This book deals with the history of the colonial military apparatus as it evolved from the years of the 1857 revolt to the outbreak of the Second World War. Focusing on the crucial elements of the British military system in India, their governing ideologies and organizational setup, the essays address some of the major issues connected with the Indian Army and cover three broad themes—questions of identity, the constitution of a corporate body responsible for the security of the Raj in India, and the debate on the devolution of power to Indians. The articles highlight various aspects of military history such as recruitment policy, ideology, Indianization, and financial reforms. Based on original research and invaluable primary sources, this collection of essays provides an understanding of changing colonial control over India. It would be useful to scholars of modern Indian history, specialists of military history, officers of the Indian Armed Forces, and the general reader.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Anirudh Deshpande
Anirudh Deshpande is a former UGC and ICHR Fellow, and is presently Fellow at the Centre for Contemporary Studies, Nehru Memorial Museum & Library (NMML), researching visual history in modern India. He has co-edited with the late Professor Partha Sarathi Gupta The British Raj and its Indian Armed Forces, 1857-1939 (2002). He has published papers, commentaries, reviews and articles regularly since 1987 in various journals and newspapers. In the year 2000 he wrote a scientific paper on opium production in India and its regulation by the colonial and post-colonial Indian state as a national consultant historian for the United Nations Drug Control Programme (UNDCP). His recent publications include an NMML Monograph The Stigma of Defeat: Indian Military History in Comparative Perspective and a paper titled ‘Interpretative Possibilities of Historical Fiction: A Perspective on Kiran Nagarkar’s Cuckold’, in Yasmeen Lukmani (ed.), The Shifting Worlds of Kiran Nagarkar’s Fiction (2004).
There are no reviews yet.