Amitav Ghosh's Blog, page 21

On to Baghdad: The Battle of Ctesiphon

    Sisir Sarbadhikari and his fellow volunteers of the Bengal Ambulance Corps arrived in Iraq on July 9, 1915. In the following months General Townshend’s British-Indian force pushed steadily northwards, towards Baghdad.       The Turkish army offered little resistance and such hitches as there were came mainly from within.       [...]

On to Baghdad: From Calcutta to Aziziya

    Sisir Sarbadhikari § moved into the Bengal Ambulance Corps barracks, at Alipore, on April 1st 1915. The volunteers’ training was completed in three months at the end of which its total strength was 117: it was led by five British officers – a Colonel and four lieutenants. For the rest there were 72 NCOs [...]

On to Baghdad: Joining Up

  Sisir Sarbadhikari’s On to Baghdad has much in common with Kalyan-Pradeep. Sarbadhikari’s war experiences in Mesopotamia and his time in captivity overlapped closely with Capt Kalyan Mukherji’s. They were in the same places, often at the same time, and they knew each other. They were both from Calcutta and belonged to families of lawyers and [...]

On to Baghdad: 1

  Sisir Sarbadhikari’s Abhi Le Baghdad (On to Baghdad) is in my view, one of the most remarkable war memoirs of the 20th century.       In no small part does the book owe this to the diary on which it is based. This diary (in various iterations) accompanied Sarbadhikari through his travels around [...]

From Iraq, 1916, to the end of the road, in Ras al-’Ain, Syria, 1917

    After the defeat and surrender of General Tonwshend’s Indo-British forces at Kut al-Amara, Capt Kalyan Mukherji was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp at Ras al-‘Ain. This town is now technically in Syria, but it lies right on the Turkish border. In 1916, when the Indian POWs came to Ras al-‘Ain, a great number [...]

From Iraq 1916, to the end of the road, in Ras al-’Ain, Syria, 1917

    After the defeat and surrender of General Tonwshend’s Indo-British forces at Kut al-Amara, Capt Kalyan Mukherji was sent to a prisoner-of-war camp at Ras al-‘Ain. This town is now technically in Syria, but it lies right on the Turkish border. In 1916, when the Indian POWs came to Ras al-‘Ain, a great number [...]

Iraq 1915-16: The Siege of Kut al-Amara

      After their defeat at Ctesiphon, on November 22, 1915, General Tonwshend’s troops (consisting principally of the 6th Poona Division) were driven back to the town of Kut el-Amara, where they had established a fortified base. Here, encircled by the Turkish forces they were besieged from early December to the end of April [...]

Iraq 1915: The Battle of Ctesiphon

      The British campaign in Mesopotamia proceeded at a brisk pace through most of 1915.  British and Indian troops swept northwards, brushing aside Turkish resistance and advancing confidently towards their ultimate objective: Baghdad. But the Turkish forces were waiting for them in a carefully prepared defensive position, at the ancient town of Ctesiphon, [...]

‘I spit in the face of patriotism’

    Within a few months of arriving in Iraq, Captain Kalyan Mukherji had arrived at a devastatingly clear summation of the war. On October 20, 1915, in al-Aziziya, he wrote a letter that is, in my view, one of the most remarkable of the 20th century.   As for the war, what is there [...]

Iraq 1915: ‘A river of blood… why this bloodshed?’

      All of Kalyan Mukherji’s letters from Mesopotamia are reproduced in Kalyan-Pradeep. For the most part they are short, hurried and matter of fact. But some of them, as Santanu Das has remarked, are among ‘the finest in the grand pantheon of First World War letters.’ His first letter from Mesopotamia was written [...]