In 1938, noting that the bulk of the Indian population formed a "e;landless proletariat"e; and despairing of the ability of the factionalized Indian community to unite in pursuit of common objectives, activist K.A. Neelakanda Ayer forecast that the fate of Indians in Malaya would be to become "e;Tragic orphans"e; of whom India has forgotten and Malaya looks down upon with contempt"e;. Ayer's words continue to resonate; as a minority group in a nation dominated politically by colonially derived narratives of "e;race"e; and ethnicity and riven by the imperatives of religion, the general trajectory of the economically and politically impotent Indian community has been one of increasing irrelevance. This book explores the history of the modern Indian presence in Malaysia, and traces the vital role played by the Indian community in the construction of contemporary Malaysia. In this comprehensive new study, Carl Vadivella Belle offers fresh insights on the Indian experience spanning the period from the colonial recruitment of Indian labour to the post-Merdeka political, economic and social marginalization of Indians. While recent Indian challenges to the political status quo - a regime described as that of "e;benign neglect"e; - promoted Indian hopes of reform, change and uplift, the author concludes that the dictates of political discourse permeated by the ideologies of communalism offer limited prospects for meaningful change.

Britain did not ‘stand-alone’ in 1940 after the fall of FranceMen and women from around the world fought in British Empire forces in two global warsUnpublished personal memoirs and other sources now record their experience and achievementsThe first overall recognition of their contribution The great heroic myth of 20th century British history is that after the fall of France in June 1940, Britain ‘stood alone’. This does a great disservice to the millions of men and women from around the world who rallied to the British cause. As in 1914-1918, Britain in 1939-1945 could call on the human and material resources of the world’s greatest empire, and without them could not have held off Germany and Italy, and later Japan. In the First World War, Britain initially depended on volunteers to form Kitchener’s ‘New Army’, but from 1916, it had to resort to conscription. The imperial forces were mainly raised voluntarily although, as in Britain, various forms of social and economic pressure were applied to get men into uniform. In both wars, some Commonwealth and Empire territories applied formal conscription. In 1939-1945, these countries doubled the military manpower available from Britain itself. Volunteers and Pressed Men: How Britain and its Empire Raised its Forces in Two World Wars draws on official documents, diaries, memoirs and other sources to describe how, alongside Britain’s own forces, men and women drawn from the Americas to the Pacific served, fought and suffered injury and death in Britain’s cause. Illustrations: 28 black-and-white photographs

"When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union ... Prime Minister Winston Churchill reached out to promise support to the Kremlin and collaborate with Britain's former archenemy. Fighting the Nazi menace together became the new priority, leading to unprecedented levels of cooperation between the two governments. In order to defeat the Nazis, Britain and the USSR shared intelligence and revealed operative secrets to each other, including those of the secretive security services. They helped with the dispatch of agents and even ran agents together, attempting to foil German counter-intelligence strategies. For much of the Cold War, crucial facts of this collaboration remained top secret. Based on recently declassified files, [this book] explores this little-known chapter of the Second World War ... [using] personnel files and other historical sources to reveal for the first time the activities of officers and agents on this 'invisible front, ' recounting the actions of many brave men and women who risked their lives to defeat the Nazis"--Page 4 of cover.

Shawn McHale explores why the communist-led resistance in Vietnam won the anticolonial war against France (1945–54), except in the south. He shows how broad swaths of Vietnamese people were uneasily united in 1945 under the Viet Minh Resistance banner, all opposing the French attempt to reclaim control of the country. By 1947, resistance unity had shattered and Khmer-Vietnamese ethnic violence had divided the Mekong delta. From this point on, the war in the south turned into an overt civil war wrapped up in a war against France. Based on extensive archival research in four countries and in three languages, this is the first substantive English-language book focused on southern Vietnam's transition from colonialism to independence.

This is the riveting story of Noor Inayat Khan, a descendant of an Indian prince, Tipu Sultan (the Tiger of Mysore), who became a British secret agent for SOE during World War II. Shrabani Basu tells the moving story of Noor's life, from her birth in Moscow – where her father was a Sufi preacher – to her capture by the Germans. Noor was one of only three women SOE agents awarded the George Cross and, under torture, revealed nothing, not even her real name. Kept in solitary confinement, her hands and feet chained together, Noor was starved and beaten, but the Germans could not break her spirit. Ten months after she was captured, she was taken to Dachau concentration camp and, on 13 September 1944, she was shot. Her last word was 'Liberté.'

