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8 Stunning War Memorials Of India That Celebrate The Country’s Unsung Heroes

From kargil memorial to victory at sea in vizag, visit these iconic war memorials of india to know about the indian armed forces..

By: Trinetra Paul Published: Aug 15, 2023 12:00 PM IST

This year, the country celebrates its 76th year of independence with ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav,’ an initiative by the Government of India to mark the freedom struggle and pay homage to the nation’s diverse cultures and glorious history. 

The day also reminds us of the many brave hearts who laid down their lives to free the country from British rule and numerous others who have fought wars to defend the nation’s borders post-independence. As a testimony to the supreme sacrifice made by the Indian Armed Forces , many war memorials have been built across the country.

Whether it is the National War Memorial in Delhi or the Siachen War Memorial in Ladakh, the war memorials speak volumes about the soldiers’ unflinching dedication to serve their Motherland. And, their spirit reflects in the words that the Kargil War Memorial proudly bears: “When you go home tell them, for your tomorrow, we gave our today.”

A look at some of India’s war memorials that are a must-visit

National war memorial.

Although a number of war and area-specific memorials existed across the country, there was a need for one monument that paid tribute to the Indian Armed Forces as a whole. Thus, on behalf of the nation, Prime Minister Narendra Modi dedicated the National War Memorial to the Armed Forces on 25 February 2019.

Since its independence in 1947, India has engaged in several counter-terrorism operations, UN humanitarian missions, proxy wars and humanitarian assistance and disaster response operations. This memorial is an ode to all those soldiers who were martyred during their service.

Talks regarding the construction of the National War Memorial had been underway since 1961. Finally, the Union Cabinet approved the plan in 2015, and Delhi’s Lutyen’s zone was chosen as the war memorial’s location. Situated to the east of the India Gate, around the canopy at the ‘C’ Hexagon, the memorial complex includes the ‘Amar Jawan Jyoti’ or the eternal flame and an area that has busts of the soldiers who received the nation’s highest gallantry award, the Param Vir Chakra.

India Gate, an unmissable spot in Delhi, is another war memorial built in 1931 to commemorate the soldiers who were martyred during World War I and the Third Anglo-Afghan War. It is located close to the National War Memorial. The monumental landmark has the names of 13,516 out of 83,000 Indians who lost their lives during the wars.

Kargil War Memorial

The Indo-Pak War of 1999, which was fought at one of the world’s highest altitudes, is also referred to as the Kargil War.

Pakistani troops had illegally captured some peaks beyond the LOC during the freezing winter months when, as part of bilateral agreements, both nations’ armies were supposed to retreat from those heights. With reports of infiltration in Mushkoh Valley, Dras , Kaksar and Batalik subsector, as well as the following capture and death of a patrolling team headed by Captain Saurabh Kalia, the country initiated ‘Operation Vijay’ to clear the Kargil sector of Pakistan soldiers and militants.

The Kargil War was fought between the two neighbours between May and July 1999, and India was successful in recapturing crucial peaks like Tiger Hill and Point 4875. Captain Vikram Batra and Captain Vijayant Thapar laid down their lives during the war and were posthumously awarded the Param Vir Chakra.

The Kargil War Memorial is located at ‘Ground Zero’ at Dras and was built in 2004. Situated on the Srinagar-Leh highway at the foothills of Tololing Hill, the site comprises Amar Jawan Jyoti, Manoj Pandey Gallery, the Veer Bhoomi and a helipad dedicated to Captain Vijayant Thapar. The gallery, along with the Hut of Remembrance, which was added in 2012, bears the name of all the 559 martyrs. The Veer Bhoomi has epitaphs of all who were martyred in Dras, not just during ‘Operation Vijay’.

One can visit the memorial during the daytime and a movie is screened in the memorial’s audio-visual room, which tells more about war. The memorial also houses some of the heavy artillery used in the war and sand models to show the whole terrain.

Siachen War Memorial

The Siachen glacier is the world’s highest battlefield with soldiers posted at sub-zero temperatures throughout the year. The memorial was constructed in 2019 at the Siachen base camp to honour the soldiers who laid down their lives during Operation Meghdoot in 1984.

Another Indo-Pak conflict, the Siachen War was fought under the most adverse conditions with temperatures dipping as low as -50 degrees Celsius. In one of the most remarkable feats of high-altitude warfare, the Indian Army retaliated against the enemies and gained control over the disputed glacier.

The memorial has a structure of white-clad soldiers climbing a ladder with the tricolour behind it. The ladder bears the words, “Every warrior goes to heaven.” One can visit the place between 7.00 am to 1.00 pm.

Darjeeling War Memorial

Situated in the famous Batasia Loop in West Bengal’s Darjeeling district, this war memorial is dedicated to the Gorkha soldiers and regiments who have given their lives to serve the country in wars and operations during and after independence. The Gorkha regiment has always been one of the major troops of the Indian Armed Forces and has contributed immensely to several conflicts.

A scenic toy train journey from Darjeeling to Ghoom, the site of the world’s highest locomotive station, passes through Batasia Loop.

Constructed by the District Sainik Board of Darjeeling, the memorial was inaugurated on 22 March 1995. It has an oval-shaped raised platform with a triangular granite cenotaph. A roll of honour at the base of the platform includes the names of over 75 martyred soldiers.

One can either take the train ride or easily reach the site by road from Darjeeling.

Southern Command War Memorial

This is the only war memorial in South Asia which is made of citizens’ contributions. Nestled amidst the lush greenery of Pune ’s Southern Command Cantonment, this national war memorial is a salute to the achievements and successes of the Southern Command wing.

The silver jubilee of India’s victory over Pakistan in 1971 triggered the idea of building this memorial for the soldiers who were martyred after independence. It was inaugurated on 15 August 1998. One can see the various ammunition, uniforms, rare war paintings and replicas of artillery used during the Kargil War and the 1971 Indo-Pak War.

This national war memorial and museum are open throughout the week between 9.00 am and 5.30 pm.

Tawang War Memorial

The Tawang War Memorial is a Buddhist stupa dedicated to the brave sons of the country who sacrificed their lives in the 1962 Sino-Indian War. It is located close to Tawang town in Arunachal Pradesh and is locally known as ‘Namgyal Chortan.’

There were a number of factors which led to this full-blown war — from India’s stance on Chinese control of Tibet and Chinese troops at the Aksai Chin border to the Dalai Lama fleeing the country. However, the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru wanted to establish cordial relations with the neighbour and was certain that China would not attack. Hence, little to no preparations were made for any clash until matters got worse. China attacked Indian soldiers at Chushul, and a war ensued in Ladakh in October 1962. It lasted for a month after which China declared a ceasefire.

This war memorial is an ode to the 2,420 members of the Armed Forces who were martyred. The 40-feet high memorial has a gallery that showcases the weapons of both armies as well as an audio-visual room to screen short films about the Indian Army.

Victory at Sea War Memorial

Built in 1996, this revered war memorial is located in Vizag and pays tribute to soldiers of the Indian Navy who lost their lives during the 1971 Indo-Pak War. Located close to Ramakrishna Beach, near the submarine museum, the Victory at Sea War Memorial offers an amazing view and a serene atmosphere.

Along with a tri-service representation of artefacts, the war memorial has a T-55 tank from World War II, a P-21 ground-to-ground missile and an RZ-61 missile, which is exhibited during the Republic Day rehearsal parade.

One can visit this place throughout the week. It offers a great escape from the maddening crowd of the city.

Chandigarh War Memorial

One of the largest war memorials in the country, the Chandigarh War Memorial was inaugurated by former Indian President the late Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on 17 August 2006. It bears the eternal names of about 8,459 martyrs who have sacrificed their lives in the line of duty since 1947.

This post-independence memorial has a massive six-metre-tall structure at its centre with walls made of pink sandstone while the names are etched on black granite. The place is beautified with open-air amphitheatre-like seating and is ideal to host theatres and light and sound shows.

Dedicated to the brave sons of the nation, it is located in Chandigarh’s Bouganvillea Garden, Sector 3, and is open to visitors from 5.00 am to 9.00 pm.

(Main and feature image: Courtesy Shalendar Kumar/ @shalendar/ Unsplash)

Related: These Iconic Buildings Define Post-Independence Architecture In India

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Trinetra Paul

Trinetra is an ardent foodie and bibliophile who writes about films, travel, food and lifestyle. As a writer and literature student, slam poetry and storytelling are her go to jam. When not working, Trinetra is busy looking for her next place to visit or binge-watching Instagram videos for travel inspiration.

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War tourism in india: The 70th anniversary commemorations of the Battle of Imphal

By Col VY Gidh, VSM (Retd)

`A Nation That Forgets It`s Past, Has No Future` – Winston Churchill

Introduction

The 70th Anniversaryof The Battle of Imphal and Kohimawas held from March to June 2014. It was 70 years ago that Manipur and Nagaland were witness to an epic battle between the British-led Allies and the Japanese and the Indian National Army (INA). Unfortunately not many in India remembered these twin battles and except for a few stray reports, the Commemorations or commencement of War Tourism in India were hardly noticed by our national media. It was a wonderful experience visiting Manipur to participate in some of the events during these Commemorations.

The Battle of Imphal and The Battle of Kohima were voted as `Britain`™s Greatest Battles`™ in a contest conducted by Britain`™s National Army Museum in London in April 2013, beating others like Normandy and Battle of Trafalgar. The result surprised people in England who thought Waterloo was their greatest feat. And yet, many Indians are unaware of these battles, and that Manipur and Nagaland were the key battlegrounds during the Second World War. Field Marshal WJ Slim, Commander of the British 14th Army during the battles, was voted as the best British general of all time with Duke of Wellington, they were both schooled in warfare in India.

70th Anniversary Commemorations

The 70th Anniversary Commemorations of The Battle of Imphal were organized by the Manipur Tourism Forum and 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation from 23rd March to 28th June 2014. The programme involved a series of events to mark and commemorate key dates from the Battles of Imphal. The aim was to draw attention to the extraordinary events that took place across Manipur from March to July 1944 andpay tribute to the martyrs who died fighting during these fierce battles.

The Eastern Heritage Trails, Imphal has recently introduced a series of guided tours focused on the Battle of Imphal. An initiative of MrHemant SinghKatoch, son of a retired Army officer and an ex-United Nations and Red Cross official, it isthe first-of-its-kind of War Tourism in India.Having undertaken field assignments in conflict regions like East Timor and Congo while in the UN, Katoch wanted to come back to India and research about the World War II battlefields in India, when he realized the possibility of War Tourism in India. These half or full- day tours cover prominent sites in and around Imphaland across Manipur related to this historic battle. They include the Battle of Imphal Tour-a half day tourin and around the city of Imphal; the Tiddim Road, the Shenan Saddle, the Battle of Sangshak, the INA and Victoria Cross Tours. The most popular Battle ofImphal Tour includes the Second World War era airfield-Koirenge; the two War Cemeteries (Imphal Indian Army and the Imphal War Cemetery), which commemorates the memories of theIndian and British soldiers who died during the War; battlefield visits around Imphal and the colonial era Gen Slim`™s Cottage, which is now a heritage property in Kangla Fort Complex. It was once the headquarters of the British 14th Army Commander from where he planned and initially fought the Burma Campaign.

Sketch of Battle of Imphal

The Battles of Imphal and Kohima

The Battles of Imphaland Kohimapitted 1,20,000 British-led Allies against 70,000 Japanese and 7000 INA soldiers in some of the bitterest fighting seen during the Second World War. `Fought between 07 March and 18 July 1944, the Battles of Imphal and Kohima were the the turning point of one of the most grueling campaigns of the Second World War. The decisive Japanese defeat in Northeast India became the springboard for the Fourteenth Army`™s subsequent re-conquest of Burma`: National Army Museum, London.

The two battles were the result of the 1944 U-Go Offensive of the Japanese 15th Army under Lt Gen RenyaMutaguchi. The plan was to conquer India and use it as a launch pad of future Japanese military campaigns. It initially involved the capture of Imphal, cut off the key Imphal-Kohima-Dimapur road and prevent any British invasion of Myanmar (now Burma), which Japan had controlled since 1942. During the battle, 70,000 Japanese soldiers marched to Manipur to fight the Allied forces. Imphal, which was heavily invested by the Japanese 15th and 33rd Divisions of the Japanese 15th Army, was defended by the IV Corps of the British Fourteenth Army, comprising the 17th, 20th and 23rd Indian Infantry Divisions, including the 50th Indian Parachute Brigade.

While 16,000 on the Allies side were either killed or wounded at Imphal-Kohima, 12,000 of them died during the Battle of Imphal. An estimated 30,000 Japanese soldiers died due to fighting or disease in the simultaneous battles of Imphal and Kohima, and on the retreat back to Burma.Soldiers carried the injured back towards the Chindwin river. Those who could not be carried were left behind. The fingers of many of the dead were cut to be cremated back home. It was the greatest defeat on land in Japan`™s history and the vast majority of casualties occurred during the Battle of Imphal. Among the 7000 INA men who accompanied the Japanese till Moirang, about 400 were killed in the battle, while 1500 died of disease and starvation during their withdrawal towards Burma. Till this day skeletons presumed to belong to the dead soldiers are found in Manipur.

The British military historian Dr Robert Lyman who played a prominent role in preparing the case for the Battle of Imphal and Kohima, notes that Imphal-Kohimawas one of the four turning-point battles of the Second World War; the Battles at Stalingrad, El Alamein, and in the Pacific between the US and Japanese navies were the other three. The Victoria Cross (VC), the highest British military decoration for bravery, was awarded to five personnel during the Battle of Imphal and two during the Battle of Kohima.

