India And World War I

This collection of essays centers on the Indian experience in World War I, showing war’s direct effects.

This collection of essays explores a neglected area of 20th century South Asian history, the Indian experience in World War I. Societies often are changed significantly by War, and the Indian example in World War I casts light on the relationships between war and society, on the nature of early 20th century Indian society. Part of the purpose of the essays is to raise questions about these topics, while exploring some of them in detail.

The Impact of the War was very direct on the Indian Army and the Indian soldiers, and that impact is explored by the co-editors, Professors Ellinwood and Pradhan. It also had direct impact on the government, as revealed in the story of government censorship and propaganda as told by Professor Barrier, and on the economy as analysed by Professor Saini. Inevitably, it affected political life as well. Although much of political life was carried on as usual, the war increased the activities of the revolutionaries, whose failures are analysed so well by Professor Bose, it changed the bases of politics, as Professor Wolpert describes in the examination of the changing roles of Jinnah and Gandhi and as Professor Brown describes in the analysis of the background of the 1917 Montagu declaration on self-government. The main focus of this book is on the wartime period itself, to portray some of the direct experiences of that period. However, many of the essays also suggest the impact which the war had on postwar India, as in the ascendancy of Gandhi in the nationalist movement or the reorganization of the Indian Army.

Table of Contents

• Preface
• The Contributors vii
• Abbreviations Used in Notes ix
• Introduction DEWITT C. ELLINWOOD AND S.D. PRADHAN
• War and the Colonial Relationship: Britain, India and War of 1914-18 JUDITH M. BROWN
• Indian Army and the First World War S.D. PRADHAN
• Indians in the East African CampaignA Case Study of Indian Experiences in the First World War S.D. PRADHAN
• Ruling India: Coercion and Propaganda in British India during the First World War N. GERALD BARRIER
• Indian Revolutionaries during the First World War: A Study of their Aims and Weaknesses A.G. BOSE
• Congress Leadership in Transition
• The Economic Aspects of India's Participation in the First World War
• The Indian Soldiers
• The Sikh Soldiers in the First World War
• Index

Ellinwood Dewitt C. M.A., Ph.D., is Associate Professor of History and Director of the Asian Studies Program. The University at Albany (New York). Satyendra Dev Pradhan, M.A. Ph.D., is Lecturer in History, Punjabi University, Patiala. Dr. Pradhan wrote a history of the Indian Army’s role in East Africa for his doctoral dissertation and is currently working on ‘Punjab Disturbances in 1919’ and ‘A Study of Maoism’. Dr. Pradhan formerly served in the Historical Section of the Ministry of Defence in New Delhi.