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Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War
The photographs of three young men had stood in his grandmother’s house for as long as he could remember, beheld but never fully noticed. They had all fought in the Second World War, a fact that surprised him. Indians had never figured in his idea of the war, nor the war in his idea of India. One of them, Bobby, even looked a bit like him, but Raghu Karnad had not noticed until he was the same age as they were in their photo frames. Then he learned about the Parsi boy from the sleepy south Indian coast, so eager to follow his brothers-in-law into the colonial forces and onto the front line. Manek, dashing and confident, was a pilot with India’s fledgling air force; gentle Ganny became an army doctor in the arid North-West Frontier. Bobby’s pursuit would carry him as far as the deserts of Iraq and the green hell of the Burma battlefront.
The years 1939–45 might be the most revered, deplored, and replayed in modern history. Yet India’s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself and from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family—a story of love, rebellion, loyalty, and uncertainty—and with it, the greater revelation that is India’s Second World War.
Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India’s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma—unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence.
The years 1939–45 might be the most revered, deplored, and replayed in modern history. Yet India’s extraordinary role has been concealed, from itself and from the world. In riveting prose, Karnad retrieves the story of a single family—a story of love, rebellion, loyalty, and uncertainty—and with it, the greater revelation that is India’s Second World War.
Farthest Field narrates the lost epic of India’s war, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire, even as its countrymen fought to be free of it. It carries us from Madras to Peshawar, Egypt to Burma—unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence.
320 pages, Paperback
First published June 4, 2015
120 people are currently reading
2075 people want to read
About the author
Raghu Karnad
2 books44 followersRaghu Karnad is an award-winning writer and journalist who lives between Bangalore and New Delhi, India. His essay detailing the origins of this book was described by Simon Schama as “nothing short of brilliant.” Farthest Field is his first book.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 107 reviews
March 28, 2019
Quite a dry read and overrated. This book lacks emotion. I didn't enjoy it at all.
August 7, 2023
Farthest Field (2015) is a personal story of the author’s family, but also a much broader story of a rarely talked of facet of India’s history—the Indians who served and laid down their lives in the Second World War. Around two and a half million Indians were part of the armed forces, and 36,000 lost their lives with a further 64,000 wounded in the Second World War, having fought in places ranging from Malaya to Africa to Iraq and even in the Northeast of India, with some of these soldiers being involved in nightmarish battles, pushing them beyond every conceivable limit.
The author begins his story, tracing some faces from old photographs in his grandmother’s home— faces he had grown to know all his life but never thought to ask about until it was too late, for once his grandmother had passed away, who could tell of them. But he does nonetheless inquire, and thus begins this tale with a wealthy Parsi (Zoroastrian) family settled in the south of the country, in Calicut, and around a branch headed by Khodadad Mugaseth. He and his wife Tehmima had four children, three girls and a boy, and it is them whom we follow on this journey. Though born to an orthodox father, of the three girls who went on to pursue different branches of study, two, Subur and Nurgesh (or Nugs, the author’s grandmother) married outside their religion bringing disappointment and heartbreak to their father. The third, Kosh (Khorshed) married a young Parsi, Manek. It was Manek, Nurgesh’s husband Ganny, and Bobby (the only son of the Mugaseths, and the girls’ brother) who went on to serve in the war. Manek joins the airforce, Ganny who like Nurgesh had trained as a doctor in the medical corps, and Bobby trained as an engineer in that capacity. While we primarily follow Bobby who went with his unit to Iraq but eventually returned to fight in the India’s northeast where the war saw its worst face within the country, we also trace Manek’s journey to the Northeast and Northwest, and Ganny who was posted to Thal (today in Pakistan). As we learn their stories, we also come across others they met and served alongside, some suffering the worst conditions—exhaustion, starvation, disease, sleep-deprivation and danger, all the while continuing to hold fort and fight, and who even though fighting for the British Indian Army did defend the country against what could have been as bad or worse a fate than the colonial rule it was at the time under.
Farthest Field straddles the territory between fiction and nonfiction in that while it is based on what the author gathered from his research and he has as far as I understand not fictionalised any scenarios, the events themselves are described somewhat as a story plays out, describing possible feelings and fears, actions and reactions. His characters are people all but forgotten about whom precious little information is available and what he has gathered is both from the few written accounts touching on them or the incidents and places they were present at, or speaking to those who knew them at the time. While this wasn’t a long book (243 pages minus endnotes, which I did read), it took me the better part of a week to read, but while I was reading, at no time did it feel dragging or slow moving. We mostly follow a linear set of events (with gaps of course), with chapters switching between places and characters we are being told of, with a few chapters going back in time to give us accounts of those we meet along the way.
This is a book about the war so one has of course to be prepared for the sheer devastation of it; there are lives lost, injuries, horrific conditions, and cruelties but also alongside calm periods (‘phoney war’ of a sort, where there is just waiting and more of it). There is at least one nightmarish battle we find ourselves right in the midst of, and it was a hard one to read about—once again bringing to mind that eternal question of why we need to have such situations at all where so many innocents from either side must bear the level of tortures that they do, just to satisfy others quests for power (and dare I say egos). And it is not the battles alone that bring up these heartrending scenarios but also events that unfolded alongside like the great Bengal Famine that left millions starving and led to terrible loss of life (Churchill had callously declared that only those Indians who contributed to the war need be fed).
The book was for me eye-opening in many ways, because this was a period and set of events I knew little of (our history lessons never did touch on them being more concerned with the freedom struggle that was also taking place at the time). I had no idea for instance of the terrible battle fought on that northeastern frontier, by an army which even amidst the fight realised it was forgotten, or that the threat of war had reached so close to Madras even if it didn’t ever fully break. A lighter bit of information was how at the time wireless stations in Iraq and Iran (Baghdad and Tehran) broadcasted in many Indian languages and newspapers and films in Indian languages too were circulated. Colonials and colonised fought side-by-side but many a time the latter paid a heavier price. Unsurprisingly there was also plenty of racism and resistance to Indians ever being given any positions of command or rank even though they eventually were given both.
A worse trigger for me (than the war scenes), and one which calling heartbreaking would be an understatement were the parts that dealt with the animals who were used in the war efforts. While the mules and indeed elephants were much loved by the men who used them, it did in no way make up for the true horrors they were put through—lives in a much worse situation than the innocent young men, for these couldn’t have even understood why they had to undergo what they did. Give whatever justification you will, but I can only come away with tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat and a lot of anger in my heart (plus an even lower opinion of human beings, if there could be that) reading and even thinking of it as I write.
While this was a book that did take time to read and did get me emotional on more than one count, I was still very glad I read it since it has definitely given me a look into a part of my country’s history I knew little about, and left me wanting to read more (though of course only when I am up for it).
[p.s. I did enjoy coming across several people from public life one knows of in other capacities and historical figures as well]
The author begins his story, tracing some faces from old photographs in his grandmother’s home— faces he had grown to know all his life but never thought to ask about until it was too late, for once his grandmother had passed away, who could tell of them. But he does nonetheless inquire, and thus begins this tale with a wealthy Parsi (Zoroastrian) family settled in the south of the country, in Calicut, and around a branch headed by Khodadad Mugaseth. He and his wife Tehmima had four children, three girls and a boy, and it is them whom we follow on this journey. Though born to an orthodox father, of the three girls who went on to pursue different branches of study, two, Subur and Nurgesh (or Nugs, the author’s grandmother) married outside their religion bringing disappointment and heartbreak to their father. The third, Kosh (Khorshed) married a young Parsi, Manek. It was Manek, Nurgesh’s husband Ganny, and Bobby (the only son of the Mugaseths, and the girls’ brother) who went on to serve in the war. Manek joins the airforce, Ganny who like Nurgesh had trained as a doctor in the medical corps, and Bobby trained as an engineer in that capacity. While we primarily follow Bobby who went with his unit to Iraq but eventually returned to fight in the India’s northeast where the war saw its worst face within the country, we also trace Manek’s journey to the Northeast and Northwest, and Ganny who was posted to Thal (today in Pakistan). As we learn their stories, we also come across others they met and served alongside, some suffering the worst conditions—exhaustion, starvation, disease, sleep-deprivation and danger, all the while continuing to hold fort and fight, and who even though fighting for the British Indian Army did defend the country against what could have been as bad or worse a fate than the colonial rule it was at the time under.
Farthest Field straddles the territory between fiction and nonfiction in that while it is based on what the author gathered from his research and he has as far as I understand not fictionalised any scenarios, the events themselves are described somewhat as a story plays out, describing possible feelings and fears, actions and reactions. His characters are people all but forgotten about whom precious little information is available and what he has gathered is both from the few written accounts touching on them or the incidents and places they were present at, or speaking to those who knew them at the time. While this wasn’t a long book (243 pages minus endnotes, which I did read), it took me the better part of a week to read, but while I was reading, at no time did it feel dragging or slow moving. We mostly follow a linear set of events (with gaps of course), with chapters switching between places and characters we are being told of, with a few chapters going back in time to give us accounts of those we meet along the way.
