K Roy
Biographic Data
| ID | 34767 |
|---|---|
| NAME | K Roy |
| GIVEN NAMES | K |
| FAMILY NAME | Roy |
| SIGNATURE | ROY K |
| AFFILIATIONS | Jadavpur University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-1686-8328 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 25 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 34 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1998 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Logistics of British counterinsurgency during the Indian Rebellion
In the summer of 1857, the Bengal Army mutinied against the East India Company (EIC). Simultaneously, a civil rebellion erupted in north India. The Indian civil and military mutineers are clubbed together as rebels. The rebels conducted battles, sieges, and guerrilla warfare against the EIC. This article focuses on the logistics of British counterinsurgency between 1857 and 1859. The British won the “battle of logistics” because they had the reso…
Logistics of the First Anglo-Burma War, 1824–1826
A qualitative study of adaptation challenges of Ukrainian refugees in the United States
Mughal amphibious counterinsurgency in the Bay of Bengal's hinterland
During the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Mughal attempt at empire building in eastern India was challenged by the Pathan chieftains and the Hindu zamindars. Besides the Mughals, the Kingdom of Arakan tried to fish in troubled waters to establish a maritime presence in the littoral regions of Bay of Bengal. Pursuit of a sophisticated amphibious counterinsurgency strategy in tune with the ecological environment of the theatre…
Bollywood, Maratha imperialism and Hindu nationalism
Critical scholars assert that the Bharatiya Janata Party is using commercial Hindi films, controlled by the censor board, to portray a ‘Hindu’ version of Indian nationality. Left-liberal intellectuals and activists further claim that Bollywood is also pandering to the diktats of the ruling party by making films which depict a right-wing version of Indian history. Films to a great extent define our social consciousness. This article attempts to sh…
Revisiting British–India’s Military Historiography
The British-officered Indian Army (colonial Indian Army/Sepoy Army) was the principal pillar of the British Empire in India. This force constituted the main item of expenditure in the state budget. Modern historical writing on the Indian colonial armed forces started in the 1970s. This survey is organised along four interrelated themes of war and the British–Indian state, British–Indian armed forces and Indian society, warfare and British-India’s…
Sikh insurgency in pre-British India
Sikh dominance in the Indian military started under the British in the late nineteenth century. The Sikh insurgency which rocked Punjab in the 1980s remains independent India’s most serious internal rebellion. In fact, the warrior ethos and military martyrdom in the Sikh community could be traced back to the precolonial era. This essay traces the history of the evolution of Khalsa’s military culture. I argue that the Sikhs were already a ‘martial…
Dennis Showalter and the history of armour during Second World War
Whenever one thinks of the World War II, the image of dark menacing panzers cutting deep swathes into enemy forces comes up to the mind. No amount of interpretation and overinterpretation can belittle the extraordinary role-played by the panzers in World War II. Similarly, despite the presence of numerous good works by various historians and introduction of exotic methodologies, Professor Dennis Showalter’s place in the world of academic writings…
Logistics of small wars in British India
Between circa 1740 and 1849, the British East India Company (EIC) conquered India after conducting several conventional campaigns against the ‘native’ powers. Thereafter, the phase of consolidation started. In this phase, the EIC, and after 1859, the Raj had to conduct innumerable small wars (pacification campaigns) especially against the tribes who inhabited the Indus Frontier, and the region east of Brahmaputra River. Rather than battles and si…
Pacifying the Pindaris
This article examines the rise and fall of the Pindaris in India between the mid eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The Pindaris started their career as military mercenaries of the Maratha chiefs. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, they became semi-autonomous non-state powers and threatened both their employers as well as the expanding British Empire in India. The Pindari threat became intense in Central and West India. As this …
Small Wars and Pacification in the British Empire
The British Empire was at the height of its power in the late nineteenth century. Most scholars focus on imperial expansion. However, not much light has been shed on the process of consolidation, which I term pacification. This paper tries to cover this historiographical slip by making a case study of British pacification of the Lushai Hills of North-East India. While analysing this micro region, I shall contextualise it within the broader polici…
Financing warfare in ancient India
In this essay, I attempt to build a typology of how warfare was financed in ancient India. During the period discussed in this article (1500 BCE–800 CE), most of the polities of the subcontinent followed continental strategy. Hence, they focused on maintaining armies rather than navies. Loot and plunder were adequate for maintaining irregular forces and mercenaries temporarily. Some polities which depended on taxing overseas commerce and gatherin…
Mercenaries and private military corporations in ancient and early medieval South Asia
