Description
Book SynopsisThe definitive, engaging and previously little-known account of the 4,227 soldiers who comprised Force K6 of the British Indian Army
Trade ReviewGroundbreaking ... On the trail of the Indian Contingent, Ghee Bowman has travelled thousands of miles across Britain, Europe, India and Pakistan. He has tracked down lost family archives and photographs from private albums, and conducted interviews with the descendants of soldiers who thought their family histories had been rendered irrelevant to the greater story of Britain’s involvement in the Second World War. He has also written a riveting and moving account of these men’s lives, which has enabled him to get much closer than any previous writer to understanding the Indian soldier’s experience in Europe in the 1940s ... This book deserves a wide readership and to be in the vanguard of shaping new histories of the Second World War
-- Yasmin Khan, author of
The Raj at WarThe racist comedian Bernard Manning once remarked that "There were no Pakis at Dunkirk". Ghee Bowman does important and essential work exposing this lie, which itself fuels the myth that Britain's multiculturalism is a modern creation. The story of how our ancestors fought in massive numbers for the country that colonised them needs to be told again and again and again
-- Sathnam Sanghera, author of
EmpirelandThis book is a fitting recognition of the contribution of Dunkirk's forgotten soldiers, including the British Indian Army. At a time of rising division and in the face of the hateful rhetoric of the far-right, now more than ever we need to learn the lessons of our diverse history
-- Anas Sarwar MSP
A rigorous, meticulously researched and engagingly written challenge to the parochial whiteness of British Second World War memory ... A rich repository of Indian wartime experiences
-- Dr Diya Gupta
Evocative ... a labour of love
-- Neil Drysdale * Press and Journal *
Thought-provoking ... Bowman weaves into the history the experiences of a number of the men themselves, not just as soldiers, but as human beings, experiencing British culture and life for the first time ... Bowman does this so well that the reader can almost enter their world
-- Hamish Johnston * Northern Times *
