[PDF] The Ravi Lancers eBook

Author : John Masters
Publisher :
Page : 464 pages
File Size : 17,68 MB
Release : 1972
Category : Fiction
ISBN :

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January, 1914. They had suffered at the hands of the Raj; now they were being asked to die in its name? Reinforcing all that Prince Krishna Ram admires about Britain, in Warren Bateman it seems the Ravi Lancers have a decent commanding officer. A professional soldier, when the Rajah?s heir volunteers the Ravi Lancers to accompany the Indian forces destined for Europe, it is Bateman who guides their path. In the opening months of the First World War, the fields of Flanders could not have been a tougher proving ground for them. But battle affects men in different ways, and while the bloody carnage draws Krishna ever closer to his men, Bateman retreats behind rigid military patriotism. As they slowly forge themselves from a prince?s private army into a unit as effective as any regulars on the front line, Bateman tramples over their customs and traditions. A clash with Krishna is inevitable? In the trenches far from home, the tear between allegiance to their own ancient deities and their debt to an alien god of war starts to cause a wound deeper than any man-made weapon. Dying for a cause not their own, every man of the Ravi Lancers faces the ultimate choice: who do they follow? Making their fateful choice, the consequences for all will be severe? nothing will be the same again.

Author : Kaushik Roy
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 579 pages
File Size : 45,28 MB
Release : 2011-10-14
Category : History
ISBN : 900418550X

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This collection of seventeen essays based on archival data breaks new ground as regards the contribution of the Indian Army in British war effort during the two World Wars around various parts of the globe.

Author : Martin Thiebaut
Publisher : Troubador Publishing Ltd
Page : 704 pages
File Size : 25,6 MB
Release : 2023-01-28
Category : Travel
ISBN : 180313447X

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The remarkable story of a friendship spanning six decades between two individuals whose careers could hardly have followed more contrasting courses beyond the Land of Hope and Glory: that of Graham Haigh, the expedition-mounting adventurer who went on to make the Middle East and South-East Asia his professional stamping grounds.

Author : Eric J. Leed
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 276 pages
File Size : 13,87 MB
Release : 1979-05-31
Category : History
ISBN : 9780521224710

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Based on the firsthand accounts of German, French, British, and American front-line soldiers, No Man's Land examines how the first modern, industrialized war transformed the character of the men who participated in it. Ancient myths about war eroded in the trenches, where the relentless monotony and impotence of the solder's life was interrupted only by unpredictable moments of annihilation. Professor Leed looks at how the traumatic experience of combat itself and the wholesale shattering of the conventions and ethical codes of normal social life turned ordinary civilians into 'liminal men', men living beyond the limits of the accepted and the expected. He uses the concept of liminality to illuminate the central features of the war experience: the separation from 'home': the experience of pollution, death, comradeship, and 'the uncanny': and the ambivalence of returning veterans about civilian society. In a final chapter Professor Leed assesses the long-term political impact of the front experience. He finds that the end of hostilities did not mean the end of the war experience as much as the beginning of a process by which that experience was framed, institutionalized, celebrated and relived in political action as well as in fiction.

Author : Roopa Srinivasan
Publisher : Foundation Books
Page : 322 pages
File Size : 13,41 MB
Release : 2006
Category : History
ISBN : 9788175963306

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This book commemorates 150 years of railways in India. Introduced under colonial rule in the second half of the nineteenth century, the railways soon embraced the length and breadth of India bringing with it rapid political, economic, ecological and cultural changes. The articles in this book explore the impact of this technological phenomenon from a range of interdisciplinary perspectives. From early railway thinking in renaissance Bengal, to railway policing in Uttar Pradesh and issues of management to railway themes in literature, the writers in this volume reveal the world of the railways in all its exciting facets. The photo essay invokes the nostalgic world of steam with a series of evocative images. In the twenty-first century, the ever expanding horizon of the railways continues to draw in people and goods in the third largest railway network in the world.

Author : Rakhshanda Jalil
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 208 pages
File Size : 12,69 MB
Release : 2021-12-30
Category : History
ISBN : 9389867266

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It is very hard to endure the bombs, Father. It will be difficult for anyone to survive and come back safe and sound from the war. The son who is very lucky will see his father and mother... (Extract from a letter by an Indian soldier serving in France, written on 14 January 1915 to his father) The Great War, as the First World War was referred to, saw the service of over 1.3 million Indians, of whom 74,000 never made it back home. For their families, the War was something they could not fully fathom. Soldiers from the Indian subcontinent won over 12,908 awards for bravery, including 11 Victoria Crosses. Yet this unprecedented show of valour by Indian soldiers remains largely unsung and unrecognised-particularly in India. Commemorating hundred years of the end of the First World War, this volume brings together diverse voices-Rabindranath Tagore, Mulk Raj Anand, Sarojini Naidu, Mohamed Ali, Chandradhar Sharma Guleri and many more-that reflect a variety of attitudes among Indians towards the War. Included too are Rakhshanda Jalil's original translations of the works of Urdu poets of the time capturing their responses to the War. This volume of writings, originally written in Urdu, Hindi, Bengali and English, attempts to recognise and remember the contribution of the unknown soldiers to the Great War.

