the Second World War and India’s independence, exploring themes such as the military in the field and at leisure, as well as examining the effects of imperial deployments in South Asia and across the British Empire. Drawing extensively on new archival research, the book integrates previously disparate accounts of imperial military history and raises new questions about culture and operational practice in the colonial Indian Army. This work will be of interest to scholars and researchers of modern South Asian history, war and strategic studies, military history, the British Empire, as well as politics and international relations.

Download or read book Military Manpower Armies and Warfare in South Asia written by Kaushik Roy and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Roy investigates the various factors that influenced the formation and mobilization of military forces in the region from 300 BC to the modern day.

Download or read book The Aeroplane and the Making of Modern India written by Aashique Ahmed Iqbal and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-16 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Tracing the Indian state's engagement with aviation, both civil and military, from the Second World War to the nationalization of airlines in 1953, this book argues that aviation played a critical role in state formation in modern South Asia.