Kashmir is a distinct region that has yet to be fully explored. The authors ‘tell’ human stories visually, against an awe inspiring natural backdrop. Their compelling and magical pictorial journey ushers the reader through the Valley, celebrating the ethereal beauty and the cultural diversity of this exotic land, as well as marking the shades of change and transition. It is a book painted with the lesser known colors, embracing the layers and textures which lie beyond the known dimensions of Kashmir. Breathtaking photographs in varying shades and angles, supported by well-researched relevant text, are the tools to communicate to the reader the sense of a classical Kashmir. This is a land with an inherent rich culture, and Alluring Kashmir sets its exotic landscapes against unfamiliar facts and fables, and the intimate aspects of daily life. The reader becomes part of a thriving society, which is waiting to match steps with the rest of the world despite huge challenges.
Chai: The Experience of Indian Tea is a journey into the heartlands of tea production, across the length and breadth of India, offering a glimpse into the history and culture of the people who cultivate it, the process of growing, the diversely beautiful landscapes, the rich traditions and the ceremony. This intriguing volume is a visual treat, that traces leaf to cup, covering the entire spectrum of the tea industry through wonderfully descriptive text and stunning photography; put the kettle on, put your feet up and enjoy! Contents: Preface; Chai the Indian Way; Ever Popular Chai; How Tea Came to India; Contemporary World of Indian Tea; Into the Heartlands of Tea; Picturesque Tea Tourism; Bounty of Assam; Divine Boon of Darjeeling; Bonanza of South India; Bouquet of Regional Teas; From the Leaf to the Sip; Plucking the Leaf; The Planter’s Life; From Nature to Man; The Tea Taster’s Verdict; Tea the Universal Brew; The Saga of Tea; Choices for the Tea Lover; A Cupful of Health; Recipes with Tea; Finally the Perfect Cup of Tea; Author Note: Rajan’s Vision / Rekha’s Musing; Acknowledgements; Photo Credits; Select Bibliography; Glossary; Index
Tigers are symbolic of the Indian wilderness and the mesmerizing stripes have long captured popular imagination. A Decade with Tigers is a photographer’s take on the dramatic rise in the popularity of tigers in the past decade. Powered by social media and an increasing number of photographers interested in documenting the various moods and behaviors of tigers in forests across the country, tigers have been anthropomorphized, with some of them becoming the ‘tiger icons’ of India. A Decade with Tigers is a unique tribute to the tigers who have played a vital role as ‘brand ambassadors’ of Indian wildlife. The volume chronicles legendary tiger mothers and male tigers of the past decade, as well as their tales of survival, complemented by exquisite images by wildlife photographer Shivang Mehta, who has spent thousands of hours on the field. Also showcased is the singular diversity of Indian wildlife through spectacular images of the myriad species that share their home with tigers, photographed in terrains ranging from montane forests to the plains of Central India. The book also delves into the changing landscape of tiger photography in India, and contains expert opinions by leading nature photographers on the need for creativity and innovation in the photography and portrayal of India’s magnificent national animal.
The publication explores a spectrum of contemporary Indian creativity classical inspired, tribal, folk and popular arts, reflective of the rootedness and innovation within traditions, as well as new media work in varied manifestations and genres. It features several especially commissioned works and seminal essays by experts framed within the context of the history, philosophy and ideology of the culture, the art stems from. It examines the connection between art and spiritual ideologies and living traditions as they continue to be practiced and celebrated or questioned by hundreds of artists, in a multi faith context. The artists’ biographical sketches and their photographs, the bibliography and other reference material, make it a collectors’ delight and a useful stand-alone resource book, first of its kind, on spiritual and devotional Indian art with its multilayered philosophical, mystical and cultural resonance. Contents: Volume I: Foreword – Karan Sing; Spirituality and Culture: India’s Gifts to the World Martin Gurvich; Acknowledgements – Martin Gurvich and Sushma K. Bahl. Essays: Adi Anadi Anant: Continuum Sushma K. Bahl; Abodes of Devotion George Michell; Imaging Devotional Theologies Kenneth R. Valpey; Devotion in Art, Craft and Textiles Jaya Jaitly; Popular Expressions of Devotion Devdutt Pattanaik; Collection A to M; Artists; Glossary; Bibliography; Index. Volume II: Foreword – Prof. Lokesh Chandra; Essays: Dashavatara:The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu Steven J. Rosen; Archetypal Imagery in Neo-Tantric Painting Madhu Khanna; Syncretic Culture and Islam Mushirul Hasan; Vernacular Art: Work, Leisure and Devotion in Rurban India Annapurna Garimella; Methods and Materials of Traditional Painting Desmond Lazaro; Iti-iti: Multiple Contemporaries in Sacred Indian Art Sushma K. Bahl; Collection N to Z; Artists; Cartographic Overview: Select Devotional Art and Cultural Centres in India; Credits; Index.
