Farthest Field

Title: Farthest Field – An Indian Story of the Second World War

Author: Raghu Karnad

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2015 (First)

ISBN: 9789351772033

Pages: 300

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.

Rating: 3 Star