The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesteryears | Sima Saigal
Author's Note:
Dear Friends,
Till date I have reviewed (as you all are aware of) two books in this Blog. This time it’s a little bit different. It’s about my book-The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesteryears, which has been reviewed by Lipokmar Dzuvichu, Asst. Prof. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. So let me give you a brief background to it.
The global edition of this book was published in London, 2022, while the South Asia Edition was published in New Delhi, 2023. Since then I have been invited to various places/Institutions to brief about my book, including an Audio-podcast by New Books Network, USA on 3rd December 2023. The most memorable invite however, was to the Indian Military Heritage Festival, 14th – 15th November, 2025, New Delhi, organized by the United Service Institution of India (USI). The festival was adorned by prominent dignitaries and authors from across India and around the world.
My session (picture attached) was with David Allison, author of- Fight your way out: The Siege of Sangshak (Pen and Sword Military,2023) and moderated by Dr. Peter Johnston, Director of Narrative and Content at the Imperial War Museum, London. That apart, an insightful academic engagement by a scholar deeply invested in research on North East India is invaluable. In this context I would like to thank Dr. Lipokmar Dzuvichu for his incisive and generous review of my book.
BOOK REVIEW
The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesteryears
Reviewed by: LIPOKMAR DZUVICHU, Asst. Prof. Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Published in Economic & Political Weekly (April 5th 2025 - Vol IX. NO 14)
Recent historical writings on World War II and South Asia have explored a range of issues and themes. These include a significant corpus of work that has focused on military history vis-à-vis the war. Scholars have also explored in multiple ways the profound impact of the war on South Asian societies as well as the role of the war in reshaping and hastening the end of the British Empire in South Asia. These existing studies provide important perspectives in understanding the complex nature and effects of World War II in South Asia. In contrast, historical work focusing on imperial frontiers that formed vital spaces during the war and how societies in such marginal spaces experienced the global war have remained rather limited. Sima Saigal’s book, The Second World War and North East India: Shadows of Yesterdays, seeks to address this lacuna. Focusing generally on North East India, and more specifically, on the Brahmaputra and the Surma Valley from 1939 to 1945, the book examines the significant ways in which a peripheral region of the British Empire experienced the global war. Moving away from the standard histories of war campaigns and battles, this book draws our attention to the socio-economic and political consequences of the war in the margins of the empire. Through an analysis of various complex and interconnected issues, Saigal explores in detail wartime developments, experiences, and transformation in the region in 10 chapters. In studying these issues, Saigal draws on a variety of rich archival sources, memoirs, and ethnographic accounts.
An Overview of the chapters
Saigal’s starting point is a history of the region’s pre-war years. The development of resources such as tea and oil transformed the Brahmaputra and Surma Valley into significant spaces of colonial capital. Subsequently, under colonial rule, extractive policies, “industrial backwardness” immigration and the politics over the line system, the issue of unemployment, and the resultant economic mismatch became striking features of the region by the early 20th century. Various colonial policies, imposed over the course of the 19th and first half of 20th century, had further placed large parts of the North East outside the purview of formal administrative control. The pre-war years also saw a complex political milieu emerging in the Brahmaputra and the Surma Valley, the dynamics of which were also shaped by party politics, including the role and interests of regional and nationalist leaders. While this exceptional frontier context characterized the region on the eve of World War II, the outbreak of the war in Europe and the subsequent effects of wartime demands would soon be felt in this imperial periphery.
Following the outbreak of the war, the colonial government initiated various measures to mobilize public support and resources towards the British war effort. In the North East, as Saigal shows, war collection drives were undertaken through the agency of different officials and non-officials, using various strategies and schemes. In this endeavor, the role of regional leaders, local boards in Assam, planters, the princely states of Manipur and Tripura, as well as the chiefs from the hill districts, were notable in garnering “voluntary” contributions towards the war fund, including raising human power resources. For instance, in Chapter 2, we learn of the enlistment of 30,000 young men in the mercantile marines form the districts of Cachar and Sylhet by December 1940. On the other, regional leaders associated with the Congress sought to mobilize people against the British war effort, even as political maneuverings by regional and nationalist leaders would come to have their bearings and implications in diverse ways at the local level. While wartime demands and exactions fell heavily on the peasant population in the valley, a palpable sense of unease was also conspicuous among a section of colonial officials, especially in undertaking the war collection drive.
The war situation in Southeast Asia, Burma, and Assam was initially viewed by the War Cabinet with “a naive complacency,” and the inclusion of the North East in the defence plans was at the most “merely cursory” (p 70). The colonial government found itself defensively unprepared as Japanese forces pushed their way into Burma. In the unfolding events, thousands of civilians were caught in the mayhem of war, resulting in the mass exodus of civilian refugees, including Indians, from Burma. In this story of flight, Saigal draws our attention to the harrowing experiences of the refugees as they marched through unfamiliar terrain and land routes that connected Burma to the North East. Even as the war threw the colonial administration into disarray and exposed the limits of the British Raj in significant ways, it also abruptly brought into sharp focus the strategic significance of North East India in the defence of the British Empire vis-à-vis the North West Frontier.
