In 1940s India, revolutionary and nationalistic sentiments surged against colonial subjecthoodand imperial war. Two-and-a-half million men from undivided India served the British duringthe Second World War, while 3 million civilians were killed by the war-induced Bengal Famine,and Indian National Army soldiers fought against the British for Indian independence. Thiscaptivating new history shines a spotlight on emotions as a way of unearthing these troubled andcontested experiences, exposing the personal as political.

Diya Gupta draws upon photographs, letters, memoirs, novels, poetry and philosophical essays inboth English and Bengali languages to weave a compelling tapestry of emotions felt by Indiansin service and at home during the war. She brings to life an unknown sepoy in the MiddleEast yearning for home, and anti-fascist activist Tara Ali Baig; a disillusioned doctor on theBurma frontline, and Sukanta Bhattacharya’s modernist poetry of hunger; Mulk Raj Anand’srevolutionary home front, and Rabindranath Tagore’s critique of civilization.

This vivid book recovers a truly global history of the Second World War, revealing the crucialimportance of cultural approaches in challenging a traditional focus on the wartime experiencesof European populations. Seen through Indian eyes, this conflict is no longer the ‘good’ war.

Publisher: Rupa Publications India

Author: Diya Gupta

Pages: 360

ISBN: 9789361560996

Publication Date: 05 September 2025