The ProgrammeDuring the Commemorations

The Inauguration Ceremony held on 23rd March 2014 was attended by several dignitaries including the Japanese Ambassador to India, Mr Takeshi Yagi. Thecommemoration of the prominent battles started with the `Battle of Sangshak`™ on 26th March, where troops from 152 ParaBn with 4/5 Maratha held the garrison against a strong Japanese force. While 152 Para Bn later fell back to the Imphal plains, 4/5 Maratha (now 4 Maratha LI) was ordered to hold the defences around Sangshak. The delay imposed by the battalion on the advance of the Japanese Army enabled the Allies to land forces by air at Imphal and reinforce Kohima by land, thereby saving the fall of these two important locations. The first battle fought on Indian soil from 21-26 March 1944, it was a prelude to the famous battles of Kohima and Imphal. The next was the `Start of Imphal Siege`™ at KanglaTongbi on 7th April, where the Japanese forces planned to capture the large supply depot. A handful of non-combatants of mostly Ordnance soldiers belonging to the Advance Ordnance Depot led by Maj Boyd repulsed a series of attacks of the Japanese forces before troops from the erstwhile 14 Punjab and 9Jat Regiments could arrive. This epic stand enabled the Allies sufficient time in moving back 4000 tons of war-like stores.The Depot was selected to accompany the British Commonwealth Occupation Force to Japan after the war. Today KanglaTongbiWar Memorial is a revered shrine visited by all. A tradition still followed by all young AOC officers is that upon commissioning they first visit the memorial at KanglaTongbi. The DG Ordnance Services and Senior Colonel Commandantalong with WW II veterans and their families from Britain and Japan laid a wreath on 7th April.

The `Battle ofNungsigum`™ was commemorated on 13th April, where Jemadar Abdul Hafiz of 9 Jat Regimenthad won the first VC on Indian soil at Runaway Hill on 6th April 1944. This 1000 feet massif located North East of Imphal town which dominated several road junctions and the vital Koirenge airstrip, was recaptured by the Allies on 13th April after its fall to the Japanese forces.

On 14th April, the INA day was commemorated at Moirang. Col Shaukat Ali Malik of INA had hoisted the Indian tricolour for the first time in India at Moirang on 14th April 1944, where the INA Memorial and Museum stands today. The INA`™s 1st Division had participated in the Battle of Imphal, which included the Gandhi, Subhash and Azad Brigades, as well as INA Special Groups attached to the Japanese Divisions. The other battles commemorated were the `Battle of Tengnoupal`™ near the Indo-Myanmar border on 19th May;`MaibamLokpaching`™(Red Hill) on the Tiddim Road on 29th May, where Sergeant Hanson Victor Turner of West Yorkshire Regiment and RfnGanju Lama of 7th Gurkha Rifles won their VCs at Ningthoukhong on the Tiddim Road; and `Silchar-Bishenpur Track`™ on 25th June, where NaikAgansingRai and Sub NetraBahadurThapa of 5th Gurkha Rifles won their VCs on 26 th June 1944.Some old Manipuri elders who had witnessed these battles as children, also narrated their experiences at many locations.

Since our Battalion, 14 Punjab (Nabha Akal) had served in Manipur during late 1990s`™ while insurgency was at its peak, we have very fond memories of our two years tenure in the Imphal Valley. MaibamLokpaching (Red Hill or Point 2926) was located in the unit area and I proudly recollect meeting Viscount Slim (son of the famous Field Marshal) in April 1998, when he visited Imphal with a British delegation comprising of 50 war veterans of the 14th Army and wards and sons of men killed in the War. The Viscount`™s son, Dr Hugo Slimwas also among the group. MaibamLokpaching was the scene of one of the bloodiest battles involving hand to hand combat fought on the hillock code named Red Hill, adjacent to the Imphal-Tiddim Road. Fought in the last phase of the Imphal Campaign in May 1944, this battle turned the tide of the war in favour of the Allies. Red Hill was later Gen Slim`™s Tactical Headquarters during the initial stages of the Burma Campaign.

The Japanese War Veterans had constructed `India Peace Memorial`™ at the bottom of Red Hill in 1977 in memory of the Japanese martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the battle. The memorial`™s gate faces Japan and is a pilgrimage for Japanese tourists who pay homage to their fallen comrades.

The Closing Ceremony of the three-month long programme held at the Imphal War Cemetery on 28th June 2014 was attended by representatives from Britain, the United States, Australia and Japan. Dr Hugo Slim, grandson of Field Marshal Slim was among the dignitaries. The highlight was the presence of few World War II veterans including 93 year old Sokhojang, who had fought in the Battle of Imphal.

AtSangshak, 84 year local YA Shishakproudly showed us his museum set up at home. It contains rare Allied, Japanese and INA artefacts, photographs, medals, flags, paintings besides other collected items from the World War sites. The SangshakWar Memorial honouringthe valour and sacrifice of the martyrs of 152 Para Bn, 4/5 Maratha and locals of Sangshak village was made many years back, while the Japanese have recently constructed a War Memorial in honour of their martyrs who died during this battle. In Imphal, we were delighted to visit a similar war museum set up at home by one of the founding members of the 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation.

Importance of the Battles

Dr Slim says, `The India/Burma Campaign was long known as the `Forgotten Army`™ in the UK. In the British popular image, the greatest battles and heroes were all in Europe. Scholars the world over are recognizing the significance of the Campaign as the beginning of modern integrated mobile warfare (air supply etc) and a model of defensive and offensive warfare. The Campaign is now taught in the UK and US military academies. Imphal is now recognized as the longest battle of WW II and the combination of so many different nationalities in the XIV Army makes it an important example of what today is called diversity.`

Louis Allen in his book `Burma `“ The Longest War`™ writes, ` Imphal`¦the last place on earth one would choose as the venue of a vast military campaign. Yet it was here that Japanese, British, Indians, Gurkhas, arrived in 1944 to kill other in their thousands. The Japanese were driven by the dream of invading India: the others by the need to stop them.`

Unfortunately, we in India seem to have forgotten these famous battles. Independent India has never shown any care or concern about these war veterans, as they are a living memorial of India`™s colonial past `“ men who fought a `foreign war`™ for a foreign government.It was for the first time that the Indian Army fought a foreigner invader on Indian soil. And it was for the first time the seemingly invincible armies of the Emperor of Japan were decisively beaten by Indian soldiers. It makes us proud of the contribution of our Armed Forces. As per one of our war veteran `“ `Victory in the Second World War has been, by far, our biggest military achievement, yet hardly anyone in India talks about it. The country that sent the largest voluntary Army in history to fight the war, has forgotten the sacrifices of our soldiers`. Fortunately, this seems to be changing with the Indian government gradually acknowledging the significant role played by our Armed Forces during the World Wars.

The Indian Army During the World Wars

During the First World War, 1.3 million Indian soldiers played a major role in the fighting in European, Mediterranean and Middle East theatres. They won 11 Victoria Crosses, while 74,000 soldiers died and 66,000 were wounded. 2014 also happens to be the Centenary year of First World War.

During the Second World War, the Indian Army began the war in 1939 numbering just 2,00,000 men. However by the end of the war, it became the largest volunteer Army in history, rising to over 2.5 million men. It fought gallantly in North Africa, Middle East and Italy, though a major force was committed to fighting the Japanese Army. Their valour and grit was recognized with the award of 31 VCs. These campaigns cost over 36,000 lives, whilst 34,354 were wounded and 67,340 became Prisoners of War.

War Tourism

Many Western countries and some South East Asian countries have preserved the World War sites.`The Battle Box`™ is one of the most important WW II sitesand premier tourist attractions in Singapore. War Tourism is a flourishing industry in Europe with Tour Operators conducting `battlefield tours`™ of World War sites and War Memorials for scholars, tourists and families of war veterans. The 70th Anniversary Commemorations of WW II at Monte Cassinoor Normandy in May and June, or the Centenary Commemorations of WW I this year are fine examples. The visit to Imphal for the 70th Anniversary was enriching, given this was the first-of-its-kind of War Tourism in India. Among the distinguished visitors I could interact with in Imphalwere a group of British scholars, wards of war veterans and the Curator of The Kohima Museum at Imphal Barracks, York. They later left for Kohima to visit the battlefield sites and pay homage to their martyrs at the famous Kohima War Cemetery.

We had a fine taste of War Tourism last year, when we visited the Italian battlefields where our 257 year old unit, 14 PUNJAB (NABHA AKAL), the erstwhile NABHA AKAL INFANTRY had fought with distinction against the Germans during WW II. It was very heartening walking through some of the remote locations and villages in Italy where our troops had served, and the locals speaking well of the Indian soldiers who fought during the War. We later paid homage to our unit and other Indian soldiers commemorated in the famous Cassino War Cemetery and other War Cemeteries in Italy.

Manipur and Nagaland have great potential for tourism in terms of natural beauty,adventure, culture or tribal celebrations.Manipur, knownas `Jewel of India`™ by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, has inspired descriptions such as the `Switzerland of the East.`™ Famous for its indigenous sports and sportsmen, it has produced icons like Mary Kom. The `Manipur Sangai Festival`™held in Imphal from 21`“30 November and the `Hornbill Festival`™ in Kisema, near Kohima from 01-10 December every year draws many tourists from India and abroad. The 6th and 7th Manipur Polo Internationals were conducted in Imphal during November 2012 and 2013 respectively with teams from the US, Germany, some South East countries and India participating. This new form of `Polo Tourism`™ was a big success. There have been British and Japanese tourists who come to visit the war cemeteriesand memorials in Imphal and Kohima.The successful culmination of the 70th Anniversary Commemorations in Imphal this year shows that War Tourism is one area where these states can focus on.The British Fourteenth Army was a multinational force and the Battles of Imphal and Kohima provide us an excellent opportunity to project ourselves to the rest of the world and reach out to those countries which fought in these battles. The 75th Anniversary of these famous battles will be commemorated in 2019 and we should plan to conduct the same in a befitting manner. War Tourism would not onlyhelp in curbing insurgency by providingall round development in the region, it would also assist in promotion of India`™s `Look East-ActEast Policy`™.

(This article by the author had originally been published in The Infantry (India) Journal, December 2014 issue and is reproduced here with permission.)

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• The Newsletter
• The Newsletter 91 Spring 2022

How Global War Memory in the Indo-Myanmar Border-Zones is Refashioning “Remote” Places

Memorialization of the Second World War (WWII) in Manipur and Nagaland through tourism in India was fueled by ground-up initiatives in the past decade. This reveals contested historical narratives co-existing with newly re-invigorated transnational commemorative circuits enabled by legacies of a “global” war. This challenges perceived historical amnesia about the war in South Asia, which is encapsulated by a Eurocentric trope of “forgotten war.” Simultaneously, some of these efforts to re-excavate history situate the centrality of what was considered a “remote” frontier region into a place of global commemorative relations that acquire greater significance in light of regional desires for inter-Asian connectivity.

A “forgotten” global war

At a hotel in the city of Imphal in January 2014, I came across a small brochure by a local battlefield tourism company, which offered a “battlefield tour” of sites in and around the city as well as other areas in Manipur. Battle of Imphal Tours was my first encounter with WWII history within the tourist landscape of India’s “Northeast” region. That year coincidentally marked the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal and Kohima that had begun in March 1944 with the Japanese invasion from Burma. Memories of this battle were propelled into the limelight in 2013, after the National Army Museum in the United Kingdom voted that this event was Britain’s “greatest” battle. A host of public events on a relatively grand scale have commemorated the 70th anniversary (2014) and the 75th anniversary (2019).

Such commemorations include the establishment of the Imphal Peace Museum in 2019, funded by the Nippon Foundation and endorsed by the Japanese government, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe [Fig. 1]. War tourism in Northeast India draws from experiences of becoming part of the China-India-Burma Theatre of war, another “home front” of a global conflict, which was until then governed as the British Indo-Burma frontier. War tourism is a useful entry point to probe questions of broader significance about how historical pasts are constantly amenable to appropriation, particularly by postcolonial nation-state projects and minority resistance to them. More importantly, in Manipur and Nagaland, WWII memorialization and tourism have opened up possibilities for shifting the historical narrative in a manner that seeks to transcend regional and national competition in favor of fostering global connections of nostalgia and memory.

War memorialization and tourism have enabled a peculiar sort of globalization in the past decade, one in which the relevance of war memories transcends nationalizing discourses (and resistance to them). WWII’s global nature has been the subject of increasing attention by historical and international relations scholarship. In recent years, ground-up initiatives have re-excavated (sometimes literally) historical pasts, revealing narratives that challenge the highly Eurocentric trope of a “Forgotten War.” 1 This term that was in use in the 1940s and was popularized more recently by two classic and wide-reaching books by Cambridge University historians. See Christopher A. Bayly and Timothy N. Harper, Forgotten Armies: The Fall of British Asia, 1941-1945 (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2005) and Forgotten Wars the End of Britain’s Asian Empire (London: Penguin Books, 2007).  As such, tourism represents a genre of history production that can reframe historical genealogies made possible by the experience of a “global war.” Some such alternative genealogies may be informed by a nostalgia for empire that remains under-recognized.

These instances become starker in frontier areas, such as the present-day Indian states of Manipur and Nagaland, whose accommodation within national historical narratives after decolonization has been problematic. The problem of WWII memorialization – or Japan Laan (Japan war), as it is called in Manipur’s Meitei language – is fraught and has been in competition with other conflicts (e.g., Anglo-Manipuri War of 1891, Kuki Uprising of 1917) that are interpreted by historians as “anti-colonial,” particularly in the postcolonial context. The resurgence of war memorialization, particularly through tourism, has re-kindled global circuits of memory. Unlike in other Asian contexts, here, WWII tourism ­– fueled by ground-up initiatives – has largely departed from nationalistic agendas and rekindled connections with British, American, and Japanese tourists, for instance. These international connections with Manipur and Nagaland often bypass the Indian nation-state and articulate distinct genealogies created by global imperial warfare. Fraught historical relations of Manipuris and Nagas with Indian national projects can be transcended in favor of these alternative genealogies that posture these places directly with British, American, and Japanese history. Thus, the legacy of global war afforded narrative possibilities through which Manipuri and Naga history are recast as “global” and not solely tied to India.  

