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.