Few Indians know that thousands of Indian volunteers fought in lands unknown to them in Europe for the British empire during the Great War in 1914, even though they were looking for India’s eventual independence from British rule. Around 90,000 died there. Their sons and grandsons followed them into the profession of arms, with some families having served in an Indian Army regiment for over a hundred years. The Indian Army’s history is long and has not been covered in this book. Only the essence of what drives men in uniform has been brought out in the 10 deeply researched stories, sourced from museums, libraries, regiments of the Indian Army, war diaries and personal accounts.
This book is a fascinating collection of their stories—often untold—that author Probal Dasgupta, a former soldier, has collected after meticulous research and through interviews of 40 sources in over 400 hours of discussions. It is a fresh initiative to tell stories that have remained limited to military circles. Governments since our independence preferred to keep these tales of valour outside the public discourse, claiming that all those who had fought for the empire had betrayed the cause of our independence. On the contrary, these soldiers upheld the image of India, as this collection of tales shows. The stories range from the battlefields of Europe and Africa to the Indian subcontinent, the 1962 and 1971 wars and the 26/11 terror attacks.
Few of us know that two Indian fighter pilots—Hardit Malik and Laddie Roy—broke the ‘20-minute’ jinx that British pilots feared in World War I. Or, that the gallantry of Lance Dafadar Gobind Singh got him the Victoria Cross. And though his gallantry at Cambrai in Europe inspired a Hollywood film that earned a few Oscars, he got no mention beyond military circles in India! Partly because we as a nation have been in denial of the deeds of our gallant men, and only the India Gate in Delhi is an exception that stands in commemoration to India's massive contribution in World War I. Sadly, there is no such memorial for World War II, which by some accounts was really India’s war when over a million Indians participated in the battlefields of Africa and Europe. The British left India in a hurry after that war and the governments that followed chose to ignore the sacrifices of the Indian soldiers.
Beyond these great wars, as one story in the book brings out, Indian troops fought border wars and insurgencies in Kashmir, remaining morally upright despite dealing with unethical Pakistani-trained terrorists—as one story brings out. The details of how the 26/11 terror attacks unfolded are equally interesting, even though much of its details are known to some of us.
However, Dasgupta must be complimented for bringing out these stories in the most readable collection to show that soldiers are not just daring men, but also humane. This book must be widely read by our younger generations to know that an Indian soldier of the empire was as fine an example as that of the Indian Army today: honourable, versatile and determined to deliver, whatever the odds. We need more such books, as India has more war stories of the past century than most other nations. And they need to be told.
Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields
By Probal Dasgupta
Published by Juggernaut
Price Rs699; pages 318