Author : James C. Bradford
Publisher : Texas A&M University Press
Page : 264 pages
File Size : 12,72 MB
Release : 1997
Category : Culture conflict
ISBN : 9780890967430

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As the twenty-first century approaches and the threat of war between the superpowers declines, our attention is drawn to conflicts between nations or ethnic groups with vastly different cultures. The United States, the last superpower, is divided in its motives to maintain its giant Cold War military structure or to create a new world police force that will react to and influence the outcome of intercultural conflict. Brought together by James C. Bradford, these essays by prominent military historians cover three thousand years and five continents in treating various examples of intercultural interaction.

Author : Prasanna K. Datta
Publisher : Xlibris Corporation
Page : 197 pages
File Size : 44,61 MB
Release : 2009-02-26
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
ISBN : 1465318585

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Our story takes place in British India around the first half of the twentieth century when great political changes were sweeping the globe. The two world wars were exposing inhabitants of the world’s secluded regions to modernity, creating cultural conflicts. The mighty British Empire, after reaching its zenith, was crumbling. Gandhi was emerging as a national leader and teaching his followers that freedom from foreign domination can be attained by nonviolent means and that the inhumane treatment of outcastes in India is evil and must end. Father Gambino, twenty-eight, reaches India in 1920 from Italy. He mission is to spread Christ’s love to the pagans who worship idols and believe in many gods instead of his one true God. His goal is to save souls and open churches, schools, and orphanages. He refuses to learn or benefit from the experiences of other Catholic priests in India. He suspects many of his Christian beliefs were diluted, or even defiled, by exposure to Eastern thoughts. After a few years, however, his provincialism lessens when he meets and hears a scholarly British commissioner with in-depth knowledge of Hinduism and Buddhism. When the Japanese army reaches the Indo-Burmese border, Gambino moves from central India to the northeast to work in the Assam Mission. Here, the year after America enters World War II, he rescues an orphan from certain starvation and takes him to a Catholic orphanage. Krishna Swamy was born in the Deccan in 1885, the grandson of a temple priest who believes that everyone shouldn’t read or even hear the Vedas. He accepts the caste system as a natural order. His son secretly resents him and spends the last years of his life with the untouchables, defiantly teaching them the forbidden Vedas. When he masters the Sanskrit grammar his grandfather teaches, Krishna accompanies two of his friends on a pilgrimage. During the journey, the precocious seventeen-year-old observes the strength and confidence of Westerners and the fatalism and superstitions of his countrymen. At Banaras and Sarnath, they expand their horizons by attending many theological discussions. After relinquishing his priestly birthrights, he assumes the nonsectarian name of Bir Dharma and proceeds alone to Calcutta University to become “modern” by studying Christianity, English, and Western values. Professor Das and Brother Curren offer him a scholarship as a Sanskrit grammarian. Bir and Curren become close friends. They discuss commonalities between Hinduism and Catholicism. Bir soon discovers that studying other faiths develops respect for all religions. In 1911, Bir meets Nongrim Hilly in Calcutta who later joins the priesthood to spread Christ’s love to the remote northeast regions. Hilly asks Bir to convert and join him in spreading Catholicism. But Bir declines. He fears organized religions. After six years at the university, Bir goes to Delhi to work in the construction of the new imperial capital. There, a Sikh befriends him and invites him to a gurdwara where he learns about Guru Nanak’s teachings and Sikh history. Construction slows during World War I. Unemployment grows, and the future looks bleak. A cult member offers human sacrifice for early rain. While reporting this monstrosity to a newspaper, Bir meets a foreign war correspondent who introduces him to American and Indian papers as a Westernized guru and freelancer. His fame spreads. Colleges and universities invite him to lecture. Commissioner Gait requests him to speak about Hinduism to his new Indian Civil Service officers. Here Bir meets Gambino. When Bir visits the temples of Bhubaneswar, a cyclone devastates the coastal regions of Orrisa. Gambino joins the Catholic Relief Mission and shows Bir the importance of organization in undertaking large projects. Gambino next visits Father Kenny in Calcutta who advises him to meet Father Hil