Fig. 1: B.K. Sachu, in his late 80s, converted a part of his home in Kohima into a museum that houses relics and memorabilia of World War II (Image republished courtesy of Tora Agarwala/The Indian Express and captioned by the author).

Resurgence, revival, and remembrance

The resurgence of memories of WWII in the region is most visibly manifested in the realm of tourism. War tourism in Manipur since 2012 was driven by amateur explorers and professional tour entrepreneurs on the ground. More recently, they have been increasingly usurped by state-driven projects, sometimes funded in part by foreign governments. Eventually, private entrepreneurial organizations such as the Manipur Tourism Forum , in collaboration with state and foreign governments, came to dominate war commemorations and related tourism infrastructure. The increased interest of the state in upgrading the war memorials of Imphal (Manipur’s capital) is a stark departure from previous policy. It can be read as an attempt to signal the local government’s ability to control what has been a highly militarized landscape of precarity and counter-insurgency. It is also an attempt to brand the city as a world “destination.” 2 Duncan McDuie-Ra, Borderland City in New India (Amsterdam University Press, 2016), 90.  The dynamics here diverge from nation-centric war sites like the memorials in Kashmir commemorating the Kargil War, where border securitization and tourism have come together. In such cases, a peculiar form of military tourism deliberately encourages the celebration and consumption of nationalist sacrifice, thereby creating greater presence of state and populations in areas where the territorial integrity of India is fraught with anxieties of Chinese and Pakistani occupation. 3 Alexander E. Davis, “Transboundary Environments, Militarisation and Minoritisation: Reimagining International Relations in the Himalaya from Ladakh, India,” in Environmental Humanities in the New Himalayas , ed. Dan Smyer Yü and Erik de Maaker (London: Routledge, 2021), 220–38.

The “supply” of war memories is rather diverse, and it is not only catered towards the tourism industry alone. In fact, war memorialization has been a site of global interconnection. On the one hand, it is a phenomena that privileges nostalgia for imperial pasts, while, on the other hand, it manifests ruptures and tensions within minority histories of ethnic nationalism as opposed to histories proffered by the Indian nation-state. For example, the Naga armed political resistance movement against India is based on the founding myths of collaboration and loyalty to the British and Allied forces during WWII. Contrary to this, in Manipur, the royal family sided with the British, while the minority Kuki community is largely held to be disloyal to the Allies. In the Kuki context, scholars and ground activism have interpreted and presented Kuki “disloyalty” as “anti-colonial” credentials. Thus, Kuki soldiers in the pro-Japanese Indian National Army (INA) have claimed compensation in independent India as “national” war veterans. 4 Jangkhomang Guite, “Representing Local Participation in INA–Japanese Imphal Campaign The Case of the Kukis in Manipur, 1943–45,” Indian Historical Review 37, no. 2 (December 1, 2010): 291–309.

In contrast to Manipur, institutionalized war memorialization linked to tourism has arguably had a longer presence in Nagaland, although this is now changing with more foreign investments (especially from Japan) in Manipur. 5 Yaiphaba Meetei Kangjam and Hemant Singh Katoch, “Northeast India, World War II and Japan: Past, Present and Future,” in Northeast India and Japan , ed. Mayumi Murayama, Sanjoy Hazarika, and Preeti Gill (Routledge India, 2021) 252.  For instance, state-endorsed mega-events such as the Hornbill Festival cater largely to a big foreign tourist clientele. During this event, a primitive past and “tribal” culture are juxtaposed with wartime memorabilia, including a WWII themed car rally. 6 Arkotong Longkumer, ‘“As Our Ancestors Once Lived”: Representation, Performance, and Constructing a National Culture amongst the Nagas of India.’, HIMALAYA 35, no. 1 (Spring 2015): 51-64, 56.  The Nagaland state-funded Kohima War Museum was built adjacent to the site of the Hornbill Festival in Kisama village. Its architect, Ronojoy Sen, said that he combined the structural features of an airplane hangar with the indigenous architectural features of a Naga Morung (male dormitory) to create a design that reflected the global encounter of WWII in Nagaland. 7 Interview Ronojoy Sen, December 2015. The Morung was a political center in a Naga village and place where training to hunt and fight were imparted.

The war encounter is often posited as the coming of “modernity” to Naga Hills and Manipur. This echoes recurring Eurocentric tropes as well, notwithstanding the fact that new material and technological transformations did come into the region as a result of WWII. Previously, the material remains of war were mobilized for quite different reasons than they are today. In 1947, over 300 petitioners from Utlou and Laijenram Sabal villages in Manipur sought war compensation from the Indian government for the wartime destruction of property. These villages preserved the military structures like trenches and barbed wire, and they collected remains of battle as evidence for their claims. 8 Deepak Naorem, “Remembering Japan Laan: Struggle for Relief, Rehabilitation and Compensation,” NeScholar 4, no. 2 (2018): 21–26, 25.

Public as well as individual initiatives to collect material remains of war have continued over the last decades. For instance, B.K. Sachu, a Naga octogenarian in Kohima, has been collecting wartime artefacts and created a small but remarkable museum [Fig. 2]. However, Sachu said that he had not heard about the government-sponsored year-long commemoration of the 75th anniversary of the war in 2019 in Kohima and Imphal. He made sense of these exclusions by suggesting that the “celebrations are at ministerial level, so they are not inviting villagers.” 9 Tora Agarwala, “In Kohima Village, an Octogenarian Is Preserving a Treasure Trove from World War” The Indian Express , September 20.  Other groups, like the 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation – led by Yumnam Rajeshwor and Arambam Angamba Singh, with support of the Manipur government – have been engaged in the researching and collection of relics since 2009. More recently, the Japan Association for Recovery & Repatriation of War Casualties (JARRWC) visited Nagaland and Manipur to collect remains of Japanese soldiers and has been facilitated by the Imphal Campaign Foundation and Manipur Tourism Forum.

Fig. 2: The India Peace Memorial, built in 1994 by the Japanese government to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal (BOI). The central shrine of the Memorial includes Japanese inscriptions and the phrase Jai Hind (“Hail India”), which was a slogan used extensively by the Axis-Allied Indian National Army (INA) as well as a nationalist slogan today (Photo by the author).

War tourism in Imphal initially came from ground-up entrepreneurship in Manipur, pioneered through the Battle of Imphal (BOI) tours started by Hemant Singh Katoch and Yaiphaba Kangjam, both of whom are long term informants for my research. Hemant is an entrepreneur, international development professional, and author from Delhi. Through his work on this war, he wants to regularize and professionalize “battlefield tourism” in the region, going beyond the usual “remembrance tours” that do not really cover the wider and expansive landscape beyond war cemeteries and usually excludes stories of individuals. He expressed his desire to see Manipur emerge “as India’s pre-eminent destination” for WWII “remembrance tourism” as well as to contribute to Manipur’s growth after decades of insurgency and wars with India since the mid-1960s. 10 Hoihnu Hauzel, “A Walk Through Battle of Imphal.” NE Travel and Life , March 19, 2014.  In doing so, Hemant is reviving a memory repository that draws from an alternate historical genealogy of Manipur, one which moves away from the traditional emphasis on Manipur as an ancient Hindu civilization and/or a Princely State. It also engages the question of belonging in India, as well as the state’s troubled past, marred by brutal counterinsurgency undertaken by Indian armed forces. 11 For instance, the controversial and draconian Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act 1958 that gives unbridled extra-judicial powers to the armed forces, creating almost martial-law like conditions for use of force.  Hemant has published two books with well-known international publishers. Intended as “battlefield guides,” 12 Hemant Singh Katoch, The Battlefields of Imphal: The Second World War and North East India (Routledge India, 2016) and Imphal 1944: The Japanese Invasion of India (Osprey Publishing, 2018).  both books underscore how Manipur was arguably the part of India most affected by WWII. Yaiphaba, who now leads most of the tours in Imphal, has authored a collection of oral histories of the war. 13 Yaiphaba Meetei Kangjam, Forgotten Voices of the Japan Laan: The Battle of Imphal and the Second World War in Manipur (New Delhi: INTACH : Aryan Books International, 2019).

Locating a forgotten war in time and place

Hemant opined elsewhere that, after the war, Manipur supposedly went back to being a “quiet corner” of the world, despite having been globalized by wartime encounters. Scholars tend to view the wartime experience as a critical event. The war momentarily opened up trans-regional connections across the frontier, thereby challenging the exclusion of tribal inhabitants from modernity caused by colonial frontier policy of territorial enclosure since the 19th century. This brought them greater material and political leverage. This was concomitant with a uniquely intensified form of Allied state-extension, through road-building for instance. Additionally, there was a humanitarian crisis caused by the mass exodus of refugees and troops from Burma after the Japanese occupation of most of the former British territory in 1942. The encounter with modernity was thought to be short-lived. With the re-imposition of a single, Old Standard Time upon the region in 1945, the region was thought to return to a “less modern” temporality as some historians tend to suggest. The idea of a temporal break due to war and to the official end of colonial rule in August 1947 is also problematic since it obscures the continuities of violent militarization and policies that continued to resemble colonial frontier-style governance.

Moreover, Independence – followed by the violence of Partition – created conditions for “forgetting” the war and creating greater distance from it. WWII was portrayed as irrelevant in Indian national history narratives because it was, after all, a war between imperial powers. The Indian political establishment, led by the Indian National Congress, had sided with the British in return for a promise of Independence, while the Bose-led INA allied with Nazi Germany and Japan to overthrow British rule. These dynamics created complications for national memory and thus presented a vested interest in forgetting. In short, war memory in the late 1940s did not serve either British interests nor Indian national ones. 14 Indivar Kamtekar, “A Different War Dance: State and Class in India 1939–1945,” Past & Present 176, no. 1 (August 1, 2002): 187–221.  In Northeast India, however, war tourism – as a means of transcending the territory’s historical relegation as “peripheral” – is key to the current rhetoric of development in the region. In light of recent decades of political and policy desires for inter-Asian connectivity, it is important to note such transnational aspirations that inform demands for the revival of wartime infrastructure like the Stilwell Road that began from Ledo in Assam. This road once connected a larger transport corridor from Kolkata in India with Kunming in China.

Fig. 3: Hemant and Yaiphaba at the India-Myanmar border, between the “Twin Cities” of Tamu and Moreh. BOI Tours expanded into Myanmar in 2018 (Image courtesy of Hemant Singh Katoch).

Excavation of war memories and materials from the ground seeks to retrieve something that had been “lost” and is to be salvaged and recovered. Such attempts at memorialization incorporate WWII within local historical geography, and in so doing lay claim to a globality and modernity long claimed to be absent. The past can be brought back to life through the excavation of other memories, thereby producing a new narrative of place. The idea of “recovery” may resonate with “imperialist nostalgia” (among other nostalgias), particularly because tourism narratives are deeply embedded within Eurocentric triumphalism of Allied victory and Japanese defeat. It is also true that multiple nostalgias and competing temporalities co-exist in the memory landscape. For instance, the postcolonial Indian state and local Manipuri state (incepted in 1972) privileged movements that were later interpreted to be “anti-colonial.” For example, the Anglo-Manipuri “war” of 1891 is commemorated preeminently by the Hindu Meitei majority with support of the Manipuri state. Such narratives celebrate the valor of Prince Tikendrajit as a martyr of the anti-colonial cause. However, opposition to the official narrative of this “war of Independence” has been met with violent public reactions in the past. 15 Jangkhomang Guite, “Monuments, Memory and Forgetting in Postcolonial North-East India,” Economic and Political Weekly 46, no. 08 (February 19, 2011): 56–64, 61.

After the release of his first book in the form of a battlefield guide, Hemant appeared in a video interview, where he highlighted two key ideas. First, he pointed to the ambivalent attitudes of Indians, especially in Manipur, towards WWII: despite mass participation in resisting the Japanese, the conflict is hardly thought of as “our war.” Second, the well-researched battlefield tours – and, subsequently, the books authored by both Hemant and Yaiphaba ­– have underlined the need to go beyond the identifiable British, INA, and Japanese war cemeteries and memorials. Instead, such resources explore how battlefield sites are embedded in Manipur’s landscape. According to Hemant, some of these sites could be a short drive from home for residents of Manipur, who could look at a familiar place (and its connections to the rest of the world) differently. 16 ‘Video and Podcast: Imphal, Scene of the Greatest Battles of World War II’, Hindustan Times , 26 August 2016. Hemant also refers to the fact that it was now possible to travel places like Manipur, which was formerly restricted on account of insurgency, and more places of leisure were necessary not only for visitors to the state but also for local residents.  Hemant and Yaiphaba emphasize the battlefield landscape of peaks, streams, and abandoned airfields that dot the Imphal valley and its surroundings. This is a unique feature of their tours, whereby battles can be brought back to life, beyond the typical memorials and museums. They recently expanded the scope of battlefield tourism across the border in Myanmar with the Burma Campaign Tour circuit, but these excursions could not continue due the COVID-19 pandemic and the civil strife after the Myanmar’s 2021 military coup.

The tours in Manipur are often customized. For instance, some clients come in search of a particular family member who fought there. They are also personalized and lively due to the interesting oral histories collected by Yaiphaba, which are often peppered with amusing anecdotes and his sense of humor. It is the rootedness in local historical geography, the human stories, and the simultaneous connection to a shared global wartime past that advance alternate renderings of history [Fig. 3]. These alternative renderings are more subtle than top-down historiography, and they allow navigational possibilities that state-owned sites and narratives lack. However, while such ground-up initiatives scale up local places and histories, there are also limits to being able to transcend triumphalism and colonial knowledge based stereotypes. This is partly due to the fact that such narratives are still based on Anglophone sources (although this may now change with greater Japanese and local participation).

The past and present are intertwined, and different, often competing histories overlap with each other as well as with global connections that are not limited to linking memory to particular places. War tourism and the resurgence of these memories has ultimately stirred local recollections of WWII, and these are, in turn, producing new knowledge and a remembrance culture. On the one hand, these can challenge and diversify predominant Eurocentric and nation-centric narratives; on the other hand, there is a danger of reproducing and perpetuating tropes that are easily appropriated by nationalistic jingoism. On a parting note, Hemant tells me, “It is interesting to see how often Western authors and media use the word 'forgotten' to describe the battles of Imphal and Kohima or even the entire Burma Campaign in general. But this is a very Eurocentric perspective and, until recently, even an Indian one.”

