The Late Colonial Indian Army: From the Afghan Wars to the Second World War

Pradeep Barua, a professor of Asian History at the University of Nebraska Kearney, has crafted an engrossing work detailing the history of the Indian Army from its creation at the start of the First Anglo-Afghan War, in 1839, right up to Indian independence in 1947. What started out as a mere nternal policing force became a frontier army and then a fighting outfit that would be deployed overseas to the Italian, North African and Asian theaters during World War II. In Barua's deeply researched, fast-paced history, he explains the evolution of the late colonial Indian Army while also taking the time to put the soldiers and the various conflicts into the context of their times. The resulting book shows not only how the late colonial forces were influenced by Indians but also how the modern armies of India and Pakistan were both impacted by this historic force that came before.