The world was just opening up to them – with all this romance, and violence – but in the present their world was wrapping up. These were men in the very late hours of their lives, in their nineties, recalling their youth, being young, often in love. “Very exciting, because of the dramatic stories of the past, and also quite moving, because of where we were in the present. What was the experience like? How many of their anecdotes made it to your book? You spoke to many Indian war veterans as part of your research.

And facing the dilemma of serving the colonial power, at a time when the freedom movement was at its peak.”Ĥ. To put it baldly, it was the first time people like us – college-educated, middle or upper class – were fighting. But ultimately my feeling is that the world war in which the jawans’ experience is most compelling was World War 1… What made World War 2 special was it was the first time Indians became officers in their own army in large numbers. “I thought about this a lot – that the story of the jawans is even more lost to history than that of officers.

Since your point of view is from the officers, do you think a chapter from the point of view of a jawan would have been interesting? It was like getting into a boat and the sails just filling up on their own.”ģ. That made the task of writing a book fairly easy. I found the real events of the story gripping from start to finish – at least they gripped me as a writer. Was it hard to maintain a balance between telling a true story and keeping it gripping for the readers? Historical books aren’t everyone’s cup of tea. The takeaway would be that World War 2 – which figures so hugely in global history, in movies and books, and our imagination- is also a crucial story for us.”Ģ. My hope was that this dramatic family story, well told, would help readers take the journey that Indians made through the war. “The book tells a national story and also a personal one, and on both levels what I came across was really startling. What inspired you to tell this story? What do you hope readers will take away from the book? In Verve Book Club, he discusses the process of untangling these secrets and putting it forth in his latest read.ġ. The book involved a lot of research and digging into what’s left of the past.

Author Raghu Karnad’s new book, Farthest Field: An Indian Story of the Second World War, brings to light hidden secrets of the Second World War.

Raghu karnad book