Farthest field : an Indian story of the Second World War / Raghu Karnad.

"A brilliantly conceived nonfiction epic, a war narrated through the lives and deaths of a single family. A young man from the sleepy south Indian coast, sensing adventure and opportunity, follows his brothers-in-law into the army--and onto the front lines of India's Second World War. His army fights for the British empire, even as his countrymen fight for freedom from it, and Indian soldiers end up on both sides of the vast conflict. The narrative travels from Madras to Eritrea, Iraq, and Burma, unfolding the saga of a young family amazed by their swiftly changing world and devastated by its violence. The Farthest Field reveals how the war transformed India, its army, and the British empire that had ruled the country for so long and would, barely two years after the end of the war, abandon it to the horrors of partition. In penetrating nonfiction prose, Raghu Karnad retrieves from obscurity the epic of India's Second World War--a war the world reveres, but India would choose to forget"--Provided by publisher.

A nonfiction epic narrated through the lives and deaths of a single family describes India's experience of World War II, discussing how the country, its army, and the ruling British Empire were transformed by the war.

New York : W.W. Norton & Company, 2015.

xx, 300 pages : maps ; 25 cm

First American edition.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-294) and index.

Part one: Home. Everybody's friend : Calicut, 1936-39 ; Hukm Hai : Madras, 1939-40 ; Savages of the Stone Age : Miranshah, November 1941 ; The centre of the world : Madras, February 1942 ; Madras must not burn : April 1942 ; Things sacred between us : Mhow, August 1942 ; Do or die : Thal, August-October 1942 ; The King's own : Roorkee, August-December 1942 -- Part two: West. Second field : Baghdad, March 1943 ; The Jemadars' story : Eritrea and Libya, 1940-41 ; The lieutenant's story : El Alamein, July-November 1942 ; Kings of Persia : Baghdad, April 1943 -- Part three: East. Enter the hurricane : Imphal, May 1943 ; No heroes : Madras, May-June 1943 ; Fascines and Gabions : Calcutta, October 1943 ; The jungle book : Arakan, December 1943-March 1944 ; Fight with your ghost : Kohima and Jotsoma, April 1944 ; The cremation ground : Kohima, April 1944 ; The elephant : Tiddim Road, June-October 1944 ; The road ahead : Madras, November 1945.