“I recommend to every Architect, designer and those who have a passion for New York to own this magnificent book…there is no better on the extraordinary Beaux Arts of New York.” —Lemeau, Decorator’s Insider
“This great, beautiful, glossy, polychromatic slab of a book more than does justice to an epic period in architecture when some of the world’s most luscious buildings were designed for some of the most unpleasant people in American history.” — Timothy Brittain-Catlin, World of Interiors
“New York would be little more than another faceless glass-and-steel city were it not for its Gilded Age buildings and institutions… An American Renaissance: Beaux-Arts Architecture in New York City, written by Phillip James Dodd with photography by Jonathan Wallen, is a gilded embrace of this legacy.” — The Critic
The Gilded Age, also referred to as the American Renaissance, is an era associated with unparalleled growth, technological advancement, prosperity, and cultural change. Spanning from the 1870s to the 1930s, it marks the first time that the titans of American finance and industry had more wealth than their European counterparts. As the center of this dynamic economy, New York City attracted immigrant workers and millionaires alike. It was not enough for the self-appointed elite to just build their own grand châteaux and palazzos along Fifth Avenue—collectively they dreamed of creating a new metropolis to rival the great cultural capitals of London, Paris, and Rome. To flaunt their newly acquired wealth they needed an architecture dripping in embellishment and historical reference. Enter the Beaux-Arts.
This book, which has been painstakingly researched and beautifully photographed over many years, takes a close look at 20 of the finest examples of Beaux-Arts architecture in New York City. While showing public exteriors, its focus is on the lavish interiors that are associated with the opulence of the Gilded Age—often providing a glimpse inside buildings not otherwise viewable to the public. While some of the buildings and monuments featured are world-renowned landmarks recognizable and accessible to all, others are obscure buildings that history has forgotten.
Set amid the magnificent achievements of an American Renaissance, this book recounts not only the fascinating stories of some of New York’s most famous and significant Beaux-Arts landmarks, it also recalls the lives of those who commissioned, designed, and built them. These are some of the most acclaimed architects, artists, and artisans of the day—Daniel Chester French, Cass Gilbert, Charles McKim, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Louis Comfort Tiffany, and Stanford White—and some of the most prominent millionaires in American history—Henry Clay Frick, Jay Gould, Otto Kahn, J.P. Morgan, John D. Rockefeller, and the ubiquitous Astor and Vanderbilt families. Names that—as Julian Fellowes (the acclaimed director of Downton Abbey) notes in the Foreword—“still reek of money.” Excerpt from the Introduction
Johannes Vermeer (1632-1675) is world-famous for his scenes of daily life, such as a kitchen maid pouring milk, a woman having a music lesson, or a lady writing a letter. However, when Vermeer began painting around the age of 21, he focused primarily on traditional subjects derived from the Bible and classical mythology. Not only do these early works differ greatly from his later paintings in terms of subject matter, they also differ in style. This publication deals with the young Vermeer’s training and artistic development. It also gives an account of the rediscovery of his early work in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The exhibition unites three paintings from the beginning of Vermeer’s artistic career: the Mauritshuis’ Diana and her nymphs of c. 1653-1654, is joined by Christ in the house of Martha and Mary (c. 1655) from the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, and The Procuress (1656) from the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen in Dresden. These three paintings afford an image of the artist seeking his own style. All three paintings have recently been restored. Within this context, the differences between Johannes Vermeer’s early and late work also emerge clearly. The Young Vermeer is organized in collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden and the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh.
A photographic narrative that crosses the world’s main cities to witness the shared intentions and feelings that bind the single Pride events in one big wave that envelops and crosses all countries, exalting the uniqueness and variegated compositions of identities and modes. A snapshot of global LGBTQIA+ pride, with a focus on Pride parades marking momentous anniversaries, including New York Pride in 2019, 50 years after the events of Stonewall, and London Pride in 2020, 50 years after the birth of the Gay Liberation Front.