This is a book about the war so one has of course to be prepared for the sheer devastation of it; there are lives lost, injuries, horrific conditions, and cruelties but also alongside calm periods (‘phoney war’ of a sort, where there is just waiting and more of it). There is at least one nightmarish battle we find ourselves right in the midst of, and it was a hard one to read about—once again bringing to mind that eternal question of why we need to have such situations at all where so many innocents from either side must bear the level of tortures that they do, just to satisfy others quests for power (and dare I say egos). And it is not the battles alone that bring up these heartrending scenarios but also events that unfolded alongside like the great Bengal Famine that left millions starving and led to terrible loss of life (Churchill had callously declared that only those Indians who contributed to the war need be fed).
The book was for me eye-opening in many ways, because this was a period and set of events I knew little of (our history lessons never did touch on them being more concerned with the freedom struggle that was also taking place at the time). I had no idea for instance of the terrible battle fought on that northeastern frontier, by an army which even amidst the fight realised it was forgotten, or that the threat of war had reached so close to Madras even if it didn’t ever fully break. A lighter bit of information was how at the time wireless stations in Iraq and Iran (Baghdad and Tehran) broadcasted in many Indian languages and newspapers and films in Indian languages too were circulated. Colonials and colonised fought side-by-side but many a time the latter paid a heavier price. Unsurprisingly there was also plenty of racism and resistance to Indians ever being given any positions of command or rank even though they eventually were given both.
A worse trigger for me (than the war scenes), and one which calling heartbreaking would be an understatement were the parts that dealt with the animals who were used in the war efforts. While the mules and indeed elephants were much loved by the men who used them, it did in no way make up for the true horrors they were put through—lives in a much worse situation than the innocent young men, for these couldn’t have even understood why they had to undergo what they did. Give whatever justification you will, but I can only come away with tears in my eyes, a lump in my throat and a lot of anger in my heart (plus an even lower opinion of human beings, if there could be that) reading and even thinking of it as I write.
While this was a book that did take time to read and did get me emotional on more than one count, I was still very glad I read it since it has definitely given me a look into a part of my country’s history I knew little about, and left me wanting to read more (though of course only when I am up for it).
[p.s. I did enjoy coming across several people from public life one knows of in other capacities and historical figures as well]
August 20, 2015
This is an extremely important book. Not a single book has covered the Second World War from the point of view of participations of Indians in this great detail. Not a single book has covered the Second World War, the war which was never ours and still it reached and affected us, the war India was fighting in its own courtyards and in its neighbourhoods. Our history curriculum never showed us that truth which this book uncovers in great details. This is why it is such an important book to read.
This is an extremely good book. Well researched, finely crafted, and brilliantly written. Raghu writes about the individual, Raghu writes about the family, Raghu writes about the conflicts, Raghu writes about the events happening around the lives of the actors and impacting them. Raghu writes about the great war, its complexities, and the causes and impacts. And Raghu writes simply great. It is amazing to see such a good book as the first book.
Raghu Karnad has arrived.
I am extremely happy that I picked this book.
This is an extremely good book. Well researched, finely crafted, and brilliantly written. Raghu writes about the individual, Raghu writes about the family, Raghu writes about the conflicts, Raghu writes about the events happening around the lives of the actors and impacting them. Raghu writes about the great war, its complexities, and the causes and impacts. And Raghu writes simply great. It is amazing to see such a good book as the first book.
Raghu Karnad has arrived.
I am extremely happy that I picked this book.
April 26, 2018
Review of Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War
By Raghu Karnad
Rating: 5 stars
I, along with my wife, was at her friend's wedding in Mumbai. I had just come back on leave from Congo for a week and for most of my wife's friends, I was an enigma, or in more desi terms, a fauji, an armywallah. Her friends, most of them from the business community had never ever interacted with an army officer before. So predictably they were excited. In their exuberance, one of the more innocent ones asked me a simple question:
" How many Indian soldiers are there in Congo as part of the Peacekeeping force?"
"Valid Question.", I thought and replied that as per my approximation, it would be around 5000 men, give or take a few hundred.
The girl was shell-shocked (forgive the pun). She exclaimed, " If 5000 of you guys are there in a foreign country, then who is going to protect us?"
This anecdote serves as an example of a significant gap that exists between the armed forces of our country, a minuscule percent of the population, and the vast majority of civilians. This review is not meant to denigrate anyone but is more of an overview of the transitionary nature of the armed forces of our country, as this is what the author, Raghu Karnad has done. Through the personal stories of three Indian officers in his family, all of them sacrificed in the meat-grinder of the Second World War, Raghu tells us the story of India, the blanked out pages of our history books that fail to mention anything about the largest volunteer force in the world at the time. But more on that later.
The Indian armed forces, especially the land component, the Indian Army, is an enigma for most. It comes to the fore only in times of war, Kashmir, North East and nowadays floods, earthquakes, footbridges, Commonwealth Games and tubewells. The combat fatigues, the haphazard crisscrossing pattern of olive green and autumn leaf-yellow colour, now duplicated by almost all the paramilitary forces have been the most recognised uniform in the country. But do people understand the Army? I am afraid not. Due to inadequate research and cliched notions of stiffness, the typical armyman was caricatured as an Colonel or Brigadier saab with a beautiful young daughter, an over-mustachioed stickler who prefers everything in a drill-like manner, who likes to take his many dogs for a walk and always keeps a shotgun handy, just in case.
The Indian Army is not the Ship of Theseus yet. Its halfway there, with its mishmash of antiquated and now mostly ceremonial Barakhanas, Quarter Guards, Kotes and Dinner Nights and 'pure-bred martial' regiments commingling with and mostly replaced by all India mixed class and brand new equipment. The Viceroy Commissioned Officers (VCOs) and the King's Commissioned Indian Officers (KCIOs) have been long replaced with Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Commissioned officers of the Indian Army, with the President of India's Commission. A pseudo-science of martial classes that included, at the time of India's 1857 Mutiny, Punjabis, Pathans, Gurkhas over time cemented and was vindicated by the training, mechanisation and trial by fire of Indian soldiers in the First and the Second World War. Today these regiments have histories going back almost three hundred years and with battle honours such as Gallipoli, Malakand valley, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy and North Africa.
Most of us remember the Second World War by its single most spectacular event: D-Day or the Normandy landings. The Saviors of Paris. The stand at Stalingrad. Rommel. Patton. Montgomery. How many of us have heard about Field Marshal William Slim, the most able Allied Commander of the Second World War? What about the Fourteenth Army, an army which had started calling itself the Forgotten Army even before the end of its campaign? The British Indian Army, which started its campaign in Eritrea, Somaliland then the deserts of North Africa, the Italian campaign found itself clashing with the Japanese in its own backyard: North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), current Manipur, Nagaland. This is the story of the Fourteenth Army which sacrificed so many in the mosquito and leech infested jungles of India's North East, Indians, British, Nepalis, West and East Africans, Gambians: everyone has its story to tell. But this specifically is the story of India, an unformed nation at the time and the army that made it into a state.
Raghu Karnad weaves the Indian army campaigns in Eritrea, North Africa and Burma into a seamless whole by taking three protagonists of his story: Bobby, Manek and Ganny and weaving a tale of action, adventure and death around it. Raghu Karnad is Girish Karnad's son and an excellent journalist. This is his first book. Here he takes his Parsi ancestors; Raghu's mother was half Parsi half Kodava, and tell their story. He talks about his grandmother Nurgesh or Nugs, her two sisters Subur and Kosh and her only brother Bobby. He also hints at the ostracism faced by his grandmother when she married outside the community ie Gannny or Ganapati. Kosh marries Manek who is a pilot in the fledgling Indian Air Force. Through the eyes of Ganny we see the North West Frontier Province and the role of the RAF in bombing civilians in the 'frontier' areas. He dies there due to asthma. Manek, part of the IAF, moves to the Eastern Theatre and while coming back from a bombing mission over Burma, runs into a hill and is killed instantly. It is through the eyes of Bobby that three quarters of the book is written and seen.
The Indian Army acted as an occupation force both during and after the war. It was considered a mercenary force, composed of boys who would fight for the goras to earn money and receive ration and rum. This was in huge contrast to the Quit India movement launched by the Congress and its persuading the entire country to boycott Britain's war effort. Despite this, the British assembled the largest volunteer force in the world at the time: 2.5 million men under arms. This army proved itself in all the campaigns it fought in. But it was only during the Burma campaign when the spectre of a Japanese flag flying over the Viceroy's Palace in Delhi raised its head, the Indian army dug its heels and defended the territory the boys had started calling home. Most historians including the NCERT attribute India's independence to the Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi, glossing over the subcutaneous nation building that was in its full force during the defence of places such as Kohima, Dimapur and Imphal. The Indian Army also had to face the Subhash Chandra Bose led Indian National Army (INA), an force of 40,000 soldiers made mostly of POWs of Singapore and Malaya and trained by the Japanese.