In India, from the time of emergence of empires in circa 300 BCE till the rise of British power in eighteenth century, military mercenaries and private military companies dominated the politico-military landscape. Premodern India had both secular (military guilds) and religious (based on temples and akharas) military corporations. The mercenaries were mostly marginal peasants and demobilised soldiers. They were hired through the agency of their c…
Focusing on India’s Look East Policy
Before the onset of the industrial revolution, China and India were the two biggest powers in Eurasia. Their total population comprised almost half of the world’s population. And the GNP of premodern China was half of the combined GNP of the world. Before circa 1600 CE, most of the textiles and iron in the world were manufactured in these two countries. China and India suffered a temporary eclipse during the age of colonialism. However, with the …
Kalaha, Vigraha and Yuddha in Ancient India
The present essay argues that the ancient Hindu acharyas (teachers) and rulers came up with nuanced and complex theories and techniques of COIN. This was because the multi-religious and polyethnic agrarian bureaucratic empires of ancient India faced a multitude of armed insurrections. The essay shows that the Hindu theorists and emperors of ancient India had hit upon the policy of winning the hearts and minds of the people in the disturbed areas …
Dynamic Capability as the Epistemology of an Organization
In this article, I view the dynamic capabilities of a social venture by examining organizational spaces through the means of qualitative engagement. Through the explication of one such organizational space, the WCB Bank, dynamic capability is understood as inhering in the purpose, the constructed memory and selves of human actors in the organization, and the collective endeavours that make the organization through deliberative processes. Such a v…
Partition of British India
The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy Through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts. By Ishtiaq Ahmed. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012. xlvii
Afghanistan and the future of war
Discussion about the nature of warfare in Afghanistan is related to several larger inter-related debates in the field of military history. First, is the world witnessing a military revolution, or a military technical revolution/revolution in military affairs at the dawn of the new millennium? Second, is conventional warfare dead? Third, are we witnessing a new form of insurgency, and is the new form of insurgency part of the so-called Eastern way…
Introduction
The hybrid military establishment of the East India Company in South Asia
During the seventeenth century, the East India Company (EIC) was a minor power in South Asia, repeatedly defeated in battle. However, this changed rapidly, beginning in the 1750s, as the EIC started projecting power from its coastal enclaves into the interior. One after other, the indigenous powers were defeated and destroyed. This article argues that the EIC’s military success was not merely the result of importing the military institutions that…
Gunpowder and Firearms
Equipping Leviathan
The ordnance establishment of British India was rightly regarded as the fourth arm of defence by the British. Especially after the 1857 mutiny, they understood that fire-power generated by the artillery and advanced small arms actually led to victory against numerically superior ‘rebels’. Instead of depending on imports from Britain, which were not only time-consuming, but costly and also intermittent, the colonial state decided to lay the founda…
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Indian soldiers fought for the British not because the Indian army was integrated with colonial society, and not because of superior British military expertise, but because of British managerial skill. Particularly after 1857, the British succeeded in incorporating sepoys into a professionalized combat organization by constructing ethnic and military identities for groups that were deemed `martial races', and then amalgamating these constructed g…
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Smoking status and its effect on cardiorespiratory system, body dimension and plucking performance of Oraon tea garden labourers
Oraon tea leaf pluckers were examined in terms of their cardiorespiratory functions which include blood pressure measurements and a number of lung function tests. Anthropometric measurements and information on smoking history were obtained. It is known from earlier studies that the individuals studied belong to more or less similar economic and nutritional background. The results suggest that smoking has an effect on cardiorespiratory functions, …
Gunpowder and Firearms
The hybrid military establishment of the East India Company in South Asia
During the seventeenth century, the East India Company (EIC) was a minor power in South Asia, repeatedly defeated in battle. However, this changed rapidly, beginning in the 1750s, as the EIC started projecting power from its coastal enclaves into the interior. One after other, the indigenous powers were defeated and destroyed. This article argues that the EIC’s military success was not merely the result of importing the military institutions that…
A qualitative study of adaptation challenges of Ukrainian refugees in the United States
Financing warfare in ancient India
In this essay, I attempt to build a typology of how warfare was financed in ancient India. During the period discussed in this article (1500 BCE–800 CE), most of the polities of the subcontinent followed continental strategy. Hence, they focused on maintaining armies rather than navies. Loot and plunder were adequate for maintaining irregular forces and mercenaries temporarily. Some polities which depended on taxing overseas commerce and gatherin…
