I just discovered Stephen P. Cohen’s The Indian Army: Its Contribution to the Development of a Nation, which offers glimpes of Indian home life during the Mesopotamian Expeditionary Force. Most of all, the British Government of India wanted men, more and more of them, to send off to the desert plains of Iraq or the squalid trenches of France. Here Cohen portrays the rectruitment center of the Punjab.
The final two years of the war brought enormous pressure upon civilian and military officials to speed the flow of recruitment of the Punjab. Sir Michael O’Dwyer, Lieutenant-Governor of Punjab, toured the countryside from division to division, district to district, exhorting the youth of the martial classes—especially the Sikhs—to come forward. In numerous speeches he argued that India’s cause was that of Britain: therefore India should contribute a proportionate number of soldiers which we calculated to be three million. He threatened that conscription would be necessary if Indians would not volunteer. A quota system was informally introduced and the threat of conscription was used as an incentive. O’Dwyer praised the districts whcih had contributed large numbers of troops and shamed those that did poorly, especially with the taunt that Bengal had provided a "keen and capable" unit.
And now, from Anthony Swafford’s Gulf War memoir Jarhead (a jarring, useful source, regardless of its film version), a description of idle Marines being interviewed by newspaper reporters. "They shake our hands and urge us to speak freely, but they know we’ve been scripted."
"I’m from Texas, ma’am. I joined when I was eighteen rather than go to jail for a few years. Petty stuff. I finds out later my dad talked to the judge the night before and set the whole thing up. How ’bout that shit? But I’m proud of what the Corps has made me."
…I’m proud to serve my country. This is what I signed for. I’m gonna make my mom and pop and my girl proud. I come from a little town in Missouri. They’re gonna make a parade for me, they got the ribbons up already. My mama says the whole town is behind us."
The photo is an undated inspection of Indian troops, perhaps in India, or France.
