What Can a Song Do to You? A Life Story of a Gurkha Prisoner in World War I

Bibliographic Data

ID11016243
AuthorsAlaka Atreya Chudal (0000-0002-7308-7384, University of Vienna, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume43
Issue3
Pages392-406
Publication date2020-05-03
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueSouth Asia Journal of South Asian Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0085-6401 • E-ISSN: 1479-0270
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00856401.2020.1752974
OpenAlexW3020806881
LanguageEN
Citations received2

We have heard and read much about the wartime bravery of Gurkha soldiers, the idea of the Gurkhas as a martial race and how British recruitment practices targeted them. But much less is known about the experiences of Gurkha prisoners of war in World War I. The Germans captured thousands of soldiers fighting in the British Indian Army, and among these were a large number of Gurkhas. This imprisonment of soldiers not only served German strategic goals, but also offered a good opportunity to collect source material for research. This paper will briefly shed light on the scholarly activities engaged in by German scholars in Halbmondlager (Half Moon Camp), with a focus on the self-referential writing of one of the Gurkha prisoners of war, Jas Bahadur Rai, who never returned from the camp, but who did bequeath to posterity a song which he sang for the Germans. We will discuss whether Jas Bahadur had freedom of agency while recording his song, and if this song indeed qualifies as life-writing

Agency (philosophy · German · Imprisonment · Political science · Prisoners of war · Social science · Sociology · Spanish Civil War · World War II · History · Law · Military History and Strategy · Philippine History and Culture · Psychology · World Wars: History, Literature, and Impact

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