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Title details for The Coolie's Great War by Radhika Singha - Available

The Coolie's Great War

by Radhika Singha
ebook
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Though largely invisible in histories of the First World War, over??550,000 men in the ranks of the Indian army were non-combatants. From the porters, stevedores and construction workers in the Coolie Corps to those who maintained supply lines and removed the wounded from the battlefield, Radhika Singha recovers the story of this unacknowledged service. The labor regimes built on the backs of these 'coolies' sustained the military infrastructure of empire; their deployment in interregional arenas bent to the demands of global war. Viewed as racially subordinate and subject to 'non-martial' caste designations, they fought back against their status, using the warring powers' need for manpower as leverage to challenge traditional service hierarchies and wage differentials. The Coolie's Great War views that global conflict through the lens of Indian labor, constructing a distinct geography of the war—from tribal settlements and colonial jails, beyond India's frontiers, to the battlefronts of France and Mesopotamia.
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Publisher: Oxford University Press

Kindle Book

  • Release date: December 15, 2020

OverDrive Read

  • ISBN: 9780197566909
  • Release date: December 15, 2020

EPUB ebook

  • ISBN: 9780197566909
  • File size: 12290 KB
  • Release date: December 15, 2020

Formats

Kindle Book
OverDrive Read
EPUB ebook

subjects

History Military Nonfiction

Languages

English

Though largely invisible in histories of the First World War, over??550,000 men in the ranks of the Indian army were non-combatants. From the porters, stevedores and construction workers in the Coolie Corps to those who maintained supply lines and removed the wounded from the battlefield, Radhika Singha recovers the story of this unacknowledged service. The labor regimes built on the backs of these 'coolies' sustained the military infrastructure of empire; their deployment in interregional arenas bent to the demands of global war. Viewed as racially subordinate and subject to 'non-martial' caste designations, they fought back against their status, using the warring powers' need for manpower as leverage to challenge traditional service hierarchies and wage differentials. The Coolie's Great War views that global conflict through the lens of Indian labor, constructing a distinct geography of the war—from tribal settlements and colonial jails, beyond India's frontiers, to the battlefronts of France and Mesopotamia.
Expand title description text
History Military Nonfiction