Far from being a ‘forgotten’ war in a remote periphery, the view from India’s Northeast also suggests how the region was the epicenter of a global imperial war, one that shaped a new international order. Even if momentarily, Manipur, Naga Hills, and adjoining areas in Burma had become a center of worldwide significance, and today the memory of that significance is also tied to regional aspirations of inter-Asian and global connectivity.

Aditya Kiran Kakati is an affiliated Research Fellow at the International Institute for Asian Studies (IIAS) in Leiden, the Netherlands, and an Early-Postdoctoral Mobility Fellow, granted by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) in the University of Amsterdam and SOAS, University of London, United Kingdom. Email: [email protected]

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Remembering The Second World War in North East India

Deepak Naorem

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The North East frontier region of British India and the dense jungles of Burma hosted some of the fiercest battles between the Japanese army and the Allied forces during the Second World War. In a survey conducted by the National Army Museum, London, the decisive twin battles of Imphal and Kohima , fought between March and July 1944, were voted  some years ago as "Britain’s greatest battle" of the modern era, edging out the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo and the D-Day landings during the Second World War. The twin battles are today narrated in multiple ways: each representing the different perspectives of the British Empire, of the Japanese Empire and the independent Indian state. None of these explicitly represent the local memories and histories of the war, which are discussed only as the setting of the narratives (Naorem 2019).

Memorialising the war

The end of the war, known in Meetei as the Japan Laan, was followed by celebrations and commemorations by the Allies; and trauma and introspection amongst the Japanese. Monuments and museums were commissioned by the British empire to commemorate the victory. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission took over the graves of the Allied soldiers in the region and maintained them as memorial sites. Military histories, as well as memoirs, biographies, and autobiographies of Allied war veterans, narrated the personal and regimental contributions, experiences, and sacrifices that resulted in in the defeat of the invading Japanese army and the defence of the British empire in Asia.

Japanese historians and the public interpret the twin battles as a devastating blunder which led to the unnecessary death of thousands of Japanese soldiers.

For the Japanese state and public, the disastrous defeat in Imphal and Kohima, along with the later experience of the atomic bombing in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, shaped their remembrance and commemoration of the war. Between 50,000 and 80,000 Japanese soldiers lost their lives during and after their failed campaign to capture Imphal. A large number of Japanese casualties came during their torturous retreat from Imphal, with many dying of exhaustion, starvation and malaria on the "Road of Bones" back to Burma. Japanese historians and the public interpret the twin battles as a devastating blunder that led to the unnecessary death of thousands of Japanese soldiers.

Post the war, the Japanese thus advocated peace and reconciliation. The Burma Campaign Society was set up in 1983 to facilitate reconciliation between the Allied and Japanese war veterans and their families. The Japanese government has sent out bone collecting missions to search and bring back remains of Japanese soldiers, to be cremated at peace memorials in the presence of their family members (Trefalt 2017). Japanese organisations have also set up memorials and museums, like the peace memorial at Maibam Lotpa Ching in Manipur in 1994 to commemorate 50 years of the battle, and the Imphal Peace Museum in 2019.

Commemorations and histories of the war by the Indian state placed the North East, otherwise outside the landscape of the national movement, within the scope of nationalist histories.

Once the princely state of Manipur and the Naga Hills were integrated into the Indian Union, many episodes of local histories were appropriated by a national history. Among them was the history of the Indian National Army (INA) and its recruitment of locals. The Indian government built a memorial in 1967 to commemorate the INA, Subash Chandra Bose, and the heroic exploits of local recruits during the war. Such commemorations and histories of the war by the Indian state placed the North East, otherwise outside the landscape of the national movement, within the scope of nationalist histories (Naorem 2019).

War tourism

Remembering the war has also had Japanese, British, and American war veterans touring the North East. While such trips have been going on for a long time, it was not easy for the veterans to get the necessary permits. With the lifting in 2010 of the 60-year-old Protected Area Permit regime, which had restricted the entry of foreigners into the region, a thriving war tourism industry has emerged in Manipur and Nagaland.

These tours are enthralling to the Americans, British, Japanese, Australians, and Indians from other states; [but] little emphasis is given to local histories and memories of the war.

Several NGOs, war veterans and their organisations, local historians, guides, and local war enthusiastic individuals have played a vital role in developing this war tourism. The Second World War-Imphal Campaign Foundation was instituted in 2009 to conduct archaeological digs at battle sites, collect artifacts and oral narratives about the war, build a local museum, and spread awareness of the war among the people. Subsequently, tour operators also started operating guided tours for war veterans and their families to visit the graves and memorials in the region. New itineraries now take people to the original battle fields, the villages, the sites for camps, trenches, airstrips and jungles. While these tours are enthralling to the Americans, British, Japanese, Australians, and Indians from other states; little emphasis is given to local histories and memories of the war. They continue to privilege the existing narratives of the twin battles, and are designed from specific episodes from the imperial narratives of the war.

The voices from the archives

In contrast to these memorialisations, is it possible to write a local history of the twin battles? In the recent years, many sociologists and historians have conducted extensive ethnographies in the region to collect local memories of the war, which will eventually contribute to writing local histories. However, the colonial archives themselves contain rich documentations of local experiences of war and testimonies of the locals in form of petitions, testimonies before state agencies and committees and in reports compiled by colonial administrators. Even though such testimonies were mediated by colonial power, one can recover their voices from these documentations in the colonial archives.

People spoke of how the invasion was foretold in a prophecy about nongpok thong hangba, ‘the opening of the eastern gates’, bringing in an army from the east to liberate the region.

Before the actual battles, the war reached the region in the form of rumours. By January 1941, in Manipur, people spoke of how the invasion was foretold in a prophecy about nongpok thong hangba, ‘the opening of the eastern gates’, bringing in an army from the east to liberate the region from the colonial rulers. In a year’s time though, it was war refugees fleeing the Japanese invasion of Burma who would swarm into Imphal from the east. They included Indian workers from Rangoon, British families and dispersed soldiers of different ethnicities, all numbering around 200,000 people.

As Japanese bombings began, most of the inhabitants of Imphal themselves vacated their houses and took shelter in the peripheral areas. Forced displacement, loss of properties, severe inflation and scarcity of essential commodities, hunger, starvation and diseases were common war experiences among local people in the region. The Allied army’s massive purchases of essential commodities from the market led to shortages and steep increase in prices. The price of rice increased to Rs 60 per maund in 1943 from Rs 1 in 1940. Houses were occupied or destroyed by the Allied army. In Imphal itself, as many as 20,000 houses were converted into barracks, while another 9,103 houses were burnt to make space. Standing crops were destroyed to build airstrips. A large area outside Imphal and in the hills was also burnt by the Allied forces to deny the Japanese army any resources during their advance to Imphal.

While the rest of India was celebrating independence, people in Manipur and the Naga Hills for long remembered 15 August 1947 for the thousands of rejected compensation petitions.

The archives contain several thousands of petitions that were filed seeking monetary compensation for the destruction. The large number of petitions overwhelmed the colonial administration, which arbitrarily fixed 15 August 1947 as the deadline for submitting them. Some petitions demanded compensation for small loses such as a pig taken away by the Allied soldiers. Others were for large amounts. Chaoba Singh from Sagolband claimed loses of Rs 137,625. A contractor, he had provided firewood to the Allied army before he and his wife were captured by the Japanese army and imprisoned in Rangoon. When the Allies recaptured Rangoon in 1945, he was re-imprisoned by them. Singh wrote in his petition that the Allied administration refused to pay for his services before his capture, and his properties were either destroyed or confiscated by them. His claim was however rejected as he failed to submit his petition before the deadline. While the rest of India was celebrating independence, people in Manipur and the Naga Hills for long remembered 15 August 1947 for the thousands of rejected compensation petitions and the monetary losses.

Even for petitions that made it in time, the administration denied compensation for hill districts of Manipur and the Naga Hills, where most destructions took place. The government had categorised most of the hill districts in the region as "enemy territory", since they were temporarily occupied by the Japanese army, and it was only ready to take responsibility for damages done by the Allied army. The local administration was asked to wait for war reparations from Japan before any further action on these petitions from the erstwhile enemy territories. Despite these claims, the Indian government of Jawaharlal Nehru withdraw all further demands from the Japanese and settled the issue of reparation with the India-Japan peace treaty of 1952.

The entire population of Naorem Utrapat was evicted by the army in 1942. When the villagers returned in 1945, they could hardly recognize the landscape: houses and crops had been burnt and the entire village was in ruins.

Even in areas held by the Allies, demands for compensation was often denied, as in the case of the villagers of Naorem Utrapat, located very close to the headquarters of the 17th Division of the Allied army. The entire population of Naorem Utrapat was evicted by the army in 1942. When the villagers returned in 1945, they could hardly recognize the landscape: houses and crops had been burnt and the entire village was in ruins. The villagers applied for compensation individually in 1946 and as a group in 1949, but they were continuously denied, leading to litigation in the against the union and the state government in the 1950s and 60s. The issues of relief, rehabilitation and compensation were taken up by most of the political parties in the region, with several political rallies and meetings held demanding the release of war compensation. E.P. Moon, the chief commissioner of Manipur, though, dismissed these demands as a communist conspiracy.

War and peace and statemaking

These post-war issues such as relief, rehabilitation, reparation, and compensation provided a platform for entry of Indian state and its institutions in the region. This built upon the wartime and postwar colonial administration that had facilitated the process of a more direct colonial control in the region. Looking at the local history of the region from the perspective of the war, it is clear that war-related issues significantly dominated the discourse of local politics into the 1960s. Local histories have failed to capture this significance of the war for the various political development leading to the consolidation of the former North-eastern frontier for the new Indian union.

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Deepak Naorem teaches history at Daulat Ram College, New Delhi.

The India Forum welcomes your comments on this article for the Forum/Letters section. Write to:  [email protected]

Bayly, Christopher and Tim. Harper (2004). Forgotten Armies: Britain’s Asian empire and the War with Japan. Penguin.

Naorem, Deepak (2020). ‘ Japanese invasion, war preparation, relief, rehabilitation, compensation and ‘ state-making’ in an imperial frontier (1939–1955) ’ Asian Ethnicity 21 (1): 96-121.

Trefalt, Beatrice (2017). ‘ Collecting Bones: Japanese Mission for Repatriation of War Remains and Unfinished Business of Asia-Pacific war ’. Australian Humanities Review 61: 145-159.

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India has big opportunities in space and war tourism in post COVID-19 times

PATNA: Psychologist and educationist Dr Jawahar Surisetti said that India's tourism can benefit from people's interest in space and war tourism.

Speaking at Webinar on “Future, Smart, Innovative and Transformative Tourism’ at Bihar’s Hajipur based Institute of Hotel Management Catering Technology and applied nutrition recently, he said that India does not lack opportunity for innovation in tourism post-COVID-19 scenario because a majority of people will be interested to go for space and war tourism.

Dr Surisetti is globally acclaimed as the thinker professor for his ‘Art of Thinking’ and his ‘Think for India’ movement that advocates for introduction of thinking in education. He had offered his erudite advices to the governments of both India and US many times after being requested and he is an ambassador of skill development for the state of Queensland’.

He said that the space tourism is being pursued by number of developed countries and are working to set up human stay on mission mode. The space is emerging as one of the best-near future sector for tourism.

“India is in the capacity to start working on this project also in the post COVID-19 scenarios in a planed way. I hope this would get a major fancy among the tourists of affluent and adventurous classes," he opined.

Dr Surisetti also listed the feasibility for working on the War tourism in which the tourists now like to visit the places associated with famous historic battles and war like the Haldi-ghati that had witnessed a battle between Maharanaparatap and the Mughal emperor.  

"In the field of Shocking-Tourism, the people enjoy taking journey in airbus made with a transparent roof of very thick fibre through which moon and starts are seen at night," he said.  

Principal of Hajipur IHM (Indian Hotel Management) Pulak Mandal welcoming the guest speakers brilliantly detailed about the growing opportunities in the tourism sector.

Pulak Mandal, who is himself an acclaimed researcher in the sector of hospitality and tourism sectors, said that the tourism in the post COVID-19 will boom to beat and break the long hang-on of  home-stay  monotony that has gripped the people in mass.

“And it is done when one visit tourist place, dine with dear and nears in hotel and enjoy nature hospitality as well," he said.

Other prominent who share their erudite expertises were Sumit Chatterjee, HoD and travelogue writer, Kalyan Chatterjee- a renowned culinary-cum-hospitality expert, Pramindar Mitter, Arun Kumar ,Rakesh Das, Ankit Kumar and Satyapriya-all experts of their respective areas of hospitality.

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Military Museums In India That You Should Visit

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India has its long and successful military history dates back several millennia, with several armies fighting to govern Indian soil over the centuries. It is the experience of lifetime to know about these wars, reading about bloody battles, courageous acts of soldiers, arms and armies of that time, which always inspires us. If you are fascinated by India's military history, you should definitely pay a visit to these seven military museums in India that stand today. These museums showcase the weapons, vehicles and aircraft used by the Indian military over the years, bringing you closer to a side of India's history that some may not be familiar with.

So take a look to these seven military museums in India that will fascinate you about the military world!

1. Jaisalmer War Museum

Jaisalmer War Museum is located 10 km from Jaisalmer city on the Jaisalmer-Jodhpur Highway. It has been set up by the Indian Army to commemorate the bravery and sacrifice of soldiers, specifically during the 1965 Indo-Pak War and the 1971 Longewala battle. It also traces the evolution of the Indian Army. There are many war trophies and vintage equipment on display, along with tanks, guns and military vehicles.

