Short Abstract:
This panel examines the profound impact of the Great War on the subcontinent and India's contribution. From the analysis of social relations, literature, memory, and politics, the panel offers research findings on how the Great War fits within the trajectory of India's history of the past century.
Long Abstract:
This panel offers new research perspectives in the subfield of war studies known as war and society, which looks at "war as a major determinant of social change." The focus of this panel is an examination of the impact of the Great War, especially in reference to experiences, to memory, and to identity. We will analyze how the war altered relationships between the colonial power and Indians, both the political and cultural elite, as well as 'ordinary' people, soldiers and civilians alike, and highlight the remarkable contribution Indians made to the war effort in Europe, the Middle East, and on the Indian subcontinent itself. The war changed India both with regard to the body politic and in terms of economic, social, political, and psychological relations. Political events and processes, namely the introduction of mass politics by Mohandas Gandhi after his return to India in January 1915, the Silk Letter Conspiracy of the same year and Muslim agitation over the threat to the Khilafah, the Lucknow Pact of 1916, and the historic Montagu Declaration of 1917 all had significant repercussions both on the colonial rulers and the ruled and proved to have long-lasting effects. Overall, the Great War set in motion the premises of Indian decolonization.
Accepted papers:
Session 1
Punjab and the Great War: themes and fresh insights
Ian Talbot
(University of Southampton)
Paper short abstract:
The paper brings new insights into two key wartime experiences in the Punjab province: namely the recruitment of large numbers of servicemen and the trans-national revolutionary threat posed to this 'model' province of British India.
Paper long abstract:
The impact of the First World War on the north western Indian province of Punjab has been the focus of considerable historical writing. This has reflected the contrasting themes of the province's value to the British war effort and the anti-colonial nationalist threats posed by militant Punjabis. The standard historical account points to the raising of hundreds of thousands of volunteer troops that occurred along with the trans-national revolutionary threat posed by the Sikh dominated Ghadr movement. This paper suggests ways in which fresh source material might lead to a more nuanced understanding of the Punjab's wartime experience. District level records are used to interrogate the account of recruitment provided by the colonial administrator M.S.Leigh in the well-known works, 'The Punjab and the War' and the War Services of the Shahpur District'. Tensions and rivalries amongst 'loyalist' military contractors existed in a process that was not as smooth or top-down driven as previously portrayed. Statements of couriers apprehended by the British security services in the Silk Letter Conspiracy are deployed to uncover the involvement of Lahore Mosques and Muslim students in support and funding for jihadist movements. This reveals that the Ghadr Movement was not the only transnational threat to the wartime British control of the 'model' Punjab province.
The Bombay presidency's 'home front', 1914-1918
Sarah Ansari
(Royal Holloway, University of London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper explores the Great War’s immediate impact on and longer-term legacies for Bombay Presidency, looking at ports, prisoners-of-war and other conflict-related activities between 1914 and 1918.
Paper long abstract:
This paper explores the Great War in relation to its consequences for one of the key administrative divisions of British India, namely Bombay Presidency. Bombay Presidency may not have been the most important source of recruits to the Indian Army, but the conflict's immediate impact, together with its long-lasting legacy, was enormous there. Drawing on contemporary records in the British Library, the UK National Archives and the Imperial War Museum, my contribution will highlight the various ways in which the war 'came home' to this part of British India by investigating the knock-on effects of the huge number of combatants who passed through its ports (between 1914 and 1918 well over one million troops and related personnel embarked and disembarked at the docks in Bombay alone), the camps set up to house enemy prisoners-of-war and other nationals at Ahmadnagar, Belgaum and Bellary, the hospitals such as that at Deolali that dealt with the wounded, the military cemeteries where those who died were buried, and the civilian war relief effort that took place during these years.
Tribal Belt and the defence of British India: a critical appraisal of British strategy in the North-West Frontier during the first world war
Salman Bangash
(University of Peshawar, Pakistan )
Paper short abstract:
What was the strategic importance of the Tribal Areas and what strategy was framed by the British Raj in India to protect its imperial Interest in the region during the course of the First World War.
Paper long abstract:
This research paper discusses one of the most complex and complicated frontier quandary that was faced by the British Empire in India during the First World War. Tribal Belt in the North-West Frontier of British India due to its geography and culture was one of the most hazardous, dangerous and ungovernable, place in the midst of the British Empire's many frontiers spread across the globe. Tribal Belt was defined topographically a strategic zone. The region was one of the most sensitive parts of British administration in India. Peace, stability and effective control of the area was vital and essential for the protection of India.
During the First World War, the British were faced with multifaceted problems and challenges in the Tribal Belt i:e, the activities and propaganda of the Central Powers, the influence of Amir of Afghanistan and the rise of Pan-Islamism in the region were some serious and worrying factors which could create disastrous situation for the British not only in the North West Frontier but throughout India. This paper would critically evaluate and argue, why were the British so sensitive about the Tribal Areas? How important was the role of Afghanistan in this critical period? How the British counter Central Powers activities and propaganda in the area? And what strategy was devised by the British to maintain peace and stability in the Tribal Areas?