The book also bears witness to the spread of the Wave in the countries of Asia, Africa, the Middle East and Australia, which since the end of the 1990s, with particular regard to the last decade, has been gaining spaces for listening and rights.
The Pride project recounts, celebrates and enhances LGBTQIA+ pride around the world, through the faces and claims of the protagonists of a struggle that involves us all: that for a fair and inclusive world, in which no person should feel excluded or discriminated against for their way of being, living and loving.
Text in English and Italian.
Today’s tea aficionado is looking to imbibe tea within a meaningful space, be it at home or in a tea shop. Customers of tea shops enjoy the idea of “tea” as being “an experience”, inclusive of art, cultural themes, and strong design aesthetics. Better still if these motifs are found within a tea-shop that aligns with the shop’s branding and is able to mix modern tea products with new interior design styles, further increasing the customer’s sense of enjoyment of the entire shopping experience. Coupled with tea consumption needs across the world gradually increasing and the tea market expanding at higher rates than previously, the tea industry’s retail environment faces fierce competition. There’s a strong trend toward marrying a better awareness of the importance of effective interior design of a tea shop while striving to express a complete brand image and providing efficient service. In this magnificently illustrated book, a lead designer and tea brand consultant analyses the new design trends and brand management styles of a carefully selected group of tea shops from around the world.
This book explores close to fifty fashionable tea shops that are successful in the experimentation of mixing brand-new products with unique space experiences and providing excellent customer-focused interior designs. An excellent volume for those looking to enrich the retail environment of this diverse and fast-evolving industry.
A large bulk of Indian miniature paintings comes from Rajasthan. These miniatures are endowed with warm colors, primitive vigour, directness of expression and all that corresponds to the unique land of Rajasthan. They encompass its fun and festivities, the charming women and heroic men who fought with valour, loved with great zeal and warmth, celebrated each moment of life and died like great heroes. The major schools of miniatures of Rajasthan are Mewar, Bikaner, Jodhpur, Nagaur, Jaipur, Alwar, Bundi, Kotah, Kishangarh and Nathdwara. The Rajasthani painter saw hardly any contradiction in combining romance with religion, or the mundane with the transcendental. Rajasthani Miniatures: The Magic of Strokes and Colours presents, through a detailed narrative and exquisite photographs, a glimpse into this art that has spanned several millenia. It traces the stylistic sources of Rajasthani miniatures, discovering elements that go beyond geography and time to reveal Rajasthani art’s generic growth. The miniatures have varying styles, belong to different schools and have been painted under many succeeding patrons with different tastes and preferences. This book reflects the uniqueness of Rajasthani art, where shades and strokes come together in what almost appears as a divine interplay to create magic.
Restrooms are inescapably important amenities, but something of a grey zone when it comes to design. In a massive effort to make them inconspicuous, public restrooms have been standardized, buried in underground bunkers, hidden behind walls and unmarked doors. At times, it seems our embarrassment with their very existence has led to an inability to provide sound sanitation. This book presents a selection of over forty very diverse public restroom designs, in which toilets enjoy special status as a vehicle for various artistic and cultural expressions, corporate values and the needs of different social groups.
Four experts from different backgrounds and countries have been invited to write on sensitive issues in public restroom design. More than 500 full-color photographs, plans and detailed descriptions illustrate the designs in detail and provide fascinating information to architects, interior designers, students, and so on.
Manuelle Gautrand Architecture is a Parisian-based architecture firm founded by Manuelle Gautrand in 1991, sited in the Bastille neighborhood of this exquisite European city. The firm’s key aim is to ‘re-enchant the city’ of Paris by evoking emotion, reinventing spaces, and garnering renewal and innovation – to be bold and definitive. At the core of Gautrand’s creativity lies the approach to each new project through the spirit of a blank canvas, with no à priori. Yet, each of the project that this firm produces expresses a specific relationship to the site: a desire to revive it and enchant; a deep commitment to working on programs entrusted to the firm; ensure efficiency, flexibility and surprise. Each project is a unique and symbolic encounter. Fuelled by shared ideas and prominent for its breadth of practice, this book documents the comprehensive collection of Manuelle Gautrand Architecture’s design solutions. It celebrates the intuitive and stunning designs, and the firm’s commitment to beauty, revival, boldness and precision.
