Hira Singh. When India came to Fight in Flanders

by Talbot Mundy

Serialized in Adventure magazine, October 18 - December 3, 1917
First book edition published by Bobbs-Merrill, Indianapolis, 1918

Genres: Nonfiction

308 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1917

About the author

Talbot Mundy (born William Lancaster Gribbon) was an English-born American writer of adventure fiction. Based for most of his life in the United States, he also wrote under the pseudonym of Walter Galt. Best known as the author of King of the Khyber Rifles and the Jimgrim series, much of his work was published in pulp magazines.

Reviews

[Madhulika Liddle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Talbot Mundy's Hira Singh: When India Came to Fight in Flanders is told as a first-person narrative by a Sikh cavalryman who is recuperating at a camp in India. Hira Singh, talking to an American journalist, tells of how he, along with his regiment, was sent to Europe (to Flanders) to fight during the Great War. The major of the troop, Ranjoor Singh, is an enigmatic man whom most of the men of the regiment (including Hira Singh himself) believe to be a traitor. When Ranjoor Singh gets his men to surrender to the Germans, it seems as if their worst fears have come true.

I began reading this book in the hope that I'd learn a bit more about the thousands of Indians who fought overseas during the war, men who mostly go overlooked, even in the history of India itself. But no, while Hira Singh begins with them going to Flanders, the scene soon shifts, taking the regiment eastward. The war ends up being a backdrop to some confusing adventures as the troop goes very far from Flanders, and seemingly completely on Ranjoor Singh's initiative, orders, and whims.

I didn't like this book. Ranjoor Singh's mysterious behaviour was odd, and I couldn't see any reason for it. The machinations, the adventures, the hectic travelling and fighting and parleying: why, really, did it all happen, and what was the motivation for it? Plus, who was up there at some military headquarters, sending orders for this regiment to follow? This was war, dammit, it wouldn't have been easy for a regiment to simply wander off wherever it wished. Or wherever Ranjoor Singh wished, it seems.

What's more, the characters just didn't work for me. I got the impression that Ranjoor Singh and Hira Singh were modelled on some idealistic notion of the perfect Sikh warrior (and his sidekick, respectively) without much else. They, as well as the nasty Gooja Singh, are all pretty one-dimensional figures (the only Westerner who has an important part is Tugendheim, and he is relatively interesting--which goes to show).

Very ho-hum.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a difficult book to rate. It’s a fictional book with dated dialogue and the action doesn’t really kick in until almost halfway through, but it focuses on a Sikh troop captured by the Germans in WWI. This is a hugely underrepresented group in the history of WWI. One in 6 troops in the forces of the British Empire were from India and even though Sikhs were (and still are) a fairly small part of the population 33% of the troops from India were Sikhs. So this book can be frustrating to read sometimes but worth it IF it’s used as a supplement or starting point for real history.

[Simpreet Kaur · Rating 4 out of 5]

A thriller about the adventures of a Sikh regiment from the time of World War 1. This book was penned by the author about a 100 years ago. Those two sentences are just enough to pique the interest of anyone interested in history. You don't really hear about the Indian contributions to both the World Wars, there were about a million soldiers from British India during WW1 and statistics put the number of lost lives at about 75,000. These soldiers were pretty much forgotten by the western world and it seems even the Indian historians forgot about it. We know so little about these brave soldiers who fought various battles in Europe (France and Belgium), Turkey, Afghanistan, Mesopotamia, Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Sinai. Most of these soldiers were Sikhs.

Now back tot he book, the author himself has a pretty interesting life story- runaway kid from England, travels across India, Africa and the Middle East and writes a bunch of books, mostly adventure thrillers. This book being one of them. The story takes you on the adventures of a Sikh regiment that gets captured in Belgium by the Germans and their journey to the British post in Afghanistan via Turkey. I won't put any spoilers in this review, the main characters Ranjoor Singh, a clever, strategic leader leading his troops outwitting his opponents while upholding the principles of Sikh faith and the narrator of the story, Hira Singh, a Sergeant under Ranjoor Singh takes you back in time and you hear all the shelling, feel the cold bunkers, see the grey days of war and feel the quiet efficiency of the Germans, the plight of the Armenians dying at the hands of the brutish Turkish soldiers. But most of all, you get to feel what the typical Indian soldier went through while fighting in a war which was not his own but he still fought because of the valor in his heart, for want of respect and to earn a hard living.

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a sequel of sorts to The Winds Of The World, detailing the adventures of Ranjoor Singh, Hira Singh, and the other members of Outram's Own regiment in the First World War. Supposedly it was based on true events, but in doing a bit of research when I first began the book, I discovered that the author's preface (which claimed the story was based on actual Army reports) was actually added for the American market.

But even though this was "merely" a novel after all, it was still a cracking good one, and highlighted the participation of Sikh soldiers in WWI, which has been an under-appreciated subject, from what I read in my research. I hope to find more books on that subject.

This was not as much of a breathless page turner as other Mundy books I have read: there was more thinking going on, especially with nearly the entire book concerned with the loyalty or lack thereof of Ranjoor Singh, and whether or not he would prove to be true to The Empire. Obviously he represented India and the concerns about that country's attitude at this particular point in history.

I did enjoy the book but I could not call it amazing, because I had come to expect a different type of adventure from Mundy, therefore it did not get that 5th star. But I recommend it for anyone interested in WWI and India.....and the final few paragraphs would bring a proud tear to anyone's eyes.

[Carolyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful story of courage and adversity with a good element of espionage as well. The characters are well developed and the settings beautifuuly described. A little jewel of a book.