Kalaha, Vigraha and Yuddha in Ancient India
The present essay argues that the ancient Hindu acharyas (teachers) and rulers came up with nuanced and complex theories and techniques of COIN. This was because the multi-religious and polyethnic agrarian bureaucratic empires of ancient India faced a multitude of armed insurrections. The essay shows that the Hindu theorists and emperors of ancient India had hit upon the policy of winning the hearts and minds of the people in the disturbed areas …
Introduction
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Indian soldiers fought for the British not because the Indian army was integrated with colonial society, and not because of superior British military expertise, but because of British managerial skill. Particularly after 1857, the British succeeded in incorporating sepoys into a professionalized combat organization by constructing ethnic and military identities for groups that were deemed `martial races', and then amalgamating these constructed g…
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Smoking status and its effect on cardiorespiratory system, body dimension and plucking performance of Oraon tea garden labourers
Oraon tea leaf pluckers were examined in terms of their cardiorespiratory functions which include blood pressure measurements and a number of lung function tests. Anthropometric measurements and information on smoking history were obtained. It is known from earlier studies that the individuals studied belong to more or less similar economic and nutritional background. The results suggest that smoking has an effect on cardiorespiratory functions, …
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Indian soldiers fought for the British not because the Indian army was integrated with colonial society, and not because of superior British military expertise, but because of British managerial skill. Particularly after 1857, the British succeeded in incorporating sepoys into a professionalized combat organization by constructing ethnic and military identities for groups that were deemed `martial races', and then amalgamating these constructed g…
The Construction of Regiments in the Indian Army
Equipping Leviathan
The ordnance establishment of British India was rightly regarded as the fourth arm of defence by the British. Especially after the 1857 mutiny, they understood that fire-power generated by the artillery and advanced small arms actually led to victory against numerically superior ‘rebels’. Instead of depending on imports from Britain, which were not only time-consuming, but costly and also intermittent, the colonial state decided to lay the founda…
Gunpowder and Firearms
The hybrid military establishment of the East India Company in South Asia
During the seventeenth century, the East India Company (EIC) was a minor power in South Asia, repeatedly defeated in battle. However, this changed rapidly, beginning in the 1750s, as the EIC started projecting power from its coastal enclaves into the interior. One after other, the indigenous powers were defeated and destroyed. This article argues that the EIC’s military success was not merely the result of importing the military institutions that…
Afghanistan and the future of war
Discussion about the nature of warfare in Afghanistan is related to several larger inter-related debates in the field of military history. First, is the world witnessing a military revolution, or a military technical revolution/revolution in military affairs at the dawn of the new millennium? Second, is conventional warfare dead? Third, are we witnessing a new form of insurgency, and is the new form of insurgency part of the so-called Eastern way…
Introduction
Partition of British India
The Punjab Bloodied, Partitioned and Cleansed: Unravelling the 1947 Tragedy Through Secret British Reports and First-Person Accounts. By Ishtiaq Ahmed. Karachi: Oxford University Press, 2012. xlvii
Dynamic Capability as the Epistemology of an Organization
In this article, I view the dynamic capabilities of a social venture by examining organizational spaces through the means of qualitative engagement. Through the explication of one such organizational space, the WCB Bank, dynamic capability is understood as inhering in the purpose, the constructed memory and selves of human actors in the organization, and the collective endeavours that make the organization through deliberative processes. Such a v…
Focusing on India’s Look East Policy
Before the onset of the industrial revolution, China and India were the two biggest powers in Eurasia. Their total population comprised almost half of the world’s population. And the GNP of premodern China was half of the combined GNP of the world. Before circa 1600 CE, most of the textiles and iron in the world were manufactured in these two countries. China and India suffered a temporary eclipse during the age of colonialism. However, with the …
Kalaha, Vigraha and Yuddha in Ancient India
The present essay argues that the ancient Hindu acharyas (teachers) and rulers came up with nuanced and complex theories and techniques of COIN. This was because the multi-religious and polyethnic agrarian bureaucratic empires of ancient India faced a multitude of armed insurrections. The essay shows that the Hindu theorists and emperors of ancient India had hit upon the policy of winning the hearts and minds of the people in the disturbed areas …
Dennis Showalter and the history of armour during Second World War