The Museum has:

• Two information display halls (Laungewala Hall, Indian Army Hall)

• An audio visual room

• A souvenir shop

It is a top tourist attraction due to its aesthetic layout, fountains, green lawns and amenities. The Jaisalmer War Museum is considered by the international online travel guide TripAdvisor to be one of the top war museums in Rajasthan.

2. Air Force Museum, New Delhi

The Indian Air Force Museum lies at the Palam Air Force Station, New Delhi which was usually goes unnoticed by visitors to Delhi. The museum was the only one of its kind in India until the unveiling of the Naval Aviation Museum in Goa in 1998.

This museum is divided into two sections - an annexe and a main hangar. As you enter the annexe, you will get into the history of the Indian Air Force laid out in a pictorial form. The indoor display includes photographs of air force and personnel in various uniforms. You can find photos of officers who fought bravely during the 1966 and 1971 India-Pakistan wars and the Second World War before that.

The hangar section of the museum showcases a number of vintage aircraft, helicopter, jet engines, air craft guns and recovered enemy aircraft and army tanks. Outside the hangar, you can find the larger aircraft, including helicopters and jet aircraft like the Sukhoi Su7, MIG 21 and 23, and the MI-4 helicopter. Airplane enthusiasts will love to have a look at the Hurricane, Tempest, and Lysander of Second World War fame.

3. Indian War Memorial Museum, New Delhi

The Indian War Memorial museum is located in the Naubat Khana of the Red Fort Complex in Delhi which is dedicated to the army’s actions under British. There are some details of the battle of Panipat and also on display are traditional items such as daggers, gupti, arms and helmets. Various badges, ribbons, and uniforms of Turkish and New Zealand army officers, and flags are also on display.

4. Naval Aviation Museum, Goa

Apart from booze, bikinis and beaches there is another side of Goa which is the home to this captivating museum that captures the evolution of Indian Naval Air Arm. The museum is divided into two main parts, an outdoor exhibit and a two-storey indoor gallery. The Museum was inaugurated in October 1998 and is one of the Two Military Aviation Museums in India, the other being the Indian Air Force Museum, Palam in Delhi. The Naval Aviation Museum is the only of its kind in the entire continent of Asia.

The museum’s interior is designed to look like the INS Viraat aircraft carrier, and includes galleries showcasing naval equipment, photographs of major battles, a plaque remembering those who sacrificed their lives for the country, and a simulation room. Located near Bogmala, the museum overlooks scenic Bogmala beach and includes several massive aircraft, including the HAL HT-2, Westland Sea King and HAL Chetak.

5. Samudrika Naval Marine Museum, Andaman and Nicobar

Lying in Port Blair at the south of the Andaman Islands, the Samudrika Naval Marine Museum is also known as Fisheries Museum. It is maintained by Indian Navy but its exhibits are not of the military kind. Instead, it showcases the tribal communities of Andaman and Nicobar and the diverse ecosystem that you can find on the islands and within the ocean waters off the island coasts.

This museum aims to generate awareness about the environment in the ocean and the marine life. The museum has five sections presenting history of Andaman Islands, Geographical information, people of Andaman, Archaeology and Marine life. The museum is small so u can cover it in small amount of time.

6. Kursura Submarine Museum, Vizag

If you fancy a stealthier career below the waves, you would want to take in the Kursura Submarine Museum at Vizag. INS Kurusura Submarine is a Soviet built-I-641 class Submarine was inducted into the Indian Navy on 18, December 1969 and the same was decommissioned on 28, February 2001 after 31 years of glorious service to the nation. She played a key role in patrol missions during the 1971 war. After decommissioning, this submarine was preserved as a museum for public access on Ramakrishna Mission Beach in Visakhapatnam.

INS Kurusura Submarine Museum offers a chance to get inside a real submarine. The place offers a quick walkthrough of the submarine, the compartments within and the lifestyle of mariners inside this machine.

The Concept of using a submarine as a museum is the first of its kind in Asia. It was inaugurated by the then Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu on Aug 9, 2002. It is a special ship because despite being a decommissioned submarine, it still receives the navy's "Dressing Ship" honour, which is awarded only to active ships.

7. Cavalry Tank Museum, Maharashtra

In the city of Ahmednagar, Maharashtra lies the first museum dedicated to cavalry tanks in Asia and has about 50 vintage exhibits on displays. The oldest one is a Ghost Rolls Royce armoured car. There are also some which were used during World War 1 in the battlefields of Cambrian Somme and Flanders. There are some trophy tanks from the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965 like American made M47 Patton, Chafee and Walker BullDog.

The Whole Museum is much cleaned and well maintained. The environment is green and serene. Each tank has a small board where its brief history is given. They are well presented and clearly marked with their origin. If gadgets and cars are your thing, then you cannot afford to miss this one!

This post was originally published on Travel With Jha .

GI Photos of Calcutta: Toward a Vernacular Understanding of War

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Santasil Mallik; GI Photos of Calcutta: Toward a Vernacular Understanding of War. Trans Asia Photography 1 May 2023; 13 (1): No Pagination Specified. doi: https://doi.org/10.1215/21582025-10365026

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During World War II, more than a hundred thousand US soldiers, popularly known as GIs, camped in Calcutta, India, to steer the Eastern Front war against the Imperial Japanese Army in the China-Burma-India theater. The port city became a strategically relevant transit hub for the soldiers to airlift food and military resources, alongside channeling information to war zones. But it also acted as a site for the rest and recreation of the soldiers. With higher salaries and added scope for leisure in Calcutta, the pervasive presence of the GIs introduced a new orientation of military relationship with the public—more cordial, touristic, and commercially transactional than the British officials. Military photographer Clyde Waddell captured the recreational activities of GIs in the streets of Calcutta at their behest and self-published sixty photographs in 1946. Though the images depict everyday scenes in the colonial city, their thematic elements and semiotics betray the ideological designs of the US Army in an era of changing global equations. Waddell's images inhabit a curious location between wartime reportage and personal memorabilia. This article undertakes a semiotic reading of such photographs by Waddell to situate the complex location of the American GIs in the erstwhile capital city of the disintegrating British colony.

• Introduction

Wartime photography in the Indian subcontinent has evolved as a tangled patchwork of ideologies informed by intersecting histories of colonialism, ethnography, propaganda, and photojournalism. From the occupational act of capturing war consequences—dating back to Felix Beato's photographs of the 1857 Indian Mutiny—to its induction into the military-industrial complex, the generic precepts of war photography often remain indistinguishable from warfare motives. During World War II, the medium became institutionally aligned to war efforts with formally trained army photographers and an elaborate state network of conflict-zone reportage. 1 But the war theaters in the crumbling European colonies of South and Southeast Asia remained aloof from the visual repertoire of gallantry and upfront action pervading media coverage. In the China-Burma-India (CBI) “forgotten theater,” the Allied forces were underrepresented in personnel, resources, and press efforts compared to their European counterparts. US Army Signal Corps photographers like Syd Greenberg extensively documented the famine, refugee crisis, desecrated landscapes, scarcity of military equipment, and unlivable conditions away from home. 2 At the same time, many American soldiers fostered an amateur passion for photographing the customs and lifestyles of the people in these regions. Calcutta became a prominent metropolitan hub for such photographic indulgences as, even though not a combat zone, it served as a transit site for rest and provision of logistics. Clyde Waddell, an army photographer, photographed the streets of Calcutta and the daily lives of American GIs in the city on the brink of India's independence. The images adopt a vernacular vocabulary, documenting a different corpus of visuals on the lives of American soldiers in Calcutta during World War II. The mass deployment of American troops in the strategically significant port city and erstwhile British Indian capital actuated a field of cultural contestations, which figures prominently in the visual tropes and motifs of Waddell's photographs. Instead of addressing immediate wartime situations, they stimulate reflections about the subterranean political tensions in the arena of shifting global powers.

In 1942, the Japanese Empire invaded Burma after ousting the British Indian and the Chinese ground forces, commencing a fully contracted extension of World War II on the Eastern front. No longer did the “Germany first!” rhetoric of the Allied Forces remain valid, whose primary concern was to end fascism in Europe. For the administrative steering of regaining Far East British control and Chinese territories, the Allies responded by constituting the CBI theater. They started constructing the Ledo Road to channel military resources to China as other supply lines broke after the invasion. Also known as the Stilwell Road, it became a counterroute to the infamous Burma rail, which allowed Japanese troops to occupy Burma. Calcutta became a pertinent transit point for the Allies to facilitate communication across and supply to the Eastern war front. But the bombing of the city by the Japanese Imperial Force in December 1942 dealt a heavy blow to the confidence of the British Empire, incurring significant damages to the Kidderpore shipping dock and other commercial hubs. Curfews were declared immediately across the city as the bombings started happening every night and sporadically continued until 1944. 3 Following the first round of attacks, the newly instituted India-China Wing of the Air Transport Command stationed more than a hundred thousand American troops in Calcutta from 1942 to 1945. 4 Apart from warding off the imminent threat of a complete Japanese invasion of the city, American GIs in Calcutta were responsible for airlifting supplies to China and providing rounds of labor to construct the Ledo Road. The cultural influence due to the amassing presence of the US Army became palpable in the streets. Since most of the infantry stayed in and around city centers like Chowringhee, commercial enterprises thoroughly adopted American sensibilities. The cinema theaters started screening American films, and elite clubs housed in the Grand Hotel or the Great Eastern Hotel held regular jazz concerts. The Firpo restaurant in Park Street became another prominent hub for American soldiers to celebrate dinners and enjoy parties. As a matter of concern for the British authorities, these social events facilitated a cordial and free-spirited relationship between the Indians and the Americans.

The nonthreatening presence of American soldiers introduced a new legacy of Western forces in India, changing the public dynamics between white men and Indian locals. Since the influx of the GIs was crucial in upholding the morale of British military power in India, there was a considerable cultural impact on the hitherto imagined invincibility of the British Empire. Apart from Calcutta, major cities like Karachi and Bombay also saw an increased placement of American troops. More soldiers worked on recruitment drives, training, construction work, and supply lines than fighting on the war fronts. 5 As duties in these cities afforded substantial rest and recreation, many American GIs harbored the hobby of photographing their leisurely experiences. 6 As a war photographer, Clyde Waddell seemingly took up the language of such prevalent amateur photographic engagement as he strode a more politically motivated path of representing the role of the United States in the Allied Forces' Eastern front war.

• GI Photography

Military personnel often tried their hand at photography as a vocation to memorialize their stay in India, photographing their friends at parties or doing daily activities in residences. Many of these images also betray a potent ethnographic fascination toward peoples, customs, native professions, and the poor in the streets. Army Signal Company photographer John H. Smith was responsible for taking and printing identification photographs for civilians and soldiers, alongside serving as cameraman for developing public relations films. But the body of images he brought back from India contained numerous images of himself and his soldier friends playing games, dancing, drinking, or sharing intimate moments ( fig. 1 ). Glenn Garrelts, who worked as the chief clerk in the Registrars and Sick & Wounded Office of the 181st General Hospital at Karachi, made several self-portraits with distinct backdrops and props of Indianness ( fig. 2 ). He photographed the common public and their daily rituals across Bombay, Calcutta, and Karachi, akin to the visual language of another soldier, Bob Fagelson, who had similar interests.

In these archives, Clyde Waddell's photographs mark a peculiar presence. As the personal press photographer to Lord Mountbatten from 1943 to 1945, Waddell traveled to India during the early years of World War II. In 1945, he joined the war magazine of the Allied Forces in South East Asia, Phoenix , which functioned out of Calcutta's Wellesley House. After the liberation of Singapore, Waddell received a leave stay in Calcutta during 1945–46, allowing him to photograph the city at the behest of his friends. As he shot and developed images, they became so popular among his colleagues that he self-published sixty of them in an album titled A Yank's Memories of Calcutta after returning to his home in Houston. 7 It features an introduction by his old friend, Charles Preston, and the captions note elaborate descriptions, factual pieces of information, and acerbic jibes on Calcutta's streets. While the images capture the off-duty activities of the GIs, they are unlike the private, intimate photographs taken by other personnel. Waddell uses the ruse of vernacular images to situate his colleagues and the city in a visual scheme that betrays the dynamics of the US Army in the CBI theater. The off-hours photographic engagement of a trained military photographer accords with a vernacular mode of rendering images during wartime, in a manner that decodes and prompts reconsideration of the official frameworks for seeing war.

• Wartime Vernacular(s)

Critics debate the rubric of vernacular photography, which denotes a range of practices that do not ascribe to a specific genre or conduits of production and proliferation. Vernacular photographs range from family snapshots, touristic images, postcard photographs, commercial and scientific photographs, to personal records of everyday activity. The album of Clyde Waddell emerges from a local, immediate contact with the professions, mannerisms, and routines of people in the streets of Calcutta. It functions like a personal journal, which is varyingly touristic, ethnographic, and diaristic. Despite capturing his colleagues off duty, the structural codas of Waddell's trained photographic gaze mediate the formal approach and framing of the narratives in the photographs. The GIs carried pocket guides like the Calcutta Key , mapping the population, division of castes, list of camps, army lodge, and other relevant information for soldiers to navigate Calcutta. Published by the Information and Education Branch of the American Army, the pocket guides adopted a jovial tone, peppered with ironic comments and bits of brotherly advice, which were indispensable for the ”proper” conduct, work ethic, and entertainment of enlisted soldiers. In a list of dos and don'ts, it is markedly prescribed: “Take pictures only of the laboring classes (and then only if they consent); upper-class Indians don't like to be photographed.” 8 As a prerequisite of recreational photographic activity, it touches upon the agency of the camera and its class-based acceptability in the public space. Apart from such written injunctions, Waddell's vision plays along the popular discourse of the American army during the war. The political quotient in Waddell's series of photographs is often apparent even though he photographed and published them at the urging of his GI friends. Traversing the dynamics of commerce, tourism, and colonial relations, the visual semantics of this body of work speaks to the American political location in an era of changing global equations.