Finally it boils down to the question of loyalty: towards an Empire which had sucked and ravished every inch of land, resource and humanity for its own good OR towards the promise of an independent utopia but accompanied by the horror of more treachery and subjugation?
As Raghu writes in the epilogue of the book
"The real ideological fissure did not run between the INA and the Indian Army, but ran through them both together: the dilemma of choosing loyalty or liberty, subordination or treason."
By Raghu Karnad
Rating: 5 stars
I, along with my wife, was at her friend's wedding in Mumbai. I had just come back on leave from Congo for a week and for most of my wife's friends, I was an enigma, or in more desi terms, a fauji, an armywallah. Her friends, most of them from the business community had never ever interacted with an army officer before. So predictably they were excited. In their exuberance, one of the more innocent ones asked me a simple question:
" How many Indian soldiers are there in Congo as part of the Peacekeeping force?"
"Valid Question.", I thought and replied that as per my approximation, it would be around 5000 men, give or take a few hundred.
The girl was shell-shocked (forgive the pun). She exclaimed, " If 5000 of you guys are there in a foreign country, then who is going to protect us?"
This anecdote serves as an example of a significant gap that exists between the armed forces of our country, a minuscule percent of the population, and the vast majority of civilians. This review is not meant to denigrate anyone but is more of an overview of the transitionary nature of the armed forces of our country, as this is what the author, Raghu Karnad has done. Through the personal stories of three Indian officers in his family, all of them sacrificed in the meat-grinder of the Second World War, Raghu tells us the story of India, the blanked out pages of our history books that fail to mention anything about the largest volunteer force in the world at the time. But more on that later.
The Indian armed forces, especially the land component, the Indian Army, is an enigma for most. It comes to the fore only in times of war, Kashmir, North East and nowadays floods, earthquakes, footbridges, Commonwealth Games and tubewells. The combat fatigues, the haphazard crisscrossing pattern of olive green and autumn leaf-yellow colour, now duplicated by almost all the paramilitary forces have been the most recognised uniform in the country. But do people understand the Army? I am afraid not. Due to inadequate research and cliched notions of stiffness, the typical armyman was caricatured as an Colonel or Brigadier saab with a beautiful young daughter, an over-mustachioed stickler who prefers everything in a drill-like manner, who likes to take his many dogs for a walk and always keeps a shotgun handy, just in case.
The Indian Army is not the Ship of Theseus yet. Its halfway there, with its mishmash of antiquated and now mostly ceremonial Barakhanas, Quarter Guards, Kotes and Dinner Nights and 'pure-bred martial' regiments commingling with and mostly replaced by all India mixed class and brand new equipment. The Viceroy Commissioned Officers (VCOs) and the King's Commissioned Indian Officers (KCIOs) have been long replaced with Junior Commissioned Officers (JCOs) and Commissioned officers of the Indian Army, with the President of India's Commission. A pseudo-science of martial classes that included, at the time of India's 1857 Mutiny, Punjabis, Pathans, Gurkhas over time cemented and was vindicated by the training, mechanisation and trial by fire of Indian soldiers in the First and the Second World War. Today these regiments have histories going back almost three hundred years and with battle honours such as Gallipoli, Malakand valley, Mesopotamia, Greece, Italy and North Africa.
Most of us remember the Second World War by its single most spectacular event: D-Day or the Normandy landings. The Saviors of Paris. The stand at Stalingrad. Rommel. Patton. Montgomery. How many of us have heard about Field Marshal William Slim, the most able Allied Commander of the Second World War? What about the Fourteenth Army, an army which had started calling itself the Forgotten Army even before the end of its campaign? The British Indian Army, which started its campaign in Eritrea, Somaliland then the deserts of North Africa, the Italian campaign found itself clashing with the Japanese in its own backyard: North East Frontier Agency (NEFA), current Manipur, Nagaland. This is the story of the Fourteenth Army which sacrificed so many in the mosquito and leech infested jungles of India's North East, Indians, British, Nepalis, West and East Africans, Gambians: everyone has its story to tell. But this specifically is the story of India, an unformed nation at the time and the army that made it into a state.
Raghu Karnad weaves the Indian army campaigns in Eritrea, North Africa and Burma into a seamless whole by taking three protagonists of his story: Bobby, Manek and Ganny and weaving a tale of action, adventure and death around it. Raghu Karnad is Girish Karnad's son and an excellent journalist. This is his first book. Here he takes his Parsi ancestors; Raghu's mother was half Parsi half Kodava, and tell their story. He talks about his grandmother Nurgesh or Nugs, her two sisters Subur and Kosh and her only brother Bobby. He also hints at the ostracism faced by his grandmother when she married outside the community ie Gannny or Ganapati. Kosh marries Manek who is a pilot in the fledgling Indian Air Force. Through the eyes of Ganny we see the North West Frontier Province and the role of the RAF in bombing civilians in the 'frontier' areas. He dies there due to asthma. Manek, part of the IAF, moves to the Eastern Theatre and while coming back from a bombing mission over Burma, runs into a hill and is killed instantly. It is through the eyes of Bobby that three quarters of the book is written and seen.
The Indian Army acted as an occupation force both during and after the war. It was considered a mercenary force, composed of boys who would fight for the goras to earn money and receive ration and rum. This was in huge contrast to the Quit India movement launched by the Congress and its persuading the entire country to boycott Britain's war effort. Despite this, the British assembled the largest volunteer force in the world at the time: 2.5 million men under arms. This army proved itself in all the campaigns it fought in. But it was only during the Burma campaign when the spectre of a Japanese flag flying over the Viceroy's Palace in Delhi raised its head, the Indian army dug its heels and defended the territory the boys had started calling home. Most historians including the NCERT attribute India's independence to the Indian National Congress and Mahatma Gandhi, glossing over the subcutaneous nation building that was in its full force during the defence of places such as Kohima, Dimapur and Imphal. The Indian Army also had to face the Subhash Chandra Bose led Indian National Army (INA), an force of 40,000 soldiers made mostly of POWs of Singapore and Malaya and trained by the Japanese.
Finally it boils down to the question of loyalty: towards an Empire which had sucked and ravished every inch of land, resource and humanity for its own good OR towards the promise of an independent utopia but accompanied by the horror of more treachery and subjugation?
As Raghu writes in the epilogue of the book
"The real ideological fissure did not run between the INA and the Indian Army, but ran through them both together: the dilemma of choosing loyalty or liberty, subordination or treason."
October 6, 2015
I won a free copy through a GoodReads giveaway.
Frankly, I may not have been in the right mental space for this book, but I couldn't get motivated to finish it.
It's an interesting moment in time and an under-represented perspective, talking about WW2 from the point of view of Indian nationals serving on behalf of the Allies, even while the tide of nationalism is pushing against the British colonialism of the time.
There are two problems that I have with it: One is that the reader needs to already have a pretty thorough grounding in Indian history right before this period, and while I have some, a lot of references just slipped past me. The other is that this text straddles the line between fictionalized recreations of people's thoughts and feelings and historical fact/evidence. It's a similar approach that Jeff Shaara used in his Civil War book about Gettysburg, Killer Angels, but Shaara was much clearer about what he was doing.
Frankly, I may not have been in the right mental space for this book, but I couldn't get motivated to finish it.
It's an interesting moment in time and an under-represented perspective, talking about WW2 from the point of view of Indian nationals serving on behalf of the Allies, even while the tide of nationalism is pushing against the British colonialism of the time.
There are two problems that I have with it: One is that the reader needs to already have a pretty thorough grounding in Indian history right before this period, and while I have some, a lot of references just slipped past me. The other is that this text straddles the line between fictionalized recreations of people's thoughts and feelings and historical fact/evidence. It's a similar approach that Jeff Shaara used in his Civil War book about Gettysburg, Killer Angels, but Shaara was much clearer about what he was doing.
September 10, 2015
This one book fills a lot of gaps in bringing out the "hidden history" about the "forgotten battles" of the world war 2. Amazingly researched and poignantly written, this book is going to be a milestone for years to come. This also seeds opportunities for writers and researchers to dig out more stories and facts from the war and bring out books, TV shows, web content in the genre of pop history and non-fiction, given the current penchant for a clearer and non-agenda driven history of India.
That said, there are some shortcomings in the book especially considering its classification as "History". The book's organization reminded me of typical Bollywood movies in which the first half just exists to build up events for a fast paced climax. Though very relevant to the whole story, I felt there was an overt focus on the backgrounds and bringing up of Bobby and his sisters. Also, classifying this as History as opposed to Historical Drama might have been better. I felt other books in the same genre like "Paths of glory" in English, Chikaveera Rajendra, AavaraNa in Kannada have dealt their respective themes in a better way.