The red-figure vases from the National Museum “Domenico Ridola” in Matera and the Rizzon Collection – rich in precious Apulian and Lucanian pieces – offer a unique opportunity to grasp Magna Graecia antiquity from an unusual perspective through the photographs by Luigi Spina. Significant testimony to vase painting between the 5th and 4th centuries BCE, the museum’s artifacts largely date back to the discoveries of Domenico Ridola (1841-1932) and form part of elaborate funerary assemblages, possessing great aesthetic and historical value through which everyday life is reflected in myths.
In the book, black is the protagonist: it enhances the red figures and brings out the keen eye of photographer Luigi Spina. Anatomical details, drapery, and decorative motifs emerge in all their strength without the filter of museum cases, while touches of white enrich the vases’ bichrome palette.
Photographing a work of art means capturing its deep meaning to communicate it to the world. Far from the idea of a museum catalog, the volume is rather a figurative atlas of antiquity.
Text in English and Italian.
The book deals with Norwegian artist Anna-Eva Bergman (1909–1987) and her paintings from the period 1950–1975. She left behind an exceptional collection of works and had a career that stands out in Norwegian art history.
This book brings together several of her best-known monumental paintings. The simplified depictions of mountains, seas, moons and horizons speak to us today. “The way to art goes through nature and our attitude towards it”, Bergman wrote in 1950. Today, the statement has renewed relevance in view of a vulnerable nature and humankind’s footprint on the planet. Through her pictures, she continues to engage and create space for reflection on this subject. Furthermore, the book examines, among other things, Bergman’s techniques, her relationship with architecture, as well as her abstract artistic expression.
Text in English and Norwegian.
The jarring emptiness following the loss of a loved one, the expansive out-of-body sensation of sensual touch, the lassitude of melancholy and the ecstatic receptivity to sunshine. His ability to capture and convey sensation and feelings through the materials of art, places the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863–1944) at the forefront of European art at the turn of the last century.
Interestingly, Munch’s artistic exploration of perception, and his persistent questioning of the objectivity of vision, intersect with ideas that matured within the fields of psychology and experimental optics at the time.
Edvard Munch: Inner Fire examines these connections, demonstrating his continuing exploration of the conditions of sight. The essays in this catalogue examine this phenomenon while also probing a lesser-known aspect of the artist’s work: Munch’s relationship to Italy.
The first essay, Lasse Jacobsen’s ‘Edvard Munch. Italian Impressions’, explores this connection explicitly, as part of a general overview of Munch’s life and work.
The second text, ‘Reflections in Munch’s Inner Eye’ by Patricia G. Berman, charts the art historical context of Munch’s exploration of experience’s subjective dimension. Emil Leth Meilvang’s ‘Seeing without Sight. Munch’s Vision’, on its part, explores the relationship between Munch’s artistic development and simultaneous developments within the perceptual sciences. Edvard Munch. Inner Fire includes essayistic pieces by authors Melania G. Mazzucco and Hanne Ørstavik: ‘I am a Romantic’ and ‘Who Am I’. Each demonstrates Munch’s continuing ability to light the inner fires of other artists.
Supported by a wealth of photographs of archaeological objects, this book delves into a fascinating world of ancestral spirits, revealed by the surprising richness and variety of these pre-Columbian pieces fashioned out of various materials. These works, on exhibition in the Museo Casa del Alabado, in Quito (Ecuador), outline the pre-Columbian view of the world centred on a flow of energy aimed at preserving life. These pieces evoke this primordial energy emerging from mother earth, the source of the good deeds performed by spirits and the ancestral guardian of the permanent renewal of the world of daily life, where spirits constantly draw on the balance of the forces ensuring their survival. Pre-Columbian art has the extraordinary capacity to express the power of reciprocal opposites which together provide a meaning to the existence of animate and inanimate beings.
Hard materials, such as stones and shells, served to embody powerful spirits, such as carts, macaws, or primordial ancestors. Ceramics were suitable for the depiction of ordinary plants and animals. The extraordinary growth of metalworking skills led to the creation of ornamental pieces designed for the elite (chest decorations, nose jewellery, earrings, and crowns) whose purpose was to reflect the power of the sun.
Each picture in the book is accompanied by notes explaining the function the article would have served, while acknowledging that these pieces have lost none of their expressiveness in the modern world.
Text in English and Spanish.