The definitional scope of vernacular photographs escapes the taxonomies of photographic praxis and immediate forms of functionality. Geoffrey Batchen situates the vernacular in the intertwined relationship between the material and the conceptual history of photography. His notion of vernacular photography departs from any possible categorical logic in classifying the medium. Instead of becoming a new collectible category and reinforcing the mainstream–margin divide, he proposes to rethink the value systems that institutionally validate certain forms of praxis and excludes others. 9 The vernacular is an epistemological framework—the vernacularization of history and the theory of photography. Reading beyond the content of the photographs, he also analyzes the material history of vernacular photographs as objects in family albums, postcards, identity cards, and miscellaneous print materialities. A vernacular history of photography effaces the distinction between the objects (physical) and contents (conceptual), resulting in a “complex historical morphology for photographic meaning.” 10 The ability to surpass affixed directives of analyzing particular genres and forms of photographs is to adapt a vernacular mode of assessing photography. As he asserts, “This vernacular semiology of the photographic . . . is the necessary eruption of photography's history . . . an eruption that promises to transform not just this history's object of study but its very mode of existence.” 11

Batchen's conceptual framework of vernacular historicity brings to light the ways that Waddell's photographs facilitate a vernacular idiom for representing war. Devoid of war front actions, these photographs speak to the horrendous circumstances of war through leisurely and quotidian aspects of military life in the transit region of Calcutta. However, they are not simply souvenir images for soldiers because Waddell also pays detailed attention to ways of life in the city and the interaction of American GIs with the people. In a characteristic ethnographic venture, Waddell's album categorically presents archetypes of professions (cobbler, barber, and snake charmers), rituals (Brahmin ceremony, devotees praying to Shiva), and architectural landscapes (bridges, ghats , temples). Most images of GIs have a nondramatic focalizing element around which his comments evolve, included as captions to the images, which often animate the still frames with instantaneous descriptions. There is a conscious fashioning of the American identity through the GI figure, which appears distinctly different from the British counterpart. The variegated language of touristic, ethnographic, and diaristic modes of image making surfaces as vernacular imaginations of war, expediting a hermeneutic revaluation of war imagery. Indeed, the vernacular manifests as a critical category in Waddell's album, which muddles generic divisions.

• GI and New Commerce

A recurring visual motif in Waddell's photographs of the American GIs is transactional activity, particularly with vendors and street sellers. Calcutta became a principal hub for soldiers to buy souvenirs and cheap gemstones as they spent their time off from the Eastern Front battle theater. The Calcutta Guide , for instance, listed a separate section warning against exorbitantly priced souvenirs. Apart from listing shops and markets for particular objects like textiles, jewelry, musical instruments, and more, there are thorough instructions on winning the “minor sport” of bargaining. 12 The GIs also had a higher pay scale and purchasing power than British military officials. 13 With more recreational time at their disposal, shopping became a favorite pastime, leading to the bolstering of American consumer markets across metropolitan centers. In Waddell's album, there is a repetitive motif of GIs engaged in shopping, with similar gestures and bodily comportment in the frames. The photographs portray them surveying items with their head humbly bowed in curiosity and generosity. They are interested in a range of products, from magazines and “lurid novels” in street-corner bookstalls, “trinkets for girlfriend,” and exotic gemstones. 14 Photographs of transactional activity also include negotiations with prostitutes as the sex industry in Calcutta boomed—as did the rate of venereal diseases—due to the unprecedented influx of foreign soldiers. 15 The indulgence in these forms of trade continued despite the directions GIs received from army offices to maintain cordial and gentle relations with the Indian public. As a Calcutta Key code of conduct mentions: “Soldiers aren't trained to be gentle, but you can smile, brother, smile.” 16

The burgeoning economic stature of the United States became well known in the disintegrating, debt-ridden British Empire, exposing the fallacy of global British supremacy. American soldiers actively intervened in alleviating the plight of the people during cyclones, bouts of hunger crisis, and man-made disasters by starting voluntary food-donation services and transportation of food to remote areas—adding further political insecurity among the British officials. 17

One photograph from Waddell's album depicts a crowded scene around a streetside performer who remains out of sight ( fig. 3 ). A few American soldiers perch upon the back of a military truck to glimpse the performance. With undemanding and laid-back postures, they inhabit the center of the scene as a part of the spectacle. The scene portrays multiple transactional points ranging from the rickshaw drivers, beggars, a shoe shiner, hawkers, to one street performer. The GI vehicle is stationed amid the crowd, becoming a fulcrum for accruing different business possibilities. Surrounded by hand-pulled rickshaws and barefoot individuals, the military truck imparts the weightage of capital. The accompanying comment of Waddell notes, “This is a good spot for hawkers, beggars, shoe shine boys, showmen to work on the bankroll of the ‘rich American soldier.’” 18 The discourse of American military prosperity, located in the figure of the GI, comes forth as an object of spectacle in a city decimated by colonial exploitation. While the spectacular acts of the streetside performer create a transaction site, the transactional prowess of the GIs itself becomes a spectacle. Waddell's camera sits on an elevated level, probably on top of another truck, and the horizontal and vertical axes appear coordinated straight. This solidity of his perspective stands out against the candid description, marking the image with a certain ambiguity regarding his positionality in the scene.

Illustrating the superior purchasing power of the American soldier, another photograph shows a GI inspecting a “rare gem” from a street seller ( fig. 4 ). The transactional activity unarguably fixates the narrative focus of the frame, along with Waddell's description of the scene: “The GI tourist here ponders the purchase of a ‘rare gem’— a typical camera study of life on Chowringhee during the war. Firpo's famous restaurant is in the background, and dhoti-clad Indians and a British officer in shorts lend a bit of atmosphere.” 19 In contrast to the chaotic background, soldier and seller maintain a momentary relation of poise and collectedness. The British officer in khaki shorts, who “lend[s] an atmosphere” amid other Indians appears pushed to the margins. The dhoti-clad person behind them stares back at the GI and the seller with a stark expression of amazement, while the barefoot bald person behind the seller nonchalantly grins into the camera. These encircling orchestrations of gaze, coupled with the camera's jarring flash, produce a theatrical effect highlighting the transaction. Apart from its spectacular status, the photograph represents American consumerism as a new cultural value. By the late years of World War II, the US dollar has surpassed the value of the British pound. The United States was slowly emerging from its isolationism as it asserted a more dominant global presence. The interventionist United States dynamically intervened in the postwar reconstruction of countries ravaged by the war, establishing a new market economy for the export and trade rights of American goods in the process. 20 This photograph plays out the shifting equations of global economic power on a semiotic level.

Another image concerning the selling of supposedly precious stones show four young “Sikh boys” following two GIs to sell their products ( fig. 5 ). 21 The turbans on their heads are too big for their age, and they probably wore them as props to highlight the sellers' Indianness to foreign buyers. As if mirroring the gestures, the children similarly hold out the gems with their arms partially outstretched, eager to have the soldiers as their customers. The GIs, however, try to maintain a distance from them, keeping a confident march. There is an upper-handed demeanor in their refusal to engage with the sellers. Waddell writes that these “shrewd” and malum (cunning) boys know considerable English to trick the soldiers into buying their products. The composition and the photograph's overall mood unambiguously situate the soldiers as prosperous consumers. This era marked the transition of the world economic order from imperialism to neocolonial capitalism.

The 1944 GI Bill introduced new heights of prosperity to the war veterans, giving them unemployment benefits and school education and incorporating them into the civilian workforce. With salaries five times higher than the British soldiers, which they used to indulge in an ostentatious living style, in more leisurely activity, and in expressions of greater generosity, the GIs became a source of anxiety and social tension for the British officials in the colonies. 22 These contestations visibly manifest in the composition, motifs, and formal structure of these otherwise unsuspecting photographs. While the scene looks spontaneously captured, there lies a coincidence that is too jarring to overlook. The Hamilton and Co. store is a contrasting backdrop to the street-hawking activity because the franchise furnished British households in India. The contrast in this image almost signifies the crumbling elite order of the British Empire against the newly emergent American military men dashing forth with pressing economic attention. Without any explicit reference to this layer of meaning, the play between such strong political denotation and spontaneity invests the image with a vernacular density.

• GI Tourism in Calcutta

Alongside a competing foreign financial state power, the presence of American GIs also introduced a nexus of warfare and tourism. The large-scale stationing of soldiers around various war theaters generated an unprecedented impetus for touristic activity, particularly in the late years of the war. The notion of the American tourist soldier emerged and was endorsed by the US authorities during this period, which persists to the present day in thoroughly ingrained techno-cultural forms. 23 Since World War II, tourism and warfare have intersected in manifold ways, generating dynamic space for shaping foreign representations of war, intercultural transactions, and propaganda efforts. With newly efficient networks of global transit, increased demand for army transportation, technological refinement, and new trade corridors in a postcolonial world order, World War II signified the commencement of industrial-scale tourism. The greater availability of service breaks, off-time schedules, and numerous noncombatant army roles in the US Army further facilitated the touristic impetus. 24 As an institutional enterprise, war tourism promoted the image of the benevolent and liberal-thinking American soldier. Armed with Coca-Cola and candies, the GIs became the cultural emissaries of Americanism and set the grounds for postwar expansion masked with tourism. Particularly in Western European countries like Italy and France, the American war machine created incentives with heavy investment to fund soldiers for collective tours, creating scopes for pro-American economic reconstruction, bilateral trade, and business investments. 25 Therefore, war tourism became a systemic appendage to implement the global policies of the American political economy. In Calcutta Key , apart from directions of proper conduct and respect toward Indian cultures, the booklet also clearly fleshes out the overarching postwar purpose: “India must and will assume a prominent role. You are a practical person from a practical nation. You can see that it makes common sense for anyone to cultivate a lasting friendship with India. Go for it, then. YOU—you're the one who is going to do it. It is part of YOUR JOB.” 26 The touristic motives, however, were hard to envision in the alien climate of Calcutta, contrary to Paris or Naples. The US army strained to acclimatize the soldiers to the city's social and cultural geography. The American Red Cross publication Guide to Calcutta , for instance, exhaustively lists restaurants, lodges, and shopping and recreational centers, alongside their opening and closing schedules for soldiers. The directives, however, do not refer to scopes for expedition beyond certain precincts of Calcutta. Instead, they were concerned with harnessing the recreational time and activity of the GIs to invest in American culture within the city. Tourism became a means of signaling American presence in the big transit ports of the Eastern War Front as the soldiers rested away from the conflict zones. It emerged with a significant soft power appeal, pushing commercial and cultural influence. 27

A section of Clyde Waddell's photographs constitutes landscape shots of streets, landmark government buildings, mosques and temples, overcrowded stations, and markets. There are also several aerial shots, a hugely popular form during World War II. The accompanying comments to these images of landmarks are ethnographic in documenting their historical significance and contemporary situation. These landmarks across the city were tourist spots for the newly arrived American soldiers. In a photograph of the Nimtolla mosque, Waddell frames the building structure vertically with a prominent focus on the front facade—arches, columns, and minarets ( fig. 6 ). A bullock cart cuts through the frame in the lower right corner, with two bulls in the foreground. An army truck stands in the distance amid the busy street with numerous dhoti-clad people. About the photograph Waddell writes: “The Nimtolla Mosque, largest Mohammedan mosque in Calcutta. Its prayer hall will accommodate 10,000 worshippers. A modern specimen of Indo-Sarascenic architecture, its Minarets (towers) are 151 feet high. GI truck at entrance is waiting for a load of soldiers on American Red Cross tour.” 28 In an overtly suggestive gesture, the military apparatus is visually implanted in a well-sought tourist destination, indicating the operational importance of touristic activity.

Teresia Teaiwa inventively conceptualizes the relationship between military activity and tourism by coining the composite term “militourism,” defined as a complex that takes account of the collisions in the tourism and military industries. In this interaction, the dual ideological and logistical flows feed into each other's networks. 29 Basing her research on the Pacific islands, she notes how the tourism industry draws on the military histories of the islands and consolidates military presence during a crisis. Conversely, the military patronizes hotels and recreation spots related to the wartime entertainment of soldiers. 30 The militourist activity of the US army across the globe during World War II unfolded in tandem with the liberal market agenda.

The photographs of Clyde Waddell depict the streets as characteristic sites of fantasy and intrigue, as well as familiarity with spaces back home. In a scene of several roadside stalls lined together, he refers to it as a parallel of the American railroad magazine stand ( fig. 7 ). He writes about the unclassified assortment of goods available in these spaces, including “canes, suitcases, soda, water, shopping bags, cigarettes, and a hundred other items peculiar to the Indian taste.” 31 The photograph depicts a nighttime scene brazenly lit with a possibly elaborate setup by Waddell, making everyone turn toward the camera. Aided by the intensity of halogen bulbs, the whites appear slightly overexposed. Sludge and discarded objects litter the foreground, with a range of barefoot men and children staring at the camera from the footpath. Unlike the other photographs of GIs interacting with the street population, there is a clear distance between the photographer and the photographed. Waddell is here one nonintervening military personnel, a tourist with detached curiosity. The steady line of gaze directed toward the camera renders Waddell a spectacular tourist, initiating a play of perspectival encounters across cultures. The quintessential militourist approach embodied in the photographer's location becomes an object of inquiry and amazement itself. It is hard to ignore Waddell's manipulative construction of a particular kind of darkness underlined by noir aesthetics.

