Pankaj Mishra’s ‘From the Ruins of Empire’
ChrestomatherA few weeks ago the Wall Street Journal (Asia) wrote to me asking for a short recommendation of a soon-to-be-published book. My pick was Pankaj Mishra's From the…
Turkish POWs in India and Burma: First World War – Part 2
Guest post by Vedica Kant: The Turkish POW camp at Sumerpur was a self-sufficient camp on a large plain bordered by rocky hills and intersected by a river…
Turkish POWs in India and Burma: First World War – Part 1
Guest post by Vedica Kant: A number of posts on this blog over the last few months have focussed on the experience of Indian soldiers and…
A Kolkata Tragedy
On Saturday, February 11, 2012, the Telegraph, a Kolkata daily, carried this report: The body of a Class XI student of La Martiniere for Boys was found in…
Letter from Guangzhou/Canton
'A Plan of the City of Canton and its Suburbs', 18th Century August 12, 2012 Dear Mr. Ghosh, After reading Sea of Poppies and River of Smoke…
Poem inspired by ‘Sea of Poppies’ and Agha Shahid Ali’s Ghazals
Sent: Saturday, 14 July 2012 8:34 AM Subject: Poem inspired by your work and my English Ghazal's based on Agha Shahid Ali's 'Real' Ghazals Dear Mr.Ghosh,…
‘On to Baghdad’: The Road to Captivity
General Charles Townshend, the commander of the British-Indian force at Kut al-Amara, surrendered to the Ottoman commander, Khalil Pasha, on the 29th of April 1916. The force…
‘On to Baghdad’: Surrender at Kut al-Amara
After the first week of November 1915, some 10,000 British and Indian troops were pinned down in the town of Kut al-Amara in Iraq, by an Ottoman…
‘On to Baghdad’: The Siege of Kut al-Amara
After its defeat at the battle of Ctesiphon, in November 1915, the British-Indian 6th Division, retreated southwards, towards Kut al-Amara. During the retreat the usual order of battle…
On to Baghdad: The Battle of Ctesiphon
Sisir Sarbadhikari and his fellow volunteers of the Bengal Ambulance Corps arrived in Iraq on July 9, 1915. In the following months General Townshend’s British-Indian force pushed steadily…