But let me not take away the credits and recognize the hard work of the author. A must read.
That said, there are some shortcomings in the book especially considering its classification as "History". The book's organization reminded me of typical Bollywood movies in which the first half just exists to build up events for a fast paced climax. Though very relevant to the whole story, I felt there was an overt focus on the backgrounds and bringing up of Bobby and his sisters. Also, classifying this as History as opposed to Historical Drama might have been better. I felt other books in the same genre like "Paths of glory" in English, Chikaveera Rajendra, AavaraNa in Kannada have dealt their respective themes in a better way.
But let me not take away the credits and recognize the hard work of the author. A must read.
April 15, 2016
Very dry & lack of emotional storytelling. Felt like more of reporting a timeline & this didn't connect with the characters at all.
September 29, 2020
I did not know the Indian Army had participated in almost every theater of the Second world War. Their stories aren't widely known and this book tries to shine a bright light on that hidden and forgotten corner of Indian history.
I was tempted to give this book 3 stars; while each chapter is penned evocatively the story as a whole felt a bit stilted.
The last 4 chapters of the book changed my mind and brought home the colossal sacrifice of India's Forgotten Army under horrific conditions. I would definitely recommend you giving this a read.
I was tempted to give this book 3 stars; while each chapter is penned evocatively the story as a whole felt a bit stilted.
The last 4 chapters of the book changed my mind and brought home the colossal sacrifice of India's Forgotten Army under horrific conditions. I would definitely recommend you giving this a read.
November 25, 2016
Difficult, assuming prior knowledge of Indian politics and history. I noticed the people who have given this book 4 and 5 star ratings are all Indian. I wanted to like it and could have been very good. I was very interested in the subject matter.
February 13, 2020
What a painful book to get through. I spent a few months (that’s right, months) wondering if I wanted to be the type of person to finish a book no matter how miserable I was or someone who could quit. I wish I chose the latter.
October 29, 2015
Overrated. If you value your time and you know you live life only once then don't waste either of them reading a book as badly written as this.
November 5, 2018
Rating is less about the book and more about my lack of interest in war and military drama.
March 23, 2019
Raghu Karnad's poor and mangled prose ruined the book, which sought to address such a powerful piece of history. It could have been exceptional in hands of a skilled writer.
May 7, 2021
Very slow and boring book.
September 9, 2015
For most of us, the early 1940s was a period during which our nationalist movement peaked with the Quit India resolution being passed and the Raj beginning to to crack. The lesser known fact was that this was also a period when close to 2 million men chose 'loyalty' over 'patriotism' and enrolled in the British Indian Army and fought in campaigns around the globe and also played a sterling role in defending mainland India. Sadly, they are hardly remembered today and the much smaller Indian National Army of Bose is what remains in public imagination.
Three sepia tinted photographs adorn the cover of the Farthest Field. According to Karnad;s own admission, while these were known to be those of his grand father, his grand uncle and their brother in law, they were seldom mentioned or spoken about. Years later, unsatisfied to let them pass into oblivion, Karnad explored their lives, studied the battles they fought and in the end came up with an immortal tribute in the form of this book.
With an impressive mix of historical fiction and military history and through the microcosm of one Parsi generation that was settled in Calicut, Karnad makes us experience what living in India and fighting on the fronts meant during the Second World War. Real life characters as varied as General Thimayya, Air Marshal Arjan Singh, Lakshmi Sehgal and most interestingly Verghese Kurien appear through out the narrative.
While the first half was spent in fleshing out the lives of the three protagonists - their passions, love, career decisions; the second part moved the spotlight to the various theatres of battle that Indians fought in. From the deserts of Libya, the groves of Gaza, the bleak NWFP to the jungles of Burma, Karnad takes us through the hardships, heroism and plain fear of ordinary Indians who fought the war only to be forgotten in the larger narrative of the world war.
Beyond the story, some of the points that struck was his argument that it was the Second World War that converted a mercenary force of the British into a great institution called the Indian Army.There's still a bit of ambivalence on whether or not the war played a direct role in India's independence. But for sure, imperialism and the Raj became untenable after fighting for the cause of the Singaporeans, the Burmese and the Chinese.
Three sepia tinted photographs adorn the cover of the Farthest Field. According to Karnad;s own admission, while these were known to be those of his grand father, his grand uncle and their brother in law, they were seldom mentioned or spoken about. Years later, unsatisfied to let them pass into oblivion, Karnad explored their lives, studied the battles they fought and in the end came up with an immortal tribute in the form of this book.
With an impressive mix of historical fiction and military history and through the microcosm of one Parsi generation that was settled in Calicut, Karnad makes us experience what living in India and fighting on the fronts meant during the Second World War. Real life characters as varied as General Thimayya, Air Marshal Arjan Singh, Lakshmi Sehgal and most interestingly Verghese Kurien appear through out the narrative.
While the first half was spent in fleshing out the lives of the three protagonists - their passions, love, career decisions; the second part moved the spotlight to the various theatres of battle that Indians fought in. From the deserts of Libya, the groves of Gaza, the bleak NWFP to the jungles of Burma, Karnad takes us through the hardships, heroism and plain fear of ordinary Indians who fought the war only to be forgotten in the larger narrative of the world war.
Beyond the story, some of the points that struck was his argument that it was the Second World War that converted a mercenary force of the British into a great institution called the Indian Army.There's still a bit of ambivalence on whether or not the war played a direct role in India's independence. But for sure, imperialism and the Raj became untenable after fighting for the cause of the Singaporeans, the Burmese and the Chinese.
June 11, 2020
This prologue of this book tugs at your heart. During his visits to his grandmother's house, the author has noticed three portraits hanging on the wall. Grainy and grey, he learns too late, they were the portraits of his maternal grandfather and granduncles, who fought the Second World War.
And after this, the tone and tenor of the book changes, into that of a history book, with extensive research and an overload of detail. No doubt, it is an imperfect story, where the grand old relatives are reduced to their pet names, Ganny, Nugs, Subur, soldiers who fought in World War II, a part of India's lost history in World War Two.
Sadly for the reader, they still remain photographs hung on the wall. And I was mighty disappointed. The author could have well mentioned the detail of the pictures in the epilogue. For me, it was nothing more than a history textbook- the political and cultural history of India during the Second World War.
And after this, the tone and tenor of the book changes, into that of a history book, with extensive research and an overload of detail. No doubt, it is an imperfect story, where the grand old relatives are reduced to their pet names, Ganny, Nugs, Subur, soldiers who fought in World War II, a part of India's lost history in World War Two.
Sadly for the reader, they still remain photographs hung on the wall. And I was mighty disappointed. The author could have well mentioned the detail of the pictures in the epilogue. For me, it was nothing more than a history textbook- the political and cultural history of India during the Second World War.
May 12, 2020
I found this highly recommended book, quite dry. May be I was expecting something else. While the subject itself is quite unique but I had a struggle to go through it.
November 8, 2023
In the early 1940's, when the British were building the Indian Army into a modern force capable of repelling Japanese invaders, the first thing they had to do was separate the Indians from themselves: separate caste from caste, Sikh from Hindu, Hindu from Moslem, Moslem from Parsi Zoroastrian. They separated them by battalion, by company, by squad. They separated them because not only would these groups not fight together, they barely tolerated each other. Once separated, the groups then had to be brought back together to fight a common enemy, the Japanese. All while this was happening, India was awakening to throw off the other common enemy: the British themselves.
Many, many Indians fought and died fighting the Japanese. Many fought and died fighting the British -- as Japanese allies! And after the war, many continued fighting and dying working with both the Japanese and the British to subdue (I almost want to use the American term "pacify") local populations in Indonesia and elsewhere.
One of the great accomplishments of Raghu Karmad's book "Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War" is how calmly he keeps judgement at bay while the describing the horrors his characters experience in the jungles of Burma. With the perspective of time we can all too easily conclude that Indians who fought on either side of the war were pawns to imperial interests and we can pity them for it.
But one thing we should not do -- and I think this is Karnad's great message -- is forget them, no matter how we judge them. Their wartime service had an important role to play in the coming independence of India and its aftermath.
I have not read such a moving experience of war since I left Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy. I can almost hear the buzzing of metal flying through the air. I feel the dread the Indian soldiers experienced, and the Indian sappers, must have felt when they knew that the dreaded Japanese, the Japanese soldiers they had been taught were consummate warriors, inhuman butchers, pitiless, and consumed with hatred, that these same Japanese were just beyond the ridge and coming for them now.
Between the rains, the dirt, the cry of the sick and dying, the sleeplessness, the pain, the diarrhea, the thirst, the terror, the loneliness, the heat, and the utter hopelessness, the soldier had a gun to his face and a gun to his back. No matter what he felt about the British Empire.