Another nighttime photograph of Calcutta depicts a long line of horse-drawn carts at rest ( fig. 8 ). A mass of blank space pervades the foreground, washed with a heavy flash setup. The empty carts remain at rest with the horses and two crouching teenagers throwing a blank glance toward the camera, creating an uncanny atmosphere. A typical noir aesthetic exudes through the high-contrast image due to the use of a strong light source. The American noir genre, in fact, precisely developed in the 1940s and '50s, reflecting the dark civilizational anxieties of moral uncertainty and crimes. Describing the scene, Waddell writes, “Nightfall in Calcutta stirs the imagination and curiosity as to what goes on down dimly-lit alleys often leading an occasional soldier into the out-of-bounds areas. If you don't know the way, five rupees will buy a trip to the few still existent brothels in one of the garies shown here.” 32 There is an indubitably touristic motif in this scene peppered with mystery, fantasy, and a fetishistic attachment to otherness. The antinomy of fear and fascination, integral to the foundations of Oriental othering, is embodied rigidly in the discursive body of Waddell's photographs. However, the gaze of amazement toward certain Calcutta streets contrasts with the representation of everyday, commonplace situations depicted in the images. Particularly in the context of colonial war imagery, they do not directly concern conflicts, death, or destruction. From soldiers shopping in the streets to people carrying out their daily chores, he pays minute attention to ordinary details. Mass tourism becomes a construction of habits and practices, and the tourist experience a performance. Touristic activity has become more democratized, standardized, and starkly ubiquitous as it shifted from a prewar elite occupation of individual expeditions to mass-scale middle-class recreational activity. It embodies the “unreflexive, habitual, and practical enactions which reflect common-sense understandings of how to be a tourist.” 33 The individual comments of Clyde Waddell accompanying his images render the scenes as sites of spectacle. But his approach follows the performance of alterity habituated in the American imagination of India. The military imperative of tourist orientations resorted to a vernacular mode of imaging wartime Calcutta, which relates to predictable practices of imaging the other.

The Office of War Information in the United States took considerable charge of shaping the public perception of American war aims through the imagery of World War II, particularly until 1944. In a systemized effort to perpetuate the mythology of the “good war, there were clear directives to censor images of dead or injured soldiers or pictorial depictions of the horrendous battlefield conditions. 34 Later, in 1945, the trope of decimated soldiers in American visual culture gradually transformed into a propaganda tool, urging the civilian population to connect to the war. The rhetoric of “Every civilian a fighter” and “What did you do for freedom today?” campaigns by another administrative body, the US Office of Civilian Defense, permeated the public imaginary to garner validation for its wartime efforts in foreign lands. 35 The visual representation of GIs gradually adapted to the changing rhetorical needs based on situational responses to the war. On a similar front, divisions across race, gender, and notions of masculinity governed the public imagery of US soldiers fighting across various foreign war theaters. Ironically, the quintessential image of the white American male GI became an enforced principle of representation in an army that consisted of nearly a million African American troops. 36

• Vernacular Meanings

In Calcutta, two segregated Red Cross Clubs existed simultaneously, one belonging to all-white American soldiers and the other to African American soldiers. The camps were miles apart, with different facilities of military support and comfort. Essential military amenities like access to a swimming pool were also substantially restricted to the twenty-two thousand African American soldiers, resulting in boycotting and nonviolent agitation within the US army factions. Their relationship with the native civilians was also complex. Oftentimes, they were invited to parties and ceremonies where white soldiers were not invited. 37 But, at the same time, several reports also suggest that they were discriminated against and villainized by the Bengali bhadrolok society. The absence of these narratives from the vernacular photographic archives of American GIs, including Clyde Waddell's, betrays the wider structural nets that filtered the meaning of US war efforts and GI identity around the world. Despite the significant encounters, rarely are there any extensive photographic works documenting their presence in the city. The Office of War Information even produced propaganda films showing state-of-art facilities for Black GIs in Karachi, then a part of undivided India.

Indeed, Waddell's photographs are built upon the exclusionary foundations of these absent narratives because, as a white American, his movements and engagement were limited only to certain regiments. Working at the intersections between commercial war photographer and personal documentarian for his GI friends, Waddell draws from and invokes a vernacular language for visualizing warfare. The subjectivity enshrined in his off-duty approach is not without the cultural and institutional dictates that govern the public imagination of American war efforts. Therefore, a field of cultural contradictions plays out underneath the daily visuals of GIs in Calcutta. The vernacular evolves as a critical aesthetic category that pries open the generic framework for representing war. By attending closely to the semiotic designs of Waddell's photographs in historiographic terms, we can discern some of his political motivations. The presence of GIs across the world incited different modalities of cultural contestations with their soldier/liberator/tourist identity. This was the case not just in France, Japan, Italy, and Germany—whose involvement in World War II is well recognized—but also in Calcutta, where GIs were, as this article has shown, no less present. The prominence of GIs in these sites stoked uncertainty and anxiety as the geopolitical balance of power shifted in the waning days of the British Empire to a postcolonial world order of American global influence. Adopting a vernacular language of photography became a constitutive factor in navigating India's otherness and establishing the American presence. In a double-fold relationship, the play between spontaneity and choreography in the photographs taken by Waddell promotes vernacular historicity. Vernacular idiom, therefore, rests in the fluidic capacity of his images. They are not static sites of recording information but render a complex circuitry of meaning that situates discursive designs and motivations. In this nonhierarchical genus, several political, social, and economic forces counteract, and Waddell's photographs of Calcutta bring this particular function of images to the fore.

Griffin, “Great War Photographs,” 124–25 .

Zhao, “Cameras and Carbines Capture Life during Wartime.”  

Mukherjee, “Japan Attacks,” 120 .

Linden, “Air Transport Command and the Airlines during World War II.”  

Khan, Raj at War , 146 .

Khan, Raj at War , 147 .

Kumar, “American Photographer Who Came to Calcutta during WWII.”  

“Calcutta Key.”  

Batchen, Each Wild Idea , 76 .

Batchen, Each Wild Idea , 79 .

Batchen, Each Wild Idea , 80 .

Khan, Raj at War , 151 .

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 41 .

Khan, “Sex in an Imperial War Zone,” 242 .

Neogi, “Wartime Calcutta.”  

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 18 .

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 45 .

Jacoby, “Hegemony, Modernisation, and Post-war Reconstruction,” 529 .

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 46 .

Hogenboom, “How the GI Influx Shaped Britain's View of America.”  

Farber and Bailey, “Fighting Man as Tourist,” 641 .

Smith, “War and Tourism,” 212 .

Buchanan, “‘I Felt Like a Tourist instead of a Solider,’” 597 .

American Red Cross, “Guide to Calcutta.”  

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 25 .

Teaiwa, “Reading Paul Gauguin's Noa Noa ,” 252 .

Waddell, “Clyde Waddell Photograph Album of Calcutta,” 40 .

Edensor, “Mundane Mobilities, Performances, and Spaces of Tourism,” 200 .

Smyth, “Avoiding Bloodshed?” 72 .

Kimble, “Spectral Soldiers,” 562 .

Huebner, Warrior Image , 43 .

Horne, End of Empires , 163 .

• Works Cited

Figures & Tables

John H. Smith and George H. Childs dancing, 1945. Photograph by John H. Smith. “John H. Smith's Images of India, 1944–1946,” http://www.cbi-theater.com/164th/164th.html#48 .

Rickshaw ride in Calcutta, undated. Photograph by Glenn Garrelts. “Glenn Garrelts' India,” http://www.cbi-theater.com/glenn/india.html#4 .

Crowd gathered around a sidewalk performer at a bus stop, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Crowd_gathered_around_a_sidewalk_performer_at_a_bus_stop_in_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg .

American GI in front of Firpo's restaurant in Calcutta, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?search=clyde+waddell&title=Special:MediaSearch&go=Go&type=image .

Sikh boys attempt to sell “precious stones” to American GIs in Calcutta, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sikh_boys_attempt_to_sell_%22precious%22_stones_to_American_GIs_in_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg .

Nimtolla Mosque, Calcutta, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nimtolla_Mosque,_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg .

Calcutta counterpart of the American railroad magazine stand, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Calcutta_counterpart_of_the_American_railroad_magazine_stand_in_1945.jpg .

Horse-drawn vehicles in Calcutta, 1945. Photograph by Clyde Waddell. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Horse-drawn_vehicles_in_Calcutta_in_1945.jpg .

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A Rising India Is Also, in One Remote Pocket, a Blood-Soaked War Zone

An outburst of ethnic hatreds has fractured an ancient kingdom and turned neighbors into enemies.

By Suhasini Raj and Alex Travelli

Photographs by Saumya Khandelwal

Suhasini Raj reported from Churachandpur, Imphal and villages on the frontline of the conflict in Manipur, India. Alex Travelli reported from New Delhi.

People burned out of their homes by the hundreds. Villages, even refugee camps, raked with gunfire. Men, women and children beaten and set ablaze by angry mobs.

India, the world’s most populous country and home to the fastest-growing major economy, is now also the site of a war zone, as weeks of ethnic violence in the remote northeastern state of Manipur has claimed about 100 lives.

Militarized buffer zones now crisscross the state, patrolled by local women — who are seen as less hotheaded than men — and the thousands of troops who have been sent to quell the fighting, drawing down forces in other parts of India, including the border with China.

More than 35,000 people have become refugees, with many living in makeshift camps. Internet service has been cut — an increasingly common tactic by the Indian government — and travel restrictions have made it difficult for the outside world to see in.

The development has been jarring for a nation whose 1.4 billion people usually manage to get along despite belonging to thousands of sometimes rivalrous ethnic groups. And it presents an unwelcome image of instability for a national government focused on portraying India as a rising global power.

“It is a nightmare,” said Mairembam Ratan, a small-town career counselor who escaped his home with help from the army. “It’s a civil war.”

Manipur is now effectively divided into ethnic zones, as long-simmering tensions between two groups — the Meiteis, who form a narrow majority in the state, and hill tribes known as the Kukis — boil over. Citizens who belong to the wrong group may not safely pass. Many have painted their ethnicity on doors, lest their homes be burned in a case of mistaken identity.

The state has been carved up in an effort to prevent the targeted violence that engulfed it in the conflict’s early days. On the evening of May 4, a 20-year-old nursing student, Agnes Neihkhohat Haokip, was in her dormitory in the state capital, Imphal, when a gang of about 40 men stormed in and dragged her away.

“Rape her! Torture her! Cut her into pieces!” Meitei women shouted as the attackers pummeled Ms. Haokip, knocking out her front teeth and biting her hands as she tried to pick up her teeth.

Three weeks later, Ms. Haokip, who is a Kuki, remained in an intensive care unit. Down the hall, in the morgue, lay ample evidence of the civil conflict she had been fortunate to survive: 23 corpses, most with bullet wounds to their chests or stomachs, still unclaimed.

“I am so scared that I cannot push that evening away from my mind,” Ms. Haokip said, sobbing into her hospital pillow. “I worry for my future.”

For centuries, Manipur was an independent kingdom occupying a fertile valley in the forested mountains between Myanmar and what locals still call the Indian “mainland.” A polyglot cradle of culture, the territory — nearer to Vietnam than to Delhi — blended courtly traditions imported from India with the languages and customs brought by waves of East Asian settlers.

The current conflict reflects the scarcity of resources and economic opportunity that defines large parts of India today.

On May 3, a student-led group, mostly Kukis, marched in protest after a court ruled in favor of Meiteis demanding to be classified as “tribals” and given a special status that would allow them to buy land in the hills and guarantee an allotment of government jobs. Armed clashes ensued, and police armories were raided. Within two days, at least 56 people were dead.

While that was the worst of the violence, the bloodshed has not ceased more than a month later, with Kukis suffering most of the deaths.

Resentments between the two groups have been fanned by political leaders. The government of Manipur, a state of 3.7 million people, is controlled by Meiteis. After Prime Minister Narendra Modi guided his Bharatiya Janata Party to power in New Delhi, the state’s chief minister, N. Biren Singh, and his Meitei followers joined the ascendant B.J.P.

Mr. Singh has come down heavily on the side of Meitei grievance. Last year, he conflated migrants from the civil war in Myanmar with their Kuki ethnic kin, stoking fears among Meiteis of an influx of refugees, though very few are in Manipur.

He has blamed Myanmar migrants for the state’s drug addiction problems, accusing them of cultivating poppies. And as forests in this part of India have become coveted as land for tourism, timber and palm-oil plantations, Mr. Singh has said migrants are responsible for deforestation.

His office did not answer repeated requests for comment. But after the violence broke out in May, he called the Kukis who took up arms “terrorists” who were “trying to break Manipur.”

Khuraijam Athouba, a spokesman for the largest civil society group representing the Meitei, accused what he called “Kuki militants” of bringing in illegal immigrants to overpower the Meiteis by sheer numbers. On Wednesday, Mr. Athouba’s group organized a convention that “declared war on illegal narco-terrorists.”

Gen. Anil Chauhan, the country’s top uniformed military officer, rejected the assertion that the Kukis were engaged in terrorism. “This particular situation in Manipur has nothing to do with counterinsurgency and is primarily a clash between two ethnicities,” he said.

Outside of the army, the national government did little on the ground during the first three weeks of Manipur’s conflagration. Mr. Modi said nothing publicly about it, as he was busy campaigning for his party in state elections far away. His right-hand man, the home minister, Amit Shah, arrived in Imphal on May 30 and tried to make peace between the warring parties.

It was not far from Manipur in 2019 that Mr. Shah, at a campaign rally, implied that many of the Muslims who live in the neighboring state of Assam were “infiltrators” from Bangladesh who ought to be driven into the sea.

While sowing religious divisions has been an election-season stock-in-trade of the Hindu nationalist B.J.P., the lines are drawn differently in Manipur. The Meitei people are mostly Hindu, and the Kuki people are mostly Christian. But religion has relatively little to do with the animosity between them.

Ms. Haokip, the woman who was beaten by a mob, is recovering in a hospital in the hills where Kukis predominate. She worries that she will not be able to return to Imphal to finish her nursing studies.

Another Kuki, Chamelen Hangshing, 30, said he and his fellow villagers had exchanged gunfire earlier this week with Meitei vigilantes. A 7-year-old boy was hit in the head by a stray bullet while taking shelter with his family in a government camp. An ambulance tried to take him to a hospital across the Meitei lines, but it was stopped, and three of its passengers, including the boy and his mother, were beaten and burned alive , according to the boy’s uncle, Jeffrey Hangshing.

Meiteis, too, have shared some of the hardship. Robita Moirangthem, a 30-year-old teacher, and her mother fled their home and spent a night hiding in a latrine. “Everything is finished. We don’t have a home anymore,” Ms. Moirangthem said.

