The Raj at War

by Yasmin Khan

  sadhu Hindu holy man

  sarkar government; the state

  satyagraha ‘truth force’, key Gandhian term often translated as ‘passive resistance’

  satyagrahi truth force activist, passive resister

  sepoy soldier in the Indian Army (equivalent to private)

  subedar officer in the Indian Army (equivalent to captain)

  subedar-major officer in the Indian Army (equivalent to major)

  swadeshi locally made

  swaraj literally: self-rule; Independence

  tabla drum

  tehsil basic administrative unit, subdistrict

  thakur honorific, used for headmen, landlords and leaders

  thana police station

  tonga horse-drawn cart

  topi hat

  zamindar landholder

  Acknowledgements

  An army of librarians and archivists offered suggestions and retrieved files and simply made work on the book possible; staff particularly at the National Archives in Delhi and Washington and the British Library in London; I can’t acknowledge everyone by name but your work is so crucial and appreciated. A number of scholars have meticulously edited and published collections of archival material, making them much more accessible for all; their edited editions are in the bibliography. Funding from the Leverhulme Trust and the Arts and Humanities Research Council was vital as it enabled me to research in India, Nepal, the USA and the UK and also meant I could meet with academic colleagues who helped to enrich the work. A number of people who served in the war or lived through the time gave interviews to myself or to Iqroop Sandhiawalla for which I am immensely grateful.

  For sharing their insights, asking good questions, giving hospitality or helping me at particularly tricky or important moments (and sometimes all of those things) thank you to Dick Alford, Sarah Ansari, Seema Ansari and family, Liz Buettner, Antara Datta, Lawrence Goldman, Alpa Shah, Sandra Halperin, Ben Hopkins, Steffi Ortmann, Sayeed Hasan Khan, Ashwani Sharma, Heather McCallum, Bill Schwarz, Adam Tooze, Andrew Whitehead, Deepak Thapa and colleagues at Social Science Baha, Tarak Barkawi, Joya Chatterji, Judith Brown, Shuddhabrata Sengupta, Ian Talbot, Benjamin Zachariah, Talat Ahmed, Rebecca Loncraine, Faisal Devji, Christopher Bayly, Indivar Kamtekar, Pillarisetti Sudhir and Sulochana Simhadri, Francis Robinson, Gajendra Singh, Crispin Bates, the staff at Blackburn Museum. Kazu Ahmed generously shared his images and interviews from Manipur and Nagaland. Dr Gajendra Singh of Delhi University who helped with an interview of Captain Yadav, INA, in New Delhi. James Holland gave permission to use the story of Mangal Singh whose full interview is available on his website.

  Chiki Sarkar and Will Sulkin who helped develop my initial ideas and Stuart Williams, Kay Peddle, Meru Gokhale, Fazal Rashid, Katherine Ailes and Emmie Francis and all at Penguin Random House who have steered and crafted the book at different stages, at times making a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. Emmie was particularly forgiving and patient at the final stages. Jim Gill remained brilliantly positive and encouraging throughout. Iqroop Sandhiawalla was a fantastic help at the beginning of the project by carrying out interviews in Delhi and Punjab and enthusing about the subject more generally.

  Aashique Ahmed, Gajendra Singh, Alpa Shah and Timothy S. J. Phillips kindly took the time to read drafts and made helpful comments while busy with their own writing and saved me from a number of errors and Aashique checked some last minute details for me as things were drawing to a close and Amira was about to make her appearance. Ashley Jackson has been collegiate and helpful from the start and has shared his extensive knowledge of the empire and the war, and has pioneered the broader subject. Andrew Stewart helpfully read the chapter on the East Africa campaign. Everyone who attended the conference ‘An Imperial World at War’ in September 2013 at Kellogg College: I look forward to the volume from that conference. The editors of History Workshop Journal, to former colleagues at Royal Holloway, University of London, and more recently the President and Fellows of Kellogg College, Oxford, and the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford.

  My family is the perfect antidote to dwelling in the past and, among many other gifts, they remind me to stay in the present. Adam, Leo and little Amira, thank you for your tolerance and good humour. Markus has been understanding in every sense of the word and has helped in innumerable ways. My mother, Finola Khan, passed away unexpectedly before this book was finished. She was a great reader and a great travelling companion and is very much missed.

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