THE INDIAN ARMY IN THE FIRST WORLD WAR : NEW PERSPECTIVES

The book addresses the important global role of the Indian Army during the First World War. It is an academic reassessment of the army by both established and early career scholars of the Indian Army, as well as naval historians. It looks at the historiography of the army - taking into account the recent work on the army (particularly on the Western Front in 1914-1915). The edited volume covers the traditional areas of the Indian Army on the Western Front, in Palestine, Mesopotamia and the defense of the Suez Canal; however, there are also chapters on combined operations; Indian prisoners of war in Germany and Turkey; the expansion of the officer corps; and the Sikh experience, as well as the mobilization of the equine army at the beginning of the war and the demobilization of the army in the period from 1918 until 1923. Three additional chapters are related to the theme, such as the role of the Royal Indian Marine; the Territorial Army in India; and Churchill’s portrayal of the Indian Army during the Gallipoli campaign in his account The World Crisis.

Alan Jeffreys is a curator at the Imperial War Museum and is an expert on tactics and training for jungle warfare and the British Army in the Far East during World War II.