“Let us live our lives where our homes are,” she pleaded. “Why take out animosity against us ordinary people?”

Suhasini Raj has worked for over a decade as an investigative journalist with Indian and international news outlets. Based in the New Delhi bureau, she joined The Times in 2014. More about Suhasini Raj

Alex Travelli is a correspondent for The Times based in New Delhi, covering business and economic matters in India and the rest of South Asia. He previously worked as an editor and correspondent for The Economist. More about Alex Travelli

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War tourism: Historic war sites that travellers can visit across the globe

Priya Srivastava , TIMESOFINDIA.COM , TRAVEL TRENDS , WORLD Updated : Feb 25, 2022, 16:13 IST

If you are someone who has always been intrigued by wars that cover the pages of history books, you are definitely a history buff! You can rediscover the past by visiting some of the most epic war sites in the history of mankind. Thousands and lakhs of soldiers sacrificed their lives fighting for their countries at these sites.

Checkout these most important war sites if you are a war tourist:

Oświęcim, Poland

This is one of the most important war sites in the world. The former Nazi concentration camp, Auschwitz, was once located in the Oświęcim town. Today, it has been transformed into a memorial and museum to honour the victims.

Pearl Harbour, Hawaii

It was in December 1941 that Japan dropped bombs on Pearl Harbour in Hawaii. This made the US join the Allies in World War II. The surprise attack by Japan on Hawaii claimed a number of lives, from soldiers to nurses and their families living on the island lost their lives. Today, Pearl Harbour has turned into a memorial honouring the innocent victims. Visitors can take a boat to Pearl Harbour and rediscover one of the most historical fights in the history of wars!

Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Washington DC

Another major event in the history of America is the Vietnam War. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC is a memorial built in the memory of the United States Armed Forces who lost their lives or went missing during the war time. The entry to the memorial is free and it remains open 24 hours a day.

India Gate, Delhi, India

One of the iconic structures in India, the memorial was built in the memory of Indian soldiers, who lost their lives during World War I between 1914 and 1921. Situated some 2 km from the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Rajpath Road, India Gate is a war memorial and one of the most popular attractions in Delhi today.

Vel D’Hiv Monument, France

The Vélodrome d'Hiver, colloquially Vel' d'Hiv', is in Paris, not too far from the Eiffel Tower. Nazis captured Paris in 1942, and arrested all Jews in the city. The event was known as Operation Spring Breeze and the main motive behind this was to eradicate the Jewish people completely from France. The mass-arrest of over 13000 Jews included some 4000 kids, who were transported to the concentration camps. Today, this monument pays tribute to the captured victims.

Independence Hall, Philadelphia

Noted as the Birthplace of America , Independence Hall in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, is an historic building in America. A must-visit historical site, this place has a lot to offer to people wishing to revisit the history. Interested people can book a tour or just walk through the hall, and learn everything about America's foundation history.

Dunkirk, France

Dunkirk is a coastal city in northern France. In June of 1940, more than 330,000 British soldiers were trapped in Dunkirk and one of the biggest rescue operations in the history of war was carried out, called Operation Dynamo . In 2017, a movie with the same name, Dunkirk, was released that very-well depicted the entire rescue operation.

Dover Castle, Dover, England

The castle in Dover was built by King Henry II for the protection of England, to defend the country against foreign invaders. The castle has several underground tunnels and escape rooms. One can visit it to learn more about England's rich history.

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If you are someone who has always been intrigued by wars that cover the pages of history books, you are definitely a history buff! You can rediscover the past by visiting some of the most epic war sit...

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The tourists who visit Ukraine’s warzones

War attracts a certain type of tourist as ukraine has discovered. apart from safety issues, the legal and ethical ramifications are complex..

War attracts a certain type of tourist as Ukraine has discovered. Apart from safety issues, the legal and ethical ramifications are complex. The posts are from many different people but usually begin the same way: "I am looking to volunteer in Ukraine …" The queries are from medical professionals, former soldiers, truck drivers, college students and countless others. Some have weapons; many don’t. All have the same goal: to get to Ukraine and join the war.

One video on the "volunteers for Ukraine" subreddit forum is of a school janitor from Montana now helping evacuate women and children from battle zones.

Another is a mother-of-two and nurse from Los Angeles helping the wounded on the frontlines. One older woman dropped everything in the US and now helps save animals caught up in the chaos.

The idea of visiting a warzone may seem crazy but since Russia invaded Ukraine 12 months ago, there has emerged a group determined to get firsthand experience of the battlefields.

Tourism to Ukraine was just starting to recover from the devastation of COVID-19 when Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion.

The bulk of the fighting has taken place in the country’s east. Farther west, despite regular missile attacks on the capital Kyiv and other cities, tourism is still encouraged, despite the risks.

Tourists who have recently visited Ukraine speak of Kyiv as being surprisingly similar to peacetime (albeit with more poverty on the streets and less-crowded public transport).

Favourable exchange rates make services cheap and most banks, hospitals, pharmacies, shops and restaurants operate as normal. There is a downside, though — the risk of being shot, blown up, wounded, poisoned, infected or trapped.

Despite the risks, the flow of foreigners to Ukraine has not let up, although reliable statistics are scarce.

The Ukrainian government established a foreign legion just days after the invasion. Thousands responded. One military commentator labelled these foreigners fighting in Ukraine as a "legion of the damned", an army of "misfits, veterans and war tourists".

Some of these war tourists pay the ultimate price. Australian man Sage O'Donnell was killed just before Christmas. The ex-soldier was helping train Ukrainian volunteers when he died.

He’s the fourth Australian to be killed. Overall, more than 112 foreigners have perished while many others have been captured by the Russians.

War tourism is not a new phenomenon, as historical sources cite the presence of onlookers at historical battles such as the battle of Waterloo and the American Civil War’s Battle of Bull Run.

Shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, the subreddit "volunteers for Ukraine" was created and had 50,000 members within a month. Text processing of more than 10,000 posts showed the main topics for discussion within the forum.

Combat volunteers asked information on issues such as "equipment and resources", "language skills", "basic training", "military background" and need for "prior service".

Non-combat volunteers shared information on "medical experience", "medical training", "medical supplies" and "combat zone experience".

Other forum members said they would not travel to the combat zone directly, but try to support Ukraine through financial donations, online information sharing and dismantling fake news.

Usually war sites are only visited once conflict has subsided, but recent studies suggest the practice of travelling to active areas of conflict is growing, a phenomenon which is referred to as "hot" war tourism.

Although mostly not explicitly stated, from their posts it can be inferred they were interested in watching, a voyeuristic view on a spectacle as real as it gets.

These potential war tourists were concerned with "logistics and barriers", "how to cross the border" and "how to acquire a plane ticket".

"Cold weather gear", "sleeping bags" and "language skills" were other issues of interest among them.

Travel to conflict zones as a volunteer or paid foreign fighter is illegal in many countries, but this seldom applies to visit active war zones as an onlooker. Governments around the world are mostly unequivocal: do not travel to Ukraine.

In the case of Ukraine, studies have suggested war tourists often end up as active participants in the conflict. Westerners have also entered Ukraine to fight for the Russian side.

Whether it is ethical to visit an active warzone for whatever reason is up for debate. And whether tourists arrive with the intention to be actively involved in the conflict is not clear and reliable data is not available.

What is clear is the lack of understanding, control and legal frameworks to regulate war tourism and its related dangers.

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• India's overtourism catastrophe: A looming crisis that calls for urgent action

Damaging impact of overtourism looms large over global travel, with India standing at a critical juncture. Amidst a 166 per cent surge in arrivals, the impact on locals and nature is concerning. Amidst India's uphill battles portraying the complex facets of overtourism, we analyse the current scenario, road to be taken and strategies to be formulated on the damage control. Detailed coverage below.

• Gagneet Kaur ,
• ETTravelWorld
• Updated On Aug 14, 2023 at 10:32 AM IST

CAG Audit report highlights shortcomings of Swadesh Darshan Scheme; suggests actions

The audit report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India revealed that the Ministry initiated the scheme without conducting a feasibility study, resulting in poor project execution and delays. Despite objections, the scheme was launched, ignoring suggestions to consolidate overlapping objectives. The report also laid out suggestions for a streamlined convergence, and improved project evaluation mechanisms for the scheme's success in future.

• By Gagneet Kaur ,
• Published On Aug 12, 2023 at 09:29 AM IST

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Explained: India's Stand Amid Threat Of Open War Between Iran, Israel

Calling the situation a "humanitarian" tragedy, New Delhi said it is seriously concerned about the escalation of hostilities which threatens the peace and security in the region.

Iran, which backs Palestine, has launched a drone attack on Israel amid the latter's war on Hamas.

India, caught in a tight spot over the  Iran-Israel escalation, has advised both nations to exercise restraint. The tension must be resolved through "dialogue & diplomacy", the foreign ministry said this morning after yesterday's drone attack by Teheran.

Late last evening, Iran -- which backs Palestine -- has launched a drone attack on Israel amid the latter's war on Hamas. The Israeli military said most of the 200-plus ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and attack drones, were intercepted with the help of Israel's allies before landing. Teheran said it was an act of "self-defence" after Iran's diplomatic mission in Damascus was targeted.

"We call for immediate de-escalation, exercise of restraint, stepping back from violence and return to the path of diplomacy. We are closely monitoring the evolving situation... It is vital that security and stability are maintained in the region," the ministry has said in a statement.

The escalation  was expected since Israel started war on Hamas. Last week, India issued an advisory urging its citizens not to travel to Iran or Israel and asked Indians living in either country to observe "utmost precautions". Now the escalation has happened, it places India between two nations with which it shares strong ties.

India's strategic ties with Israel -- with which it has cooperation in multiple fields from defence to technology for decades -- has been upscaled since the NDA government came to power. PM Modi has visited Israel in 2018 and his personal chemistry with PM Netanyahu is very good. Isarel is one of India's biggest defence supplies aling with the US, UK, France and Russia.

India's positive relationship with Iran is older – the country being one of India's prime supplier of oil.

India was Iran's second-largest importer of oil before the sanctions were imposed over its controversial nuclear programme.  For four years, India has not been able to buy oil from Iran, but the two had remained close. India and Iran concluded a defence pact in 2002. Earlier this year, foreign minister S Jaishankar went for a visit to Iran, where India is invested in building the Chabahar port.

While India does not consider Hamas a terrorist organisation, the attack on Israel which triggered retaliation, was considered a terrorist attack.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- the first Indian Prime Minister to visit Israel -- had described it as a "terrorist act" through a tweet. Through this, India has given a clear message that it is with Israel against terrorism.

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At the same time, India has been raising its voice regarding the humanitarian tragedy in Gaza. New Delhi, which has been advocating a two-state solution, continues to help the Palestinians.

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Russia-Made Warships Set to Join India’s Navy, Despite Sanctions

India will take delivery of two Russian-made warships in the next few months, as the two countries work around US sanctions that created difficulties in paying for Russian weapons systems, according to senior Indian officials.

One ship is likely to be handed to the Indians in September, with another being delivered early next year. The delivery of the ships are two years behind schedule due to the war in Ukraine, the officials said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity around the issue.

India will decide policy step once impact of Iran-Israel conflict understood

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Biden unlikely to cut Iran's oil lifeline after Israel attack

Iran's unprecedented missile and drone strike on Israel is unlikely to prompt dramatic sanctions action on Iran's oil exports from the Biden administration due to worries about boosting oil prices and angering top buyer China, said analysts.

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Middle East crisis: Several airlines suspend services, avoid Iranian airspace

New Delhi: With the Middle East tensions flaring up, Air India has temporarily suspended its Tel Aviv flights and other national and internationa carriers have charted alternative flight paths to avoid the Iranian airspace. Longer flight paths will result in increased operational costs for the airlines, and the situation could also push airfares higher.

Apart from Air India, Vistara and IndiGo from India have opted for alternative paths for their flights to the West. An official in the know said that IndiGo, which operates flights to Istanbul with aircraft leased from Turkish Airlines, is avoiding the Iranian airspace.

Airlines of the Middle East and Europe Major Middle East airlines, including Emirates Airlines, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways, said on Sunday they would resume operation in the region after cancelling or rerouting some flights. It was not yet clear if the latest unrest would impact passenger demand, which has remained robust despite ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, said Brendan Sobie, an independent aviation analyst. "If the political situation and the conflicts continue to escalate then at some point people will be concerned about travelling, but so far that hasn't happened," Sobie said.

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Saudia, the flag carrier of Saudi Arabia has suspended all its services to the airports in the northern region of the country until further notice. The airline had earlier recalled a flight to Al Qurayyat back to Riyadh. Meanwhile, Jordan has closed its air space indefinitely to all incoming, departing and transit aircraft. This led Kuwait Airways to cancel its flights to Al Qurayyat in Jordan (Al Qurayyat is there both in Saudi Arabia and Jordan). The airline company has temporarily suspended its services to Iraq, Iran, Jordan and Lebanon. Meanwhile, the European aviation agency also urged caution in Israeli and Iranian airspaces though it said no civil overflights had been placed at risk. Dutch airline KLM has cancelled all flights to and from Tel Aviv until Tuesday.

Biggest disruption since 9/11 This was the biggest single disruption to air travel since the attack on the World Trade Centre on September 11, 2001, according to Mark Zee, founder of OPSGROUP, which monitors airspace and airports. "Not since then have we had a situation with that many different air spaces closed down in that quick succession, and that creates chaos," Zee told Reuters, adding that disruptions were likely to last a couple more days.

The latest routing problems are a blow to an industry already facing a host of restrictions due to conflicts between Israel and Hamas, and Russia and Ukraine. Iran's airspace is used by airlines travelling between Europe and Asia and those carriers will be restricted to two viable alternative routes, either through Turkey or via Egypt and Saudi Arabia, Zee said. Israel closed its airspace on Saturday, before reopening them on Sunday morning. Jordan, Iraq and Lebanon also resumed flights over their territories. (Inputs from PTI and Reuters)

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