Master of Deception is a biography of Peter Fleming, elder brother of Ian Fleming, creator of James Bond. Peter Fleming worked as a travel writer and journalist, serving with distinction throughout World War II and played a crucial role in British intelligence operations in the Far East. This biography ranges from the personal life of Fleming such as his marriage to Celia Johnson, a famous actor of the time, to his extensive military intelligence career which took him from Norway and Greece to the Far East. Framed through the life of Peter Fleming this book offers an in-depth study of British intelligence operations in the Far East during World War II.

`Remember that the greatest crime is to compromise with injustice and wrong...? A reserved boy who felt out of place on the sports field, Subhas Chandra Bose grew to be a fearless and inspiring leader on the battlefield of India?s struggle for freedom. Often standing in opposition to Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and other Indian National Congress front runners, Bose was at the vanguard of the `other? revolutionary struggle for independence from British rule. However controversial his efforts, they were all born of one emotion ? his unquestionable love for his Motherland. His many prison sentences and equally frequent bouts of illness never subdued his spirit. A staunch nationalist, a prolific writer, a mesmerizing orator and a matchless motivator, Netaji led by example and believed that every individual must be ready to sacrifice his or her life for the country. This book brings together the transformative incidents that shaped Netaji?s work and words, and highlights the main tenets of his life. From his devotion to India and his unflagging courage, you too can learn to be a little bit like Subhas Chandra Bose.

An “almost absurdly colorful” history of the WWII battle for the Levant: “In places . . . the material is like Casablanca meets The English Patient” (The Wall Street Journal). In the spring of 1941, the Allied forces had one last hope: that the Axis would run through its fuel supply. In Blood, Oil and the Axis, historian John Broich tells the vital story of Iraq and the Levant during this most pivotal time of the war. Four Iraqi generals staged a pro-German coup in Iraq, they established military cooperation between the Axis and the Middle East. The Allies responded with an improvised and unlikely coalition: Palestinian and Jordanian Arabs, Australians, American and British soldiers, Free French Foreign Legionnaires, and Jewish Palestinians. All shared a common desire to quash the formation of an Axis state in the region. Taking readers from a bombed-out Fallujah, to Baghdad, to Damascus, this definitive chronicle features numerous memorable figures, including Jack Hasey, a young American who fought with the Free French Foreign Legion; Freya Stark, a famous travel-writer-turned-government-agent; and even Roald Dahl, a young Royal Air Force recruit and future author of beloved children’s books.

Few subjects have aroused more controversy in recent years than that of empire, and that of the British Empire in particular. Few other subjects are of greater importance to today’s world. How the British Empire was created and maintained, and the impact it had on both the colonised and the colonisers, have been the source of long-running and heated debates amongst historians, politicians and in the media. For several decades it has been analysed from numerous different perspectives, providing a wide range of differing interpretations. Over recent years, new studies have extended the scope of imperial history into previously ignored fields that have significantly added to our understanding. Imperial history can, therefore, no longer be regarded as the exclusive realm of the political historian, or the reserve of an essentially British approach. The British Empire was complex. Each of the far-flung components that made it up had its own particularities. At various times and in various places it took on different forms and had different meanings. It affected people across the globe in a multitude of ways. This inevitably produces a multi-facetted picture. The large number of actors, in Britain and in the colonised world, who played a part in its history adds to this impression. As a consequence, it is difficult to come up with one, all-encompassing, history of the British Empire. All these aspects of the British Empire are apparent in the story of how it ended. What precisely decolonisation was, how it came about, and what it meant for the British and for those who gained their independence, varied considerably from one part of the Empire to another, and from one period to another. How these changes came about, how independence was won across the colonial world, and how it was resisted, are dealt with here across a selection of different case studies. Understanding how the British Empire collapsed tells us a great deal about what this Empire was and about its legacy in today’s world.