The view from Government House: Sir Michael O'Dwyer's war
Nick Lloyd
(King's College London)
Paper short abstract:
This paper will analyse Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, during the Great War. It will examine how he maintained imperial rule in the Punjab, including the vital role he played in leading the recruitment effort for the Indian Army.
Paper long abstract:
The chapter will analyse Sir Michael O'Dwyer, the Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab, during the Great War. While frequently maligned as a ruthless and authoritarian figure, O'Dwyer was a far more responsible and impressive character than is often assumed. This essay will go beyond the 'diehard' caricature of O'Dwyer to examine the 'view from Government House'; how Sir Michael maintained imperial rule in the Punjab through some of the most testing times in the history of British India. It will examine the vital role he played in mobilizing the province for war, in leading the recruitment effort for the Indian Army (of which the Punjab was its main recruiting ground), and in suppressing any dissent that emerged. This essay will show that the preponderant contribution Indian troops made to the imperial war effort was, in no small part, due to the efforts of Sir Michael and his staff in Lahore. He thus made an important, yet little known, contribution to the winning of the Great War.
"Our proud privilege to nurse Indian soldiers back to health!": Indian ambulance corps in WWI
Maria Framke
(Universität Rostock)
Paper short abstract:
The paper examines Indian initiatives providing humanitarian assistance during the First World War. In particular it looks into the setting up, working and objectives of three Ambulance Corps: the Indian Field Ambulance Training Corps, Bengal Ambulance Corps and the St. John Ambulance Corps.
Paper long abstract:
In WWI India fought at the side of Great Britain against the Central Powers and their ally, the Ottoman Empire. While soldiers of the British Indian army served in France, Mesopotamia, East Africa and China, extensive Indian humanitarian initiatives emerged to help wounded military and civilians victims of the war in Europe, Mesopotamia and India.
Recent literature has addressed the question of organizing medical assistance and relief for wounded and sick soldiers in military hospitals in Great Britain and France which became sites of propaganda and imperial anxiety, but also of 'subaltern' agency and resistance. This paper, however, shifts the focus from the metropolitan institutions and the colonial receivers of help to Indian initiatives providing humanitarian assistance. In particular the paper looks into the setting up and working of three Ambulance Corps. While the Indian Field Ambulance Training Corps became active in assisting Indian victims in Great Britain, both the Bengal Ambulance Corps and the St. John Ambulance Corps worked in Mesopotamia; the latter also in India.
By looking at these three case studies, the paper investigates the motives and objectives of the members and initiators of the Ambulance Corps. Furthermore it asks, if humanitarian action by these actors became a tool for advancing and legitimizing Indian nationalism or if their humanitarian initiatives were used for imperial purposes? Did involvement of Indian actors enhance their moral authority and political legitimization in the eyes of the British rulers? And finally, how did the metropolitan and the colonial public perceived these initiatives.
The Indian Sepoy in Europe during the Great War: a cultural history
Santanu Das
(King's College London)
Paper short abstract:
Drawing on various archival materials - pictures, films, letters, memoirs - this interdisciplinary paper will investigate how the Indian sepoys figured in European cultural memory in 1914-18 and how their service interlocked with the discourses of empire, race and war identity.
Paper long abstract:
In 1914-1918, the Indian participation created a stir in the cultural and literary consciousness in Great Britain. Around 140,000 Indian sepoys served in Europe before Sep 1914 and December 1915: during this time they were obsessively photographed and reported in British newspapers and journals, the Brighton Pavilion was transformed into an Indian war hospital and Siegfried Sassoon and Robert Graves both wrote about the Indian sepoy. On the other hand, we have rare insights into the tumultuous world of the sepoys themselves through thousands of censored letters, different kinds of visual artefacts as well as literary representations by writers.
Drawing on a range of material from various archives in India, France, Germany and the UK, including freshly recovered diaries and memoirs, and literary representations by European and Indian writers, I shall explore two lines of enquiry. First, how do these Indian sepoys figure in European cultural consciousness and memory during and after the war years and how did their service interlock with the discourses round empire, race and war identity at the time? Second, how can we reconstruct a more intimate history of the Indian sepoy as he encounters Europe, particularly French civilians and British 'Tommies' for the first time? This will be an interdisciplinary paper, recovering and analysing processes of Indian war experience, memory and identity through a dialogue between different forms of historical and literary material.
Memory of Gallipoli in Indian-Sikh community in Australia
Burcu Cevik-Compiegne
(University of Technology, Sydney )
Paper short abstract:
This paper will examine the memory of Gallipoli in the Sikh community in Australia, highlighting the dual influence of the home and the host countries and discussing the impact of memorial policies in transnational and multicultural spheres.
