Nearly one and a half million Indian soldiers fought for the British in the First World War. They travelled from remote villages in India to the harsh trenches of Flanders and France, for a war that was not of their making. Yet they fought with unquestioning valour and went on to win the highest bravery awards.  They were the largest force from the colonies, but their contribution has been mostly forgotten. At our Online Talk #ForKingAndAnotherCountry, author and journalist Shrabani Basu delves into narratives buried in villages in India and Pakistan, as well as British archives, to recreate the War through the eyes of the Indians, and tells the personal stories of some of these Indians who went to the Western Front.

About the speaker

Shrabani Basu is a journalist and Sunday Times best-selling author, and a frequent commentator on radio and television on Indian history and Empire. Her books include the critically acclaimed ‘The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer: Arthur Conan Doyle, George Edalji and the Foreigner in the English Village’, ‘For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18’, ‘Victoria & Abdul: The True Story of the Queen’s Closest Confidant’ (now a major Oscar-nominated motion picture starring Dame Judi Dench and Ali Fazal), ‘Spy Princess: The Life of Noor Inayat Khan’, and ‘Curry: The Story of the Nation’s Favourite Dish’.