Many, many Indians fought and died fighting the Japanese. Many fought and died fighting the British -- as Japanese allies! And after the war, many continued fighting and dying working with both the Japanese and the British to subdue (I almost want to use the American term "pacify") local populations in Indonesia and elsewhere.
One of the great accomplishments of Raghu Karmad's book "Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War" is how calmly he keeps judgement at bay while the describing the horrors his characters experience in the jungles of Burma. With the perspective of time we can all too easily conclude that Indians who fought on either side of the war were pawns to imperial interests and we can pity them for it.
But one thing we should not do -- and I think this is Karnad's great message -- is forget them, no matter how we judge them. Their wartime service had an important role to play in the coming independence of India and its aftermath.
I have not read such a moving experience of war since I left Rick Atkinson's Liberation Trilogy. I can almost hear the buzzing of metal flying through the air. I feel the dread the Indian soldiers experienced, and the Indian sappers, must have felt when they knew that the dreaded Japanese, the Japanese soldiers they had been taught were consummate warriors, inhuman butchers, pitiless, and consumed with hatred, that these same Japanese were just beyond the ridge and coming for them now.
Between the rains, the dirt, the cry of the sick and dying, the sleeplessness, the pain, the diarrhea, the thirst, the terror, the loneliness, the heat, and the utter hopelessness, the soldier had a gun to his face and a gun to his back. No matter what he felt about the British Empire.
March 15, 2020
Got bored.
February 13, 2025
Historical, World War 2-1945, Fiction mixed with non-fiction
---
Farthest Field by author Raghu Karnad is a historical fiction novel that blends fact and fiction to tell the story of the Indian soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II.
The book addresses era between 1942-1945 projecting lives of soldiers, their families and civilians in general along with timelines of the book major character - Bobby Mugaseth
Raghu has compiled this book from the letters, diaries, and other documents of the time along with his own research & it's commendable how he has strived to ensure that the lives & deaths of his ancestors were not forgotten.
Not many would know that a staggering 2.5 million Indians fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II. Ironically, the campaign is not taught in our schools. To make it even more terrible, Indian soldiers were committed to the campaign without any training and were a part of the British Indian Army. Imagine the plight of the soldiers who were fighting for the very Empire that they wanted to revolt against.
The book also talks about the INA (Indian National Army) and their role in the campaign alongside their leader Subhas Chandra Bose who were fighting against the British Empire.
Unfortunately, this very army considered themselves The Forgotten Army since right after the war, India received Independence and the soldiers were not given the recognition they deserved because then politically, they fought along with the British.
Via the lives of Bobby, Nugs, Manek, and others, the book takes us through the lives of the soldiers and their families and how it impacted the civilians as well.
The war was directly not in India but it's impact was felt here strongly.
---
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, especially the World War II era.
---
Farthest Field by author Raghu Karnad is a historical fiction novel that blends fact and fiction to tell the story of the Indian soldiers who fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II.
The book addresses era between 1942-1945 projecting lives of soldiers, their families and civilians in general along with timelines of the book major character - Bobby Mugaseth
Raghu has compiled this book from the letters, diaries, and other documents of the time along with his own research & it's commendable how he has strived to ensure that the lives & deaths of his ancestors were not forgotten.
Not many would know that a staggering 2.5 million Indians fought in the Burma Campaign during World War II. Ironically, the campaign is not taught in our schools. To make it even more terrible, Indian soldiers were committed to the campaign without any training and were a part of the British Indian Army. Imagine the plight of the soldiers who were fighting for the very Empire that they wanted to revolt against.
The book also talks about the INA (Indian National Army) and their role in the campaign alongside their leader Subhas Chandra Bose who were fighting against the British Empire.
Unfortunately, this very army considered themselves The Forgotten Army since right after the war, India received Independence and the soldiers were not given the recognition they deserved because then politically, they fought along with the British.
Via the lives of Bobby, Nugs, Manek, and others, the book takes us through the lives of the soldiers and their families and how it impacted the civilians as well.
The war was directly not in India but it's impact was felt here strongly.
---
I'd recommend this book to anyone who is interested in history, especially the World War II era.
October 14, 2019
Karnad writes with the beauty, hunger and fire of a great novelist with the tenderness of a historian. A beautiful book covering both a family's loss in the WW2 and the expanse of the war in a region where the war is largely forgotten.
August 12, 2015
For a young Indian trying to understand the most recent world war and its implications on our present and the future, farthest field comes across as a shocking revelation of the extent to which India played a role in it even though the war was never ours. Sidelining the general discussion that revolves exclusively around Europe, US, Russia and Japan when it comes to the second world war, Raghu Karnad beautifully illustrates the significant roles played by the much smaller and unimportant Asian and African colonies by using the life stories of three of his own ancestors. It is this personal and familial touch that lends this Non fiction piece a strong and unique emotional heft, making us connect with the Ravages of war with surreal depth and intensity. And finally, Starting from Madras and going all the way to the far reaches of Africa ,this book tells the story of a forgotten Indian army that thrived and evolved under the British Rule and how their actions invariably led to an early Independence for India. Must read.
October 3, 2015
Brilliant ... but I take issue with his use of "forensic".
He never defines it, but it seems to mean "reconstructive" ... without proof,
as in his description of the characters' inner thoughts, or stray sights from a train,
limited only by never disagreeing with facts established by other means.
That is exactly what a good historical novel does, and he does it well,
and sheds great light in the process.
But forensic first meant legal, and then came to be associated with "forensic science':
establishing what _can_ be known, by external evidence:
where a bullet came from, how long a person has been dead, etc.
To turn it around like this, applying it to things that could easily have been otherwise,
is a misappropriation of language.
He never defines it, but it seems to mean "reconstructive" ... without proof,
as in his description of the characters' inner thoughts, or stray sights from a train,
limited only by never disagreeing with facts established by other means.
That is exactly what a good historical novel does, and he does it well,
and sheds great light in the process.
But forensic first meant legal, and then came to be associated with "forensic science':
establishing what _can_ be known, by external evidence:
where a bullet came from, how long a person has been dead, etc.
To turn it around like this, applying it to things that could easily have been otherwise,
is a misappropriation of language.
August 18, 2018
Very well researched . The author really conveys the general unpleasantness of warfare for both sides in the desert of North Africa, and even worse the conditions in the jungles of Burma, almost as if he had experienced them himself. His description of life in India 1938 was of considerable interest to me as most of the seventh year of life was spent in Rawalpindi and Ghora Gali. An uncle served in the 9/15th Punjabis and later in Burma, the Chin Hills Battalion, a long range penetration group, serving mainly with Chins and Gurkhas.
Churchill’s failure to release some shipping to send grain to India was a matter of shame to my mind. I have known of this for years.
Churchill’s failure to release some shipping to send grain to India was a matter of shame to my mind. I have known of this for years.
April 7, 2021
I have a special affinity for war-based books of both fiction and nonfiction genres. When we talk about world wars, there is a hefty amount of literature that breaks down events hours by hours. But most of these books are written from the point of view of the western world, mainly historians of the UK and the US. It is rare that we come across books that shed light on the lives of Indian soldiers who participated in these wars. They fought alongside the ‘white superior soldiers’ to defend both foreign lands of France, Singapore, and their own frontiers and seas. Yet their contributions and stories are almost hidden from the eyes of the majority of Indians due to lack of documentation. The pieces of information, although present, are scattered in pieces, noted under the heading of official data or mentioned collaterally along with the national movements. This book fills that very gap of history, sharing the stories of a handful of men and their families who played their roles in defending the country. These stories are one of the countless ones lost in time.
The stories of Bobby, Ganny and others are examples of how ordinary men change with situations. Once known for their carefree and soft nature, they turn into brave officers. The fact that these people often get lost in obscurity due to lack of interest and ignorance can be felt in the prologue. As we delve deeper into the book we find how the author explored the caste and race played important roles in the lives of people be it a civilian or a high-ranking official. In one event it mentioned how native soldiers weren’t allowed to enjoy the benefit of electricity even if they hold the ability to pay it. The reason? Of course, the sense of racial superiority in the mind of light-skinned British officers! As the armed forces were getting more Indianized due to various logistical and administrative reasons the tensions between the two groups became much more evident and pronounced. While in another chapter he shared how even after serving for 17years how one didn’t get a promotion because of the very caste-based system of armed forces. The caste-based regiments still exist with all their pride and glory in the Indian army as Mahar regiment, Jat regiment, and so on.
“The constitution of the army of India was all precise ethnic formulae, designed to hold its groups and identities in balance. By design, the men of its ranks only served in regiments with others of their own faith and province, which allowed ‘that Sikh might fire into Hindu, Gurkha into either, without any scruple in case of need.”