Whenever one thinks of the World War II, the image of dark menacing panzers cutting deep swathes into enemy forces comes up to the mind. No amount of interpretation and overinterpretation can belittle the extraordinary role-played by the panzers in World War II. Similarly, despite the presence of numerous good works by various historians and introduction of exotic methodologies, Professor Dennis Showalter’s place in the world of academic writings…
Logistics of small wars in British India
Between circa 1740 and 1849, the British East India Company (EIC) conquered India after conducting several conventional campaigns against the ‘native’ powers. Thereafter, the phase of consolidation started. In this phase, the EIC, and after 1859, the Raj had to conduct innumerable small wars (pacification campaigns) especially against the tribes who inhabited the Indus Frontier, and the region east of Brahmaputra River. Rather than battles and si…
Pacifying the Pindaris
This article examines the rise and fall of the Pindaris in India between the mid eighteenth and early nineteenth century. The Pindaris started their career as military mercenaries of the Maratha chiefs. In the first decade of the nineteenth century, they became semi-autonomous non-state powers and threatened both their employers as well as the expanding British Empire in India. The Pindari threat became intense in Central and West India. As this …
Small Wars and Pacification in the British Empire
The British Empire was at the height of its power in the late nineteenth century. Most scholars focus on imperial expansion. However, not much light has been shed on the process of consolidation, which I term pacification. This paper tries to cover this historiographical slip by making a case study of British pacification of the Lushai Hills of North-East India. While analysing this micro region, I shall contextualise it within the broader polici…
Financing warfare in ancient India
In this essay, I attempt to build a typology of how warfare was financed in ancient India. During the period discussed in this article (1500 BCE–800 CE), most of the polities of the subcontinent followed continental strategy. Hence, they focused on maintaining armies rather than navies. Loot and plunder were adequate for maintaining irregular forces and mercenaries temporarily. Some polities which depended on taxing overseas commerce and gatherin…
Mercenaries and private military corporations in ancient and early medieval South Asia
In India, from the time of emergence of empires in circa 300 BCE till the rise of British power in eighteenth century, military mercenaries and private military companies dominated the politico-military landscape. Premodern India had both secular (military guilds) and religious (based on temples and akharas) military corporations. The mercenaries were mostly marginal peasants and demobilised soldiers. They were hired through the agency of their c…
Revisiting British–India’s Military Historiography
The British-officered Indian Army (colonial Indian Army/Sepoy Army) was the principal pillar of the British Empire in India. This force constituted the main item of expenditure in the state budget. Modern historical writing on the Indian colonial armed forces started in the 1970s. This survey is organised along four interrelated themes of war and the British–Indian state, British–Indian armed forces and Indian society, warfare and British-India’s…
Sikh insurgency in pre-British India
Sikh dominance in the Indian military started under the British in the late nineteenth century. The Sikh insurgency which rocked Punjab in the 1980s remains independent India’s most serious internal rebellion. In fact, the warrior ethos and military martyrdom in the Sikh community could be traced back to the precolonial era. This essay traces the history of the evolution of Khalsa’s military culture. I argue that the Sikhs were already a ‘martial…
Logistics of the First Anglo-Burma War, 1824–1826
A qualitative study of adaptation challenges of Ukrainian refugees in the United States
Mughal amphibious counterinsurgency in the Bay of Bengal's hinterland
During the later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, the Mughal attempt at empire building in eastern India was challenged by the Pathan chieftains and the Hindu zamindars. Besides the Mughals, the Kingdom of Arakan tried to fish in troubled waters to establish a maritime presence in the littoral regions of Bay of Bengal. Pursuit of a sophisticated amphibious counterinsurgency strategy in tune with the ecological environment of the theatre…
Bollywood, Maratha imperialism and Hindu nationalism
Critical scholars assert that the Bharatiya Janata Party is using commercial Hindi films, controlled by the censor board, to portray a ‘Hindu’ version of Indian nationality. Left-liberal intellectuals and activists further claim that Bollywood is also pandering to the diktats of the ruling party by making films which depict a right-wing version of Indian history. Films to a great extent define our social consciousness. This article attempts to sh…
Logistics of British counterinsurgency during the Indian Rebellion
In the summer of 1857, the Bengal Army mutinied against the East India Company (EIC). Simultaneously, a civil rebellion erupted in north India. The Indian civil and military mutineers are clubbed together as rebels. The rebels conducted battles, sieges, and guerrilla warfare against the EIC. This article focuses on the logistics of British counterinsurgency between 1857 and 1859. The British won the “battle of logistics” because they had the reso…
Political science (21 works) · History (19 works) · Law (16 works) · Ancient history (15 works) · Military History and Strategy (15 works) · History (14 works) · Law (13 works) · Politics and Conflicts in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Middle East (13 works) · South Asian Studies and Conflicts (12 works) · Archaeology (9 works)