They never really chose the wrong side.But for independent India they were on the other side. The men were forgotten as was the history. “Bobby saw between the Indians and the Japs was what grew on them: fungus on the winners, maggots on the losers.” Particulary engrossing is the account of the battles fought in India’s North-East against the Japanese.How the men fought for a cause they were not sure of and how in death, little separated them from the enemy is brought to life by beautiful prose. The book is extremely well researched and the author has taken very few liberties as and when required. “People have two deaths: the first at the end of their lives, when they go away, and the second at the end of memory of their lives, when all who remember them are gone.Then a person quits the world completely.” Reading this book I was pleasantly surprised how little we know of the Indian army and the role it played in a war for the British Empire.These men were neither celebrated nor despised, only forgotten. The tribulations of this Army in lands far from home are brought to life through the experiences of 3 young men who chose to fought a war on the wrong side. While Europe and East Asia feature prominently in the history of the second world war, we have grossly overlooked a battle closer come that of the largest voluntary army in the World War II, the Indian Army. Raghu Karnad’s “Farthest Field” is a delightful account of a Parsee family and how the war we never fought ravaged their life. Books are special for they often shed light on history forgetten, facts diluted and memories locked away.
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