Oftentimes while reading the book it felt a bit dry but that’s how life often is. To expect that there will be high-pitched drama and to search that in an otherwise part memoir, part nonfiction war essay-book is wrong. The writing is in a retrospective manner rather than noting down a contemporary event and the subtle writing style made the read easier and more impactful. The purpose of military history books is not only to talk about guns blazing but more on how the events unfolded and talk about the process. When we read about the world wars, it is mostly about how British forces destroyed axis powers in the wars, but who are these men that fight for the crown? That unheard stories of unsung heroes finally find their mention in Raghu Karnad’s book. The participation of Indians in a foreign war is in itself due to the culmination of various events ranging from poverty, proving loyalty, and gaining stability in life from a job that promised it. The narrative style moves back and forth just like the human mind oscillating constantly between present times and reminiscing past memories makes it a wholesome reading experience.
We as a society should talk about these lives. Not as an obscure part of our history but of bravery, where they dodged bullets and racial attacks too. Commoners saw them with respect but the soldiers knew the internal struggles of the forces. They worked on foreign land and were promised nothing, not even survival. These stories deserve to be heard. History should fill its gaps with these stories and not propaganda.
The stories of Bobby, Ganny and others are examples of how ordinary men change with situations. Once known for their carefree and soft nature, they turn into brave officers. The fact that these people often get lost in obscurity due to lack of interest and ignorance can be felt in the prologue. As we delve deeper into the book we find how the author explored the caste and race played important roles in the lives of people be it a civilian or a high-ranking official. In one event it mentioned how native soldiers weren’t allowed to enjoy the benefit of electricity even if they hold the ability to pay it. The reason? Of course, the sense of racial superiority in the mind of light-skinned British officers! As the armed forces were getting more Indianized due to various logistical and administrative reasons the tensions between the two groups became much more evident and pronounced. While in another chapter he shared how even after serving for 17years how one didn’t get a promotion because of the very caste-based system of armed forces. The caste-based regiments still exist with all their pride and glory in the Indian army as Mahar regiment, Jat regiment, and so on.
“The constitution of the army of India was all precise ethnic formulae, designed to hold its groups and identities in balance. By design, the men of its ranks only served in regiments with others of their own faith and province, which allowed ‘that Sikh might fire into Hindu, Gurkha into either, without any scruple in case of need.”
Oftentimes while reading the book it felt a bit dry but that’s how life often is. To expect that there will be high-pitched drama and to search that in an otherwise part memoir, part nonfiction war essay-book is wrong. The writing is in a retrospective manner rather than noting down a contemporary event and the subtle writing style made the read easier and more impactful. The purpose of military history books is not only to talk about guns blazing but more on how the events unfolded and talk about the process. When we read about the world wars, it is mostly about how British forces destroyed axis powers in the wars, but who are these men that fight for the crown? That unheard stories of unsung heroes finally find their mention in Raghu Karnad’s book. The participation of Indians in a foreign war is in itself due to the culmination of various events ranging from poverty, proving loyalty, and gaining stability in life from a job that promised it. The narrative style moves back and forth just like the human mind oscillating constantly between present times and reminiscing past memories makes it a wholesome reading experience.
We as a society should talk about these lives. Not as an obscure part of our history but of bravery, where they dodged bullets and racial attacks too. Commoners saw them with respect but the soldiers knew the internal struggles of the forces. They worked on foreign land and were promised nothing, not even survival. These stories deserve to be heard. History should fill its gaps with these stories and not propaganda.
February 24, 2016
India takes pride in the fact that it never used its resources for colonization of others. Indians never invaded others. Its export was in the realm of trade and ideas. Inured to these lofty self-congratulatory ideas, most of us would be astonished to learn that the Indian army performed a more than merely active participation in the two world wars. The mercenary army fought for the British, their colonial masters. It fought on three continents – Asia, Europe and Africa – valiantly. Its contests were against Britain’s enemies, which included suppression of popular unrest against colonial occupation in other countries. Though herself subservient to the British, India’s soldiers fought to wipe out opposition to their masters in India as elsewhere. The unsavouriness of this episode must be the reason why the Indian army’s exploits in the pre-independence era is not eulogized about. Raghu Karnad, a young award-winning writer and journalist, steps forward to rectify this deficiency in India’s history books. Taking his grandfather and his two brothers-in-law for study, who had lost their lives in the Second World War, Karnad tells the story of how the Indian army sacrificed all it held dear on the altar of loyalty to the British. The Hindu-Parsi household of the author brings to light the cosmopolitan character of the fighting force. The author argues that every man has two deaths. One is his physical death when he ceases to exist in the material sense. The other death occurs when people who remember him themselves pass away, resulting in total obliteration of the man’s memories. This is the farthest field beyond which posterity loses all track of the dead ones. Karnad presents the story of his grandfather and granduncles in an effort to extend the farthest field by a bit more, by telling a long forgotten story to the newest generation of India.
Britain subjugated India with money borrowed from the conquered and with soldiers recruited from the vanquished. The Indian troops transformed into a solid bulwark on which the empire’s edifice rested. Punjabi and Gurkha troops helped suppress the Mutiny in 1857. They, and other Indian regiments provided the British with awesome firepower in the Great War of 1914 on fields as far away as Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. Even in India, they could be trusted to crush native protests against the colonizers. Reginald Dyer led a barrage of bullets on the defenseless assembly at Jallianwala Bagh with the aid of 65 Gurkha and 25 Baluchi soldiers. Employment in the British Indian army was like serving in the fifth column against one’s own compatriots. But what did they get in return? Apart from job security and a low but steady income, they had to undergo discrimination of the worst kind as mentioned in this book. For a very long time, Indians were not allowed entry in the officer cadre. Even while faithfully serving the British Queen in the First World War, some compunction was audible about the propriety of using black Indian troops to kill fellow white Germans. Indians were denied electricity in the barracks. British soldiers equal in rank with Indians gathered higher pay packets as they were entitled to lavish allowances for serving away from home. When the army was evacuated in a hurry from Malaya and Burma, when the Japanese overwhelmed them, Whites obtained privileges denied to the native soldiers. This practice of leaving Indians to their fate as the enemy approached put paid to the claim of benevolence of the British Raj. Even the dark skinned offspring of Anglo-Indian unions were denied entry to the vehicles reserved for the Whites. British administrators were hesitant to arm Indians with sophisticated weaponry. Churchill openly fretted at the thought of creating a Frankenstein by equipping Indian soldiers with modern weapons. On the other hand, a job in the army relieved the man and his family from the clutches of starvation. New recruits gained as much as a fifth of their bodyweight in the first few months of enrolment.
Colourful accounts of the Indian Army’s battles in Eritrea, Egypt, Libya and Iraq are given in the book, mostly reconstructed from regimental diaries, added with a pinch of the author’s rich imagination and insightful choice of words. What is really noteworthy is that the thread of the three brothers-in-law of Mogaseth family is kept unbroken. Though all of them laid down their lives while on call of duty, which forms the raison d’être of the book, their unfortunate ends are narrated in a dispassionate way that is matter of fact. It details the dreams of the young men as they were being educated and how they were sucked up into the infernal belly of the war machine.
In any sense of the word, the Second World War had been a pivotal point in India’s march to independence and her economic sustainability in modern commerce. Indian soldiers performed excellently well in all theaters of war they were deployed in, always in the face of heavy odds stacked against them. The compulsions of wartime needs forced Britain to build up the Indian army with modern weapons and with a native command structure. This was in stark contrast with age-old practice in which British officers commanded native soldiers. The middle-class entered the army as officers, having cut their teeth in nationalist struggles in colleges. Britain could no longer count on the loyalty of their own officers in a future confrontation with the natives on issues of self-rule. Besides, the war gifted a bonanza to India’s industry and economy. The wealth of major industrialists like Birla grew six-fold during the war. India’s debt to Britain was entirely paid off against wartime purchases, and the country stood at a sterling surplus of one million pounds.
The Congress party, which had ruled the country for most of its post-independence period, has cultivated a myth of the essentiality of the party in India’s struggle for independence. Even though the party had led only three popular agitations – civil disobedience, non-cooperation and Quit India – cleverly doctored history textbooks convey the outrageous idea that they alone have been instrumental in snatching freedom from Britain. This book provides several examples negating this assertion. The Quit India movement fizzled completely out within three months of its inception, leaving the field free for the machinations of the Muslim League. Karnad chides the Congress that they had never done anything more than tug at the tablecloth of the Empire and rattle its silver!
The book is a delight to read. Helpful maps are included as well as a moderately sized section on Notes. Select bibliography is a part of the book. A neat index adds real value to the content. The author’s reconstruction of the events from scant resources command appreciation, in addition to ensuring him a deserved place in the gallery of capable young writers of fact and fiction.
The book is recommended.
