Gautam Hazarika, what first attracted you to the period or periods you work in?
I had always been interested in WW2, primarily Britain’s war against Nazi Germany, but not in the Far East, even after living 20 years in Singapore where so much of it happened at my doorstep 80 years ago.
Can you tell us a little about how you research? Has the process changed over the years?
I started research (Singapore in WW2) just 3 years ago, so it’s been a short time, hence no change as such, am still learning. As I was novice I started by googling, that led me to historians/ authors who knew the topic well. I wrote to many, and I was surprised that almost all of them went out of their way to help me, a nobody. They pointed out archives I was unaware of and introduced me to descendants of POWs who added so much on the family aspect of the story.
When researching a specific archive that was rich for my story, such as National Archives India (NAI) or AWM, I would summarize all the key points, so I did not need to return to the original when planning/ writing my chapters. In the case of the NAI, some sources had information on multiple chapters, and it was too much to note down everything in one go. But I soon got to know what was where, so when planning later chapters, I knew where to go.
As the UK archives are largely not online, I would take images of each page when I visited, so I could revisit them whenever needed.
Family members are very different. In some cases, I needed to win their trust – what was my objective, how was I going to portray the men? Some were open from the start, or perhaps I had done a better a job of winning their trust without realizing it. Some said they had nothing to add, but without exception, everyone did. Perhaps they genuinely thought they had nothing to add, but when questioned, the memories started flowing.
The common phrase is that history is written by the victors. Do you think this is true?
Indeed, it is. In Britain’s case the focus was on the war in Europe against Nazi Germany, quite natural as it was closer to home. Hence there was less focus on the Far East, though that is changing. In the telling of the Far East war, the fact that the Indian Army were the main defenders when the war began, and when Burma was retaken is not well-known.
On the Indian National Army (INA) recruited from Indian POWs by the Japanese with the stated aim of expelling Britain from India, the postwar telling brushed them aside like a bad smell perhaps as they were considered traitors. Writing about them would mean acknowledging that Indian soldiers had turned against Britain. Extensively researched and very written up by Kevin Noles in his new book.
Another trend however is of history being written by family members – driven by insufficient recognition of the Far East war, descendants of the men and women who fought and suffered have taken up the cudgel and published many edited diaries, biographies of their relative. This is slowly bridging the gap. The King and Queen’s presence at VJ80 on August 15th at the NMA has also gone a long way in doing so.
But within the family author saga, a gap exists. Though half of the Empire troops defending the Far East in 1941-2 and two thirds of Slim’s 14th Army in Burma were Indian, less than 1% of the books are about Indians. This has to do with the Indian family members – do they not care, not know enough? The Sikh community in Britain is a vibrant exception.
Are there any historians who helped shaped your career? Similarly, can you recommend three history books which budding historians should read?
Though there are historian/authors who I admire greatly like Churchill, Barbara Tuchman, it is the genre that has shaped my writing – I like micro histories of specific people/ events, and as my target audience is the general reader like me, I tried to write a page turner.
Three books that budding historians should read are Tuchman’s The Guns of August, Raghu Karnad’s The Farthest Field and John Julius Norwich’s Byzantium trilogy
If you could meet any figure from history, who would it be and why? Also, if you could witness any event throughout history, what would it be?
Mohan Singh
From my research one person fascinated me – the unknown 32-year-old Capt. Mohan Singh who was chosen by the Japanese to head the INA. Though he had Japanese support, he still needed to assert his authority over several dozen officer’s senior to him (very difficult in a strong hierarchy as all armies are) and over 60,000 POWs – I can’t understand how he did it. That is why I would want to meet him.
Related to this is the event on 17th February 1942 in Farrer Park Singapore where he was anointed the leader – the audience of 40,000 Indian POWs erupted in cheers after his speech.
If you could add any period or subject to the history curriculum, what would it be?
How is history written? Who writes it, what drives their narrative? What do they emphasize and why? What do they leave out/ marginalize and why?
If you could give a piece of advice to your younger self, either as a student or when you first started out as a writer, what would it be?
As a student – history is not what it seems. Be inquisitive and peel the onion – there are many layers below.
As a writer – set a target of a book every two years. This means keeping one’s eye open for other subjects while researching the current book. Work on images/ maps during the writing of the book. For the next book, decide a genre/topic. After submitting the current manuscript, take a short break, then start working on the next book right away.
Can you tell us a little bit about the project you are currently working on?
Am working on marketing my current book, making it into a/many movies/seasons, finding an institution to house my research, setting up a process to help family members trace their Indian army relative’s life at war plus my next book.
The next book is named The Dirty Dozen of Singapore: Indians against Britain in World War II
The title takes from the famous WW2 movie The Dirty Dozen. The men in the movie were not dirty in the traditional sense, but more “naughty” and unorthodox, so chosen for a dangerous & secret mission against Nazi Germany. The Dirty Dozen in my book are similar – civilians who embarked on a mission to disrupt British India. Unlike the movie, they failed, but their life during this time was equally adventurous. I came across their story while researching the soldiers in my first book
This may not be as attractive to publishers as my 1st book on soldiers – I hope to be able to convince them by giving mini-bios of 10 people in the book.
In the UK, the subject may be doubly difficult to be seen as attractive, firstly about Indians in WW2, secondly of them being civilians. However, as the SOE with civilians fighting against Hitler is now very popular, my title would be different – to put it into context of civilians fighting, in this case against the British, so something like – The Anti-British Indian “SOE” (the quotes to indicate they were like it, but not in the SOE)
Gautam Hazarika is the author of The Forgotten Indian Prisoners of World War II: Surrender, Loyalty, Betrayal & Hell.