While an impending Japanese entry into eastern India caused panic and exodus of town dwellers to the interior areas, this initial reaction, writes Saigal, would transform into a “wave of seething anger and resentment against the Raj” (p 95). In the tense political climate of 1942, the response of the colonial state was ruthless, as the war gave the colonial administration “special powers to deal with the rebels” (p 101). In order to contain the Japanese advance into the North East Frontier, Saigal shows how various strategies were formulated by the British, which included measures such as the “denial policy.” Moreover, to meet war exigencies, large infrastructures – such as the construction of the Stilwell Road- were initiated. The building of airfields, roads, and other military infrastructure in the region not only saw the introduction of new technologies and skills but a large labour workforce was also mobilized from India and other parts of the world to build this infrastructure. This included thousands of plantation labourers from Assam whose wartime experiences- as Saigal notes – have remained largely “forgotten in historical narratives” (p 110). The demands of war-coupled with the labour requirements- also shaped the emergence of new wage rates in such worksites. Many from the local communities were drawn to the high wages offered in these military project sites, as were labourers from other parts of British India.
World War II not only brought disruptions-in India in general, and the North East in particular-but it also “opened” frontier geographies to a range of new linkages and experiences. For instance, Saigal shows that along with the war, new technology, soldiers, labourers, consumer goods, and commodities also made their way into the region. These large military projects also saw “an unprecedented in flow of cash” into the region (p 114). In the process, these resource flows engendered various modern encounters in the region. New native contractors and businesspeople emerged and thrived in the booming war economy by way of trade and contracts. Some in the region assisted the allied forces by providing support services, which included enlisting in the newly formed army regiments and armed units such as the “watch and war” and “V-force.” There were others who aided and served alongside the Japanese-Indian National Army (INA) forces. May also suffered irreparable loss and deprivations from diseases, famine, and the ravages of war. We also learn in particular of the Khasi women who contributed to the global war by joining the Women’s Royal Naval Service and the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force as nurses.
Of the many interesting aspects in Saigal’s work, the experience of the indigenous youth in the war is also of significance. For instance, through the personal memoir of N Hmar, an indigenous soldier of the First Assam Regiment, we can get a sense of the landscape of the war in the region; understand the role and task of the regiment in various localities during the war; get a close account of the campaigns; including the effort by Hmar to learn English and Hindi, and his role as a wireless operator during the war. These histories are often lost or overlooked in dominant war narratives. By recovering these “forgotten” histories, Saigal not only foregrounds the experiences of the global war by ordinary people but also enriches the understanding of the war.
Amid the war setting is also the role of various actors, such as regional leaders who were at the helm of politics during the war. Their actions and decisions were significant in shaping the political developments in the region during the war period. In this regard, the role of Gopinath Bardoloi, and especially Muhammad Saadulla is notable. The war situation, moreover, precipitated other crises. For instance, in Chapter 7, Saigal looks at the linkages between war, famine, food shortages, profiteering, and the clandestine exports of rice that ensued in the region, including the nexus between the government and private firms in the “wholesale procurement and distribution of food in the province” (p 133). Besides, the Bengal famine of 1943 would be felt significantly in the neighboring province of Assam. All these elements came to be closely entwined in complex ways during the war.
On the Japanese campaign front, contingents of the INA-led by Subhas Chandra Bosemarched alongside Japanese forces as they began to make their forays into the North East. In the Japanese war calculation, having the INA alongside its forces was seen as crucial-both strategically and symbolically-in their effort to dislodge the British from India. In order to prevent any possible influence of the Japanese-INA forces in the region, the British launched counter-propaganda through daily broadcasts, pamphlets, newsletter to public announcements, and other similar methods. Ultimately, Saigal notes that in the Imphal-Kohima campaigns, “the presence of the INA soldiers was … eclipsed by the overwhelming numbers of Japanese soldiers” (p 167).
While Naga Hills and Manipur became key arenas of battle during the war, Saigal writes that the Brahmaputra and Surma Valley experienced a “different kind of war, as they battled with inflation, shortages of food and essential goods, rising land revenue demands, coercive contributions to the war fund and the curtailment of civil liberties” (p182). This precarious situation would persist even after the end of the war. In the aftermath of the war, various measures were undertaken in the region by the colonial government. In Chapter 10, Saigal shows how relief measures, compensations, and post-war reconstruction plans were initiated by the colonial administration to deal with the destruction and ravages of war. The post-war reconstruction plans were, however, marked by a lackadaisical approach and flaws in the planning. Moreover, in the post-war period, the region also had to deal with the large cache of war materials discarded by the departing British and the allied forces.
In Conclusion
Through this interesting book, Saigal highlights the complex ways in which World War II marked a defining moment for peripheral regions such as North East India. While a range of actors saw the war in different ways, on the other hand, the responses and experiences of the war also varied. The wartime demands put a huge strain on the people, societies, economy, and ecology of the region. Furthermore, in studying the war, the author examines the regions’ wartime issues and experiences by connecting them to the larger and wider developments of the global war and its subsequent effects on North East India. Saigal‘s book is a delightful read and is a significant contribution to understanding the historical experiences of peripheral societies during World War II. The book would be of interest to students of South Asian history, North East India studies, and war history, as well as to the general readership.
Lipokmar Dzuvichu (lipokmardzuvichu@gmail.com) Asst. Prof. at the Special Centre for the Study of North East India, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.
This review was published in Economic & Political Weekly April 5th,2025,Vol IX. NO14
Download your copy of the review at :
https://www.epw.in/journal/2025/14/book-reviews/british-raj-and-world-war-II-forgotten-frontier.html
You can also order a copy of my book from:
Manohar Publishers & Distributors
Ansari Rd, Daryaganj,New Delhi-110002
sales@manoharbooks.com/manoharbooks@gmail.com
(011) 43583973, 35003196,35003197
(Monohar distributors have copies of the South Asia edition)
AUTHOR: Sima Saigal