In September 1939, thousands of German soldiers were turned loose on Poland. In 1940, they descended on Holland, Belgium and France. In 1941 they went to the Balkans, and then to the USSR. Armed with Leica and Rolleiflex cameras, some of these soldiers were officially commissioned as photographers, while others were asked by their commanders to snap records of events. Among them were trainees who knew about the Bauhaus, and other, older, men who could remember Weimar. Some excelled at formal portraiture, others were storytellers, stylists or humanists who wept at what they saw. The style and content of their work changed along with the collective mood after 1942, a change that is discernible in the photographs themselves. Celebrated author and art historian Ian Jeffrey – author of How to Read a Photograph and The Photography Book – has trawled through these albums, picking out the most compelling of these works to create an intimate record of anonymous lives experiencing the unprecedented.
“Wide-ranging and extremely well illustrated, this authoritative yet accessible book is a must for anyone interested in the Antarctic.” – Sir Ranulph Fiennes. “Richly illustrated and expertly written, this book reveals our least known continent in all its power and glory.” – Michael Palin. The Antarctic is the last continent: the last to be discovered, the last great wilderness and the last to be mapped – making it arguably the least known place on Earth. The continent’s contemporary significance lies in its importance as a sensitive part of the global environmental system, influencing sea levels and ocean-current circulation in a warming world – but the history of the continent, be that geologic, or in relation to human ecology, is just as vast and fascinating. The Continent of Antarctica is a richly illustrated account of the Antarctic continent, covering the physical environment, biology and history, as well as examining the future and environmental implications for the rest of the planet. The book draws on the authors’ own experiences during many seasons of fieldwork on the continent and surrounding oceans. They use photographs and images from their own extensive and continent-wide collections and from the world-renowned archives of the Scott Polar Research Institute. Almost entirely wild and unspoiled this cold and remote land is clearly an inspiration to these authors and all who have visited it. The Antarctic continent is crucial for understanding and monitoring climate change and in this comprehensive tome one can see a considered and learned argument for preserving the world’s last true wilderness.
Traditional country parks, which originated in the United Kingdom, are very different to the country parks we know today. With the development of urbanization and the improvement of living standards, city dwellers were no longer satisfied with small urban green spaces, and a new style of country park was born. Conveniently located in the outer city suburbs, with tranquil, natural environments, this new type of park met society’s desire to return to nature, and theses spaces have since become hotspots for tourism and leisure. Country Parks includes detailed theory and case studies showcasing outstanding international country park design; analyzes and promotes the current status and development of the country park and its role in urban development; and provides valuable guidance for professional designers working in the field today.
This study of the wooden Serpent figures/headdresses of the Baga people of Guinea is a collaboration by the author, as an art historian, with many contributions from diverse perspectives, including scientists preeminent in their fields, Robert J. Koestler, Roy Sieber, Dennis William Stevenson, Mark T. Wypyski, and Peter J. Zanzucchi.
The text begins with a thorough exploration of the ethnological and art historical evidence for the Serpent masquerade among the Baga of Guinea, bearing an immense wooden serpent figure on top of the head representing a python. Never witnessed or photographed by an outsider, it disappeared in the 1950s along with most ritual performance after an Islamic jihad instated strict prohibitions against indigenous religions. The ritual context is followed by an in-depth analysis of the Serpent masquerade figures now extant in collections in Europe, the Americas, and Africa, as well as other representations of the python in the ritual art of the region. The final sections present the arguments, as a debate, between interested persons in the arts, including art historians, dealers, appraisers, collectors, and curators, and the scientific examinations by specialists in botany, chemistry, physics, entomology, and conservation concerning one particular Serpent figure in question.
2019 marks 50 years of innovation for CP Kukreja Architects (CPKA), one of India’s most prestigious architectural practices. CPKA has helmed some of India’s most iconic structures, including Jawaharlal Nehru University and the National Archives of India. This book is a celebration of these projects and more, exploring CPKA’s personalized architectural philosophies for each. What emerges is a commitment to modernity, community and sustainability. It is with this driving spirit that the firm has built an impeachable legacy for themselves.
CPKA was selected by World Architecture, U.K., as one of the top 100 architecture firms in the world. Its illustrious list of clients has included the governments of India, Canada, and the United States, as well as the Honda Group, Japan.
