Beyond the Lines | From Navsari to World War: Review of ‘The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria’

It is a cruel irony that while World War I witnessed the participation of 1.3 million Indian soldiers, most published memoirs of the war are ones recorded by officers and soldiers from Western armies. Besides, for long, Hollywood films have continued to exclude depictions of Indian soldiers in films from that period. It is in this context that Nariman Karkaria’s rare memoir of his travels and service during the war, translated from Gujarati by Murali Ranganathan, assumes unique significance. Originally written as ‘Rangbhoomi pe Rakhad’, upon Karkaria’s return to India after being a part of the action on three fronts in the World War, the book is a rambunctious and exciting ride across continents and cities.

Restless to explore the world outside his hometown of Navsari, Karkaria left home as a teenager for Bombay and boarded a ship for Hong Kong. Bored with Hong Kong after a while, he arrived in China and was immediately tickled by the food, smells, customs and history in Peking. He points out how the foreign population of Europeans and Americans had increased after the Boxer Uprising of 1900, necessitating the creation of separate areas of living for the occupiers such as the English, Japanese, French, Americans and others for their safety. Karkaria doesn’t hold back his disapproval when writing about Chinese food, the smells on the streets or the custom of permanently encasing women’s feet in lotus shoes since childhood. The women, with their ‘rosy beauty’ and fashion sense however, leave him impressed, and he is reminded of the Parsi women in Navsari who hadn’t much independence in making choices on their personal fashion and style. [caption id=“attachment_12970822” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Screenshot from Amazon.co.in[/caption] In fact, right through the book, the author sketches impish parallels of the places of his travels with Navsari or compares an experience with a point of reference from his hometown or Bombay. While writing about attractive Chinese women shaping their tresses into buns or expressing incredulity about the Japanese running superior trains, Karkaria lapses into light-hearted sarcasm about the absence of fashion or rail infrastructure back home. In Sweden, he is presented with a buffet of dishes on a long table. Surprised by the practice where each guest has to ‘keep track of his expenses’ and pay for the plate and food items consumed, he is reminded of the Irani cafes in Bombay and the food places in Navsari, where he believes the diners would take such a system for a ride. Later, while using British train toilets, he wonders when his country will have a reasonable standard of toilets. Travelling through Sweden and Russia, Karkaria reaches London and enlists with the British Army as war breaks out in Europe. He explains in detail the composition of his battalion and experiences as a private with the 24th Middlesex Regiment. The accounts of his military recruit training are amusing and resonate with the customs and norms later adopted by the Indian Army post-Independence. At the war front, he describes the explosive power of cannons firsthand, the effect of poison gas used in the war, and explains how the trenches were named after the streets in England – small consolation amidst the travails of war – he writes of the cold and how he once picked up a blue overcoat of a dead German officer and ‘used it as a blanket’. In 1916, he was injured by an artillery shell at the Battle of the Somme. Recovering from his injury, he was sent to Asia where he fought in the Battle of Jerusalem in 1917. He spent a tenure at the Balkan Front in 1918 and thus had seen action on three major fronts in the war. Murali Ranganathan is instrumental in ferreting out and translating a Gujarati war memoir, rare for an Indian soldier from that period. Not many such accounts have existed. Another Indian soldier — Rissaldar Amar Singh Kanota — was part of World War I and would go on to be commissioned as an officer in 1917 and then retire as a Major General in 1936. Maj General Amar Singh painstakingly wrote a diary about his everyday experiences in the war and was perhaps among the first Indians to do so. Karkaria’s memoirs of the war is an important collection in this rare list. The translation brings alive with admirable felicity the stress, pains and brutal sights of the war. The descriptions of war alarms sending Londoners scurrying for cover and the shortage of Bobbies in the local police (since the men had joined the war) leading to ‘strange sights of women’ stepping up to take on the policing roles give us a sense of Karkaria’s somewhat prejudiced yet perceptive take of the urban landscape during the war. Karkaria writes about the participation of Indian soldiers from Bengal Lancers in the Battle of Somme, but he chooses not to dwell on it much. In fact, Karkaria’s memoir does not involve any other persons he may have met during his travels and actions. It is intriguing, a tad disappointing, that though his preferences towards pretty women, good food, train travels, and an eye for picking cultural idiosyncrasies are evident, he doesn’t write about any particular person who he would have met in this period. Alternating between prejudices and wonderment while recording the habits and lives of the Chinese, the Swedes, the Japanese and the English, Karkaria is meticulous and candid in articulating his opinion. Ranganathan has managed to capture the wry humour from the local dialect, without losing the engaging thread of the narrative. His translation of the book brings a charming Bill Bryson-like irreverence in the retelling of Karkaria’s travels filled with clever anecdotes and self-effacing humour. Instead of relying on Western accounts alone, the two World Wars need more memoirs from Indian soldiers, to lend authenticity and first-hand credibility to war experiences. The writer is the author of ‘Watershed 1967: India’s Forgotten Victory over China’. His fortnightly column for FirstPost — ‘Beyond The Lines’ — covers military history, strategic issues, international affairs and policy-business challenges. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Tweets @iProbal

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