Farthest Field

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Farthest Field

March 03, 2020

Raghu Karnad’s book Farthest Field (2015) narrates the lost epic of India’s involvement in the Second World War, in which the largest volunteer army in history fought for the British Empire even as Mahatma Gandhi laid the foundation for Indian independence. Farthest Field carries us from Madras to Peshawar, from Egypt to Burma, unfolding the saga of a family amazed by their swiftly changing world and swept up in its violence. Watch this panel of scholars, including Rohit De, Ayesha Ramachandran, and Steven Wilkinson, discuss the real-life history behind the book.

The period in which Indians were fighting in the Second World War is the same period in which the Indian National Movement was at its peak. . . . That makes the position of India's World War II experience q very uncomfortable one in our national autobiography. RAGHU KARNAD