Paper long abstract:
Gallipoli land campaign took place between April and December 1915 and ended with the retreat of the British and French forces from the peninsula and the unexpected Ottoman victory. Gallipoli has been studied extensively ever since, deepening our understanding of the various aspects of the campaign and its significance for the belligerent nations, overlooking largely the subaltern histories of Indian sepoys who were mobilised for the campaign. Particularly in Australia, the official history aimed at interpreting the event as the mythical moment of the birth of a nation. The date of the landing, 25 April, became rapidly one the most popular Australian national holidays which changed meaning and nature through time. Although more and more criticised for its overly military and masculine connotations and its internal contradictions the so-called Anzac myth is still at the heart of Australian identity. Although Gallipoli has been virtually forgotten in India along with other campaigns of the First World War, Indian and particularly Sikh community in Australia remembers and commemorates it actively. After a long battle for recognition, Sikh Australians who define this memory as a part of their identity finally obtained the right to march in the Anzac Parade in the last years. This paper will endeavour to highlight the dual influence of the home and the host countries in the making of the memory of this community, while discussing the impact of memorial policies in transnational and multicultural spheres.
Dynamics of Being in the Great War: Indian Muslim Soldiers' (Religious) View of the "Other"
Irfan A. Omar
(Marquette University)
Paper short abstract:
This paper discusses select letters of Indian Muslim soldiers sent to their families from the "front lines" during the "Great War of 1914-18." It examines religious imagery used to display bravery and loyalty to the British, and analyzes interfaith and intercultural relations.
Paper long abstract:
This presentation will discuss select letters of Indian Muslim soldiers sent to their families from the "front lines," mainly from France, during the "Great War of 1914-18." The letters selected, most of which were censored, provide a window into how these soldiers viewed not only the "Great War" but a host of other issues supposedly affecting Muslims in British India. The focus will be to try to understand these soldiers' concern from a religious standpoint, analyze their reception of and perspectives on being in the front lines with a religious "other" (Hindu, Sikh, and Christian). The letters reflect an anxiety concerning their role in the war defending British interests, all the while the British - as far as they were informed - sought to dislodge the longstanding, albeit powerless, Muslim political institution, i.e. the Caliphate. The paper seeks to raise some other pertinent questions that generally remain outside the purview of a historian or an ethnologist, such as: (1) Despite the anxieties noted above, what kinds of religious imagery was used by these soldiers - as part of a complex set of motivations - for their desire to display bravery and loyalty to the British (e.g. the Karbala and the notion of jihad) which may help us understand their hopes and aspirations? (2) How were the relations between Muslim and Hindu soldiers? Did they reflect the state of Muslim-Hindu relations in India at the time or were they governed by a different (interfaith, intercultural) dynamic?
Self-determination or self-dominionisation? The Monatgu Declaration and Indian decolonisation
Harshan Kumarasingham
(University of Cambridge)
Paper short abstract:
The Consequences of the end of the War and Montagu Declaration to Indian Decolonisation and British plans to keep the Indian Empire.
Paper long abstract:
The Paris Peace Treaty and Woodrow Wilson's famous Fourteen Points were viewed by many to offer a new world of self-determination and an end to imperialism and external dominations. India had made a massive financial, material and especially human contribution to a very European war. The idealism that came from Versailles reached India where the local elites believed their contribution more than merited a new constitutional trajectory that would lead to self-government within the British Empire and for other full independence. However, many in the British establishment viewed the victory as a validation of imperial rule and the need to keep the Indian Empire ruled by Britain. The Montagu-Chelmsford Reform of 1918 were crafted to try and keep both sides happy with mixed results. This paper examines the consequences of the "Montford" reforms and what it meant to Indian decolonisation and to those who wished to retain the Indian Empire. The paper examines how both the Indian and British leaders viewed the prospect of an Indian Dominion, which few actually knew what this meant, but that the end of the war seemed to promise.
The Great War and the politics of Indian Muslims
Roger Long
(Eastern Michigan University)
Paper short abstract:
The Great War changed Indian Muslim politics as both the religiously-inspired and the secular-minded were all stirred to become actively engaged in politics in response to the danger posed to the Caliph and by the failure of the British to introduce more liberal constitutional reforms.
Paper long abstract:
In 1913 the All-India Muslim League called for a "suitable" system of self-government for India compatible with Muslim sentiment. In 1916 Mohammad Ali Jinnah advocated the Lucknow Pact with the Indian National Congress. The Great War brought together the traditionally-educated and secularly-minded Muslims to offer a common front of Muslim sentiment toward the colonial regime. The defense of the Caliphate and the fate of Turkey were of great concern and a handful of Deobandi leaders openly engaged in 'fifth column' work and traveled to the Hijaz to link up with the Turks; another worked with German and Turkish agents in Afghanistan to arouse the tribesmen of the North-West Frontier Province against the British. The Ali brothers were interned but an agreement between the League and Congress in 1916 came about as the result of the work of young Muslim leadership in the United Provinces and the Congress. Conservative leaders in the United Provinces disliked the pact but the political initiative was held by young Muslims stirred by war against the Ottoman Empire and their link with like-minded anti-British ulema. By the end of the war an alliance had been forged between the modern-educated Muslims, and the traditionally-educated ones that exploded in the Khilafat Movement. The result was the transformation of Muslim sentiment in India during the war. In December 1918 leading ulema attended the Muslim League session indicating that all sections of Muslim India were united. This paper attempts to analyze the transformation of Muslim sentiment during the war.