Britain subjugated India with money borrowed from the conquered and with soldiers recruited from the vanquished. The Indian troops transformed into a solid bulwark on which the empire’s edifice rested. Punjabi and Gurkha troops helped suppress the Mutiny in 1857. They, and other Indian regiments provided the British with awesome firepower in the Great War of 1914 on fields as far away as Gallipoli and Mesopotamia. Even in India, they could be trusted to crush native protests against the colonizers. Reginald Dyer led a barrage of bullets on the defenseless assembly at Jallianwala Bagh with the aid of 65 Gurkha and 25 Baluchi soldiers. Employment in the British Indian army was like serving in the fifth column against one’s own compatriots. But what did they get in return? Apart from job security and a low but steady income, they had to undergo discrimination of the worst kind as mentioned in this book. For a very long time, Indians were not allowed entry in the officer cadre. Even while faithfully serving the British Queen in the First World War, some compunction was audible about the propriety of using black Indian troops to kill fellow white Germans. Indians were denied electricity in the barracks. British soldiers equal in rank with Indians gathered higher pay packets as they were entitled to lavish allowances for serving away from home. When the army was evacuated in a hurry from Malaya and Burma, when the Japanese overwhelmed them, Whites obtained privileges denied to the native soldiers. This practice of leaving Indians to their fate as the enemy approached put paid to the claim of benevolence of the British Raj. Even the dark skinned offspring of Anglo-Indian unions were denied entry to the vehicles reserved for the Whites. British administrators were hesitant to arm Indians with sophisticated weaponry. Churchill openly fretted at the thought of creating a Frankenstein by equipping Indian soldiers with modern weapons. On the other hand, a job in the army relieved the man and his family from the clutches of starvation. New recruits gained as much as a fifth of their bodyweight in the first few months of enrolment.
Colourful accounts of the Indian Army’s battles in Eritrea, Egypt, Libya and Iraq are given in the book, mostly reconstructed from regimental diaries, added with a pinch of the author’s rich imagination and insightful choice of words. What is really noteworthy is that the thread of the three brothers-in-law of Mogaseth family is kept unbroken. Though all of them laid down their lives while on call of duty, which forms the raison d’être of the book, their unfortunate ends are narrated in a dispassionate way that is matter of fact. It details the dreams of the young men as they were being educated and how they were sucked up into the infernal belly of the war machine.
In any sense of the word, the Second World War had been a pivotal point in India’s march to independence and her economic sustainability in modern commerce. Indian soldiers performed excellently well in all theaters of war they were deployed in, always in the face of heavy odds stacked against them. The compulsions of wartime needs forced Britain to build up the Indian army with modern weapons and with a native command structure. This was in stark contrast with age-old practice in which British officers commanded native soldiers. The middle-class entered the army as officers, having cut their teeth in nationalist struggles in colleges. Britain could no longer count on the loyalty of their own officers in a future confrontation with the natives on issues of self-rule. Besides, the war gifted a bonanza to India’s industry and economy. The wealth of major industrialists like Birla grew six-fold during the war. India’s debt to Britain was entirely paid off against wartime purchases, and the country stood at a sterling surplus of one million pounds.
The Congress party, which had ruled the country for most of its post-independence period, has cultivated a myth of the essentiality of the party in India’s struggle for independence. Even though the party had led only three popular agitations – civil disobedience, non-cooperation and Quit India – cleverly doctored history textbooks convey the outrageous idea that they alone have been instrumental in snatching freedom from Britain. This book provides several examples negating this assertion. The Quit India movement fizzled completely out within three months of its inception, leaving the field free for the machinations of the Muslim League. Karnad chides the Congress that they had never done anything more than tug at the tablecloth of the Empire and rattle its silver!
The book is a delight to read. Helpful maps are included as well as a moderately sized section on Notes. Select bibliography is a part of the book. A neat index adds real value to the content. The author’s reconstruction of the events from scant resources command appreciation, in addition to ensuring him a deserved place in the gallery of capable young writers of fact and fiction.
The book is recommended.
March 15, 2017
When most people think of the Second World War, the images that come to mind are those of airplanes dueling in the skies over Britain and Germany, soldiers fighting in the snow of Russia or the deserts of North Africa, or landing craft splashing ashore on the beaches of Normandy or the Pacific islands. Each of these images captures a portion of the war, but none by themselves can convey the totality of the conflict that was waged in many different regions, some often overshadowed by the fighting elsewhere.
Then there are other images, those of the men and women who served in the war. It was those images which are the genesis of Raghu Karnad's book. From the starting point of the small photographs of them his family kept on display in their house he reconstructs the lives and wartime careers of three men he never knew: his grandfather Kodandera "Ganny" Ganapathy and his grand-uncles Bobby Mugaseth and Manek Dadabhoy. Each of them volunteered to serve in the Second World War; none of them survived it. Using family records and the histories of the conflict, he describes their lives and their wartime experiences, highlighting some of those often overshadowed aspects of the war. For his grandfather, his war consisted of service as a doctor in a hospital on the Northwest Frontier, where he died not in combat but from bronchitis. By contrast his uncles had more direct experiences of war, serving in combat against the Japanese in Burma and northeastern India. Their experiences may have been heroic, but their fates no less tragic for Karnad's family.
Reading Karnad's book brought to mind for me another account of war, Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. While her book was a personal account of her experiences of the First World War, it too was structured around the stories of three men close to her who died over the course of it. Such a focus makes the retelling of the war come alive, as does Karnad's almost novelistic style. So vividly does he reconstruct scenes that they almost seem more like fiction than fact, yet it is probably more accurate to claim that Karnad employed all of his skills as a journalist to take the accounts in the letters and memoirs and bring them to life. The result is a work that underscores the dual tragedy of the deaths of three dynamic young men whose promise was cut short and their sacrifice in the service an empire about to be ended by the efforts of their countrymen, and it is no small measure of Karnad's achievement that he restores to them the nobility of their choice.
Then there are other images, those of the men and women who served in the war. It was those images which are the genesis of Raghu Karnad's book. From the starting point of the small photographs of them his family kept on display in their house he reconstructs the lives and wartime careers of three men he never knew: his grandfather Kodandera "Ganny" Ganapathy and his grand-uncles Bobby Mugaseth and Manek Dadabhoy. Each of them volunteered to serve in the Second World War; none of them survived it. Using family records and the histories of the conflict, he describes their lives and their wartime experiences, highlighting some of those often overshadowed aspects of the war. For his grandfather, his war consisted of service as a doctor in a hospital on the Northwest Frontier, where he died not in combat but from bronchitis. By contrast his uncles had more direct experiences of war, serving in combat against the Japanese in Burma and northeastern India. Their experiences may have been heroic, but their fates no less tragic for Karnad's family.
Reading Karnad's book brought to mind for me another account of war, Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. While her book was a personal account of her experiences of the First World War, it too was structured around the stories of three men close to her who died over the course of it. Such a focus makes the retelling of the war come alive, as does Karnad's almost novelistic style. So vividly does he reconstruct scenes that they almost seem more like fiction than fact, yet it is probably more accurate to claim that Karnad employed all of his skills as a journalist to take the accounts in the letters and memoirs and bring them to life. The result is a work that underscores the dual tragedy of the deaths of three dynamic young men whose promise was cut short and their sacrifice in the service an empire about to be ended by the efforts of their countrymen, and it is no small measure of Karnad's achievement that he restores to them the nobility of their choice.
November 30, 2020
This book is a result of the author's pursuit to trace the story of his grandfather and a couple of other relatives who had fought in the second world war with the Indian army.
Reconstructing the events of the past with painstaking research, what he has gifted us is a rare account of the important years 1939-45 in Indian history.
In the prologue, the author points out how personal and institutional memories go through revising and reshaping. The interviews he conducted with the Indian veterans illustrated this, he says. Well, that must be true to some extent of any history. People remembering differently. Remembering some facts and forgetting others to suit a narrative. The author puts it nicely- "In general , their memories, like all memories, were smoothed and polished by time, as pebbles in a stream."
Perfect or not, memory of the nation's history is definitely important. What are we without a memory of our history? As Nietzsche said, it is only the beast that lives unhistorically.
The second world war must be one of the most recounted events in modern history. While ably providing the missing Indian context in the war, Farthest Field also helped me recall some great novels and movies made on the subject of the Second World War. All these works on the war usually have focused on just one aspect of or one location in the war.
Farthest Field holds your attention from page one. Divided into three parts, the action on the Indian mainland as well as on the western and the eastern parts of India are covered.
In the first chapter there is a description of the Parsi household from where the protagonist Bobby hails. At once ribbing and respectful, the definition runs like this: " The Parsis: pale as scalps, mad as coots, noses like commas on the page. They were devoutly civilised, consummately lawful...".