“Colour orgies […] slung up on the walls.” This was just one of many caustic remarks aimed at Thorvald Hellesen’s first – and last – exhibition in Norway, held in 1919. He would never again exhibit in his native country, where he was gradually forgotten.
In Paris, Hellesen became part of the Cubist circle in Montparnasse. Here he got to know Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes and Fernand Léger. In around 1920, he finally achieved critical acclaim. He became a member of Section d’Or, was a frequent Salon exhibitor, and had his work reproduced in Der Sturm and De Stijl. “Among the Cubists, Hellesen is one of the most interesting,” declared Amédée Ozenfant.
This richly illustrated and well researched catalog illuminates the whole span of Hellesen’s Cubism. His interactions with Orphism, Crystal Cubism and Mechanical Cubism are explored, together with his attempts to exploit Cubism in interior design and fashion. The book also examines Hellesen’s status as an outsider in Norway and partial insider in Paris – and subsequently as an overlooked pioneer of the Norwegian and Nordic avant-garde.
Text in English and Norwegian.
Everythingflows is a book of photographs by Laura Veschi in which the image forms the narrative and emotional core of the work.
Guided by the author’s black-and-white photographs, we explore the world of marble in Carrara, beginning in the mountains – the Apuan Alps – which, for Fosco Maraini – orientalist, writer, mountaineer, and anthropologist – evoke ‘the creation of the world’.
In these places, in these mountains, if you say marble, you immediately think of water: marble was in fact formed from water millions of years ago, from deposits of shells and coral; it is water that smooths and shapes it, and water remains the key element in the working of this stone.
Water, a symbol of perpetual movement, runs through Laura Veschi’s photographs as a subtle, underlying presence, accompanying the creative process and the transformation of matter. This reference to the element is an integral part of Veschi’s poetics. For the Carrara-based photographer, the ‘sound’ of water becomes the very voice of photography, an echo that follows the processes of creation and transformation of marble.
Structured like a symphony in four movements, the book guides the reader along a path that moves from the mountain to the studio, from the raw block to the finished form, restoring the sacred, physical, and temporal dimension of marble. Along this journey, Laura introduces us to the sculptor Filippo Tincolini, following the continuous flow of his thought and gesture from the original idea to the completed sculpture.
Laura, a deep connoisseur of the world of marble, captures the tension between what has settled over time and what is still being shaped, between the memory of the stone and the creative impulse that transforms it. Her images do not fix marble in a static idea, but reveal it in its flow, as though sculpture itself were part of an uninterrupted process in which the past is never entirely past and the future is already in the making.
Art, like the river of Heraclitus, passes and at the same time remains; it changes form but does not lose its essence. And so, in marble, in its working, and in the photography that tells its story – everything flows.
Text in English, French and Italian.
Washington, DC-area architect Robert M. Gurney, FAIA, designs ecologically aware modern homes using natural materials and varied construction methods. This latest volume in IMAGES’ Master Architect Series features photography and drawings of more than a dozen of Gurney’s most recent projects. Gurney is dedicated to design of modern, meticulously detailed, thoughtfully ordered residential and commercial projects sensitive to site, program and budget. Materials are employed with honesty, integrity and ecological awareness. Whether working in complex historical districts or on a vacant site, the design process involves an understanding of site-specific issues of location, landscape, history, availability of materials and construction methods.
The world changed after the First World War. Its aftermath saw the collapse of the German, Russian, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman empires, and the world map never seemed the same again. Though the Great War is widely considered to be a European war, it had enormous effects halfway across the world in India. At the advent of the war, the number of Indian soldiers fighting exceeded the number of British soldiers. Because of funds reallocated to Britain’s advantage, India’s economy took a toll as well.
The Indian National Congress believed that supporting Britain’s war efforts would benefit India’s move towards independence. As a result, over a million Indian men were deployed to fight for the British. Post the war, Britain’s refusal to grant India home rule created hostility among the Indians towards them. This dissent eventually paved way for the Indian independence movement, which was to emerge later.
For the first time India’s contribution to the First World War is carefully documented with details of the different theaters in which Indian soldiers took part. In addition, the authors also examine the unsettling encounters the Indian soldiers had with Europe and European culture. What did the war mean for the political climate in India? What was it like for the Indian soldiers to fight a war they were unprepared for? Using first hand accounts such as letters home, documents from the various army archives and incredible photographs, the authors reconstruct the story of a war which was as much India’s as it was Britain’s.