A chronicler of India amid battles of yore

Bhartesh Singh Thakur

Wait till 2020 and Imperial War Museum, London, will transport you back in time and give you a close view of the war that changed the world. Alan Jeffreys, senior curator at World War II section at the Museum, will be the key man. He is an expert on WWII’s  Indian Army.

In Chandigarh for the Military Lit Fest recently, he says the exhibition will have a global perspective. “It will have photographs, films, art, objects, oral histories and documents. Letters from soldiers will also be displayed,” he adds.

Oral histories will include those of Indian officers too, including that of Field Marshal Sir Claude Auchinleck, the then Commander-in-Chief, India. “We have also looked into the papers of Field Marshal KM Cariappa, the first Commander-in-Chief of the Indian Army, from the National Archive of India,” he adds.

Jeffreys says that while recording oral histories, they allow the veterans to narrate their own story without any question-answer format. “Oral histories give us an idea about things which have not been written about. We do check with primary sources when strange things come up,” he says, adding that the idea is to display the entire story of the war.  The Imperial War Museum had displayed a similar exhibition on World War I in 2014. It is now a permanent feature there. 

About the Indian Army’s role in World War II, he says, “There were not many Indian soldiers when the war started. But the strength rose to over 2 million, including about 15,000 officers. It was the largest volunteer Army in the war. While Punjab was traditionally the main recruiting area, for World War II, the soldiers were recruited across the country.” Indian Army fought in the Middle East, North and East Africa, Italy and South East Asia.

Jeffreys has recently published a book Approach to Battle: Training the Indian Army During the Second World War. Based on the training structure of the Indian Army, which matured after WWI , the book will be available in India next year. Jeffreys says the Army had to expand and adapt to fighting modern professional armies in the terrains of desert, jungle and mountain warfare by WWII.

According to Jeffreys, at Rs 896.16 crore, defence expenditure was the highest in 1944-45, of which half was chargeable to India. In addition, India provided 286.5 million pounds of materials for the war effort, mainly ordnance, textiles and clothing. India was a vital source of men, money and supplies, he concludes in his book. While he doesn’t look at the Indian National Army in the book, there is a mention when he talks about Malaya.

Jeffreys has recently finished another book, London During the Second World War. His next project will be on the Indian Army Generals from 1940 to 1950 and would include Field Marshal Cariappa. His earlier publications include The British Army in the Far East 1941-45 and The Indian Army, 1939-47: Experience and Development.

But why is he interested in the Indian Army, we ask. “I don’t have family connections. My original interest was in WWI. Then I read about Malaya campaign and after that I got interested in the Indian Army,” he replies and points at the lack of resource material that impede historians and chroniclers. While the hunt is still on to gather more material for the exhibition in 2020, Jeffreys says he never fails to take notes of any clue that he gets.