The author certainly has a little license on the community, as his own grandmother, an important character in the book, Nurgesh (Nugs) hails from it. While reading this chapter I remembered Rohinton Mistry's fine novel, the Booker nominated Such a Long Journey, which is entirely the story of a Parsi family. There is difference in the writing styles and there is no war in Such a Long Journey.
After setting down the backgrounds of the main protagonists Bobby and his brothers-in-law, Ganny and Manek in Part One, the action firmly shifts in Part Two to the war front on India's West.
Reading about the North African campaign and about the action in El Alamein brought to mind another Booker nominated novel The English Patient. A lyrical, evocative novel by Michael Ondatje. Although that novel has the North African campaign of the Second World War as its backdrop, the major part of the story is set in an Italian villa. There is also an Indian character in The English Patient, named as Kip, a Sikh soldier, also a sapper like Bobby in Farthest Field.
Farthest Field impresses in terms of descriptions of actions in the war fronts. The actors being Indian soldiers also makes it even more interesting considering that there aren't many great war books involving Indians.
History only informs what happened. It takes fiction, or "forensic non-fiction" to really make it nuanced and relatable. The long list in the Bibliography indicates the attention paid by the author to get accurate details and accounts of fighting. Even so, as the story is built around collected facts, that too after so many years, there may be some imperfections. But, as the author notes in the prologue, this story is one "in which the lives of a few might stand in for many others."
Hemingway wrote two wonderful novels based on wars, weaving in poignant drama involving people caught in the wars. In the novel A Farewell to Arms, the author used his own experience of working as an American ambulance driver in the Italian campaign of the World War One. And the other novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was again based on the experiences of the author in the Spanish Civil War. It certainly helps to understand the human angles of the wars too in addition to the much heralded political angles.
Farthest Field too skillfully combines personal lives that get dramatically altered on account of war. Ganny and Nugs being one such couple that gets caught up in the whirlwind of war.
In part three, the action shifts to the war front on India's East. Reading about the Japanese advance through Burma and the surrender and retreat of the British, brought to mind images from the fascinating David Lean movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. In that movie set in Burma in 1943, a Japanese colonel puts a group of British war prisoners to work to build a bridge over the Kwai river. Reading about Bobby and his Bengal Sappers moving into coastal Burma, the imagery to me was strengthened by the recollection of the great movie.
The other sections that impress in this part of the book are the stark description of the great Bengal famine of 1943 and the gripping battle for Kohima that the Indian army fights with the Japanese.
In the afterword, the author provides a lucid summary of the events and the role of various agencies in India during the crucial period of 1939-45. One also gets a greater clarity on the background and role of the Indian National Army formed by Subhas Chandra Bose. Neither Nehru's Congress nor Bose's INA are depicted as game changers. The former comes across as largely ineffective, while the latter as almost insignificant. And the third set of people, neither left nor right leaning, were not so much concerned about either sides of the war - the fascists or the imperialists. The ones that joined the British Indian army mostly came from this group. Even if it was merely self-interest or a sense of adventure that drove them to join the military, they too deserve a place in the nation's memory. Farthest Field succeeds in reviving that memory. Whatever be their motivations or political views, these Indians fought so valiantly that they changed forever the perception about the Indian military force.
Hope this excellent book rekindles interest in our modern history. Somehow, the textbooks don't do an adequate job of drawing young minds deeper into the study of history. Vested political interests conniving to present a selective or an incomplete version of history through the school curriculum also doesn't help improve the situation.
http://roots-n-wings.blogspot.com/
Reconstructing the events of the past with painstaking research, what he has gifted us is a rare account of the important years 1939-45 in Indian history.
In the prologue, the author points out how personal and institutional memories go through revising and reshaping. The interviews he conducted with the Indian veterans illustrated this, he says. Well, that must be true to some extent of any history. People remembering differently. Remembering some facts and forgetting others to suit a narrative. The author puts it nicely- "In general , their memories, like all memories, were smoothed and polished by time, as pebbles in a stream."
Perfect or not, memory of the nation's history is definitely important. What are we without a memory of our history? As Nietzsche said, it is only the beast that lives unhistorically.
The second world war must be one of the most recounted events in modern history. While ably providing the missing Indian context in the war, Farthest Field also helped me recall some great novels and movies made on the subject of the Second World War. All these works on the war usually have focused on just one aspect of or one location in the war.
Farthest Field holds your attention from page one. Divided into three parts, the action on the Indian mainland as well as on the western and the eastern parts of India are covered.
In the first chapter there is a description of the Parsi household from where the protagonist Bobby hails. At once ribbing and respectful, the definition runs like this: " The Parsis: pale as scalps, mad as coots, noses like commas on the page. They were devoutly civilised, consummately lawful...".
The author certainly has a little license on the community, as his own grandmother, an important character in the book, Nurgesh (Nugs) hails from it. While reading this chapter I remembered Rohinton Mistry's fine novel, the Booker nominated Such a Long Journey, which is entirely the story of a Parsi family. There is difference in the writing styles and there is no war in Such a Long Journey.
After setting down the backgrounds of the main protagonists Bobby and his brothers-in-law, Ganny and Manek in Part One, the action firmly shifts in Part Two to the war front on India's West.
Reading about the North African campaign and about the action in El Alamein brought to mind another Booker nominated novel The English Patient. A lyrical, evocative novel by Michael Ondatje. Although that novel has the North African campaign of the Second World War as its backdrop, the major part of the story is set in an Italian villa. There is also an Indian character in The English Patient, named as Kip, a Sikh soldier, also a sapper like Bobby in Farthest Field.
Farthest Field impresses in terms of descriptions of actions in the war fronts. The actors being Indian soldiers also makes it even more interesting considering that there aren't many great war books involving Indians.
History only informs what happened. It takes fiction, or "forensic non-fiction" to really make it nuanced and relatable. The long list in the Bibliography indicates the attention paid by the author to get accurate details and accounts of fighting. Even so, as the story is built around collected facts, that too after so many years, there may be some imperfections. But, as the author notes in the prologue, this story is one "in which the lives of a few might stand in for many others."
Hemingway wrote two wonderful novels based on wars, weaving in poignant drama involving people caught in the wars. In the novel A Farewell to Arms, the author used his own experience of working as an American ambulance driver in the Italian campaign of the World War One. And the other novel For Whom the Bell Tolls was again based on the experiences of the author in the Spanish Civil War. It certainly helps to understand the human angles of the wars too in addition to the much heralded political angles.
Farthest Field too skillfully combines personal lives that get dramatically altered on account of war. Ganny and Nugs being one such couple that gets caught up in the whirlwind of war.
In part three, the action shifts to the war front on India's East. Reading about the Japanese advance through Burma and the surrender and retreat of the British, brought to mind images from the fascinating David Lean movie The Bridge on the River Kwai. In that movie set in Burma in 1943, a Japanese colonel puts a group of British war prisoners to work to build a bridge over the Kwai river. Reading about Bobby and his Bengal Sappers moving into coastal Burma, the imagery to me was strengthened by the recollection of the great movie.
The other sections that impress in this part of the book are the stark description of the great Bengal famine of 1943 and the gripping battle for Kohima that the Indian army fights with the Japanese.
In the afterword, the author provides a lucid summary of the events and the role of various agencies in India during the crucial period of 1939-45. One also gets a greater clarity on the background and role of the Indian National Army formed by Subhas Chandra Bose. Neither Nehru's Congress nor Bose's INA are depicted as game changers. The former comes across as largely ineffective, while the latter as almost insignificant. And the third set of people, neither left nor right leaning, were not so much concerned about either sides of the war - the fascists or the imperialists. The ones that joined the British Indian army mostly came from this group. Even if it was merely self-interest or a sense of adventure that drove them to join the military, they too deserve a place in the nation's memory. Farthest Field succeeds in reviving that memory. Whatever be their motivations or political views, these Indians fought so valiantly that they changed forever the perception about the Indian military force.
Hope this excellent book rekindles interest in our modern history. Somehow, the textbooks don't do an adequate job of drawing young minds deeper into the study of history. Vested political interests conniving to present a selective or an incomplete version of history through the school curriculum also doesn't help improve the situation.
http://roots-n-wings.blogspot.com/
June 25, 2021
A super unique point of view of the Second World War.
Something that should be more stressed upon in the Indian school curriculum.
The book was a little slow but personally, I found extreme joy in reading the story of three men and their pursuit for glory in war for colonialist. An army or the worlds largest group of mercenaries? The Indian involvement in the war will always been a topic of little understanding to me and this book has helped me take a step towards a clearer picture of that blurred concept of the INA.
Something that should be more stressed upon in the Indian school curriculum.
The book was a little slow but personally, I found extreme joy in reading the story of three men and their pursuit for glory in war for colonialist. An army or the worlds largest group of mercenaries? The Indian involvement in the war will always been a topic of little understanding to me and this book has helped me take a step towards a clearer picture of that blurred concept of the INA.
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