FOR ALL WITH AN INTEREST IN THE HISTORY
OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY AND THE BRITISH RAJ
The British in India Historical Trust presents Zoom lectures by authors of recently published books of interest to descendants of the British in South Asia between 1600 and 1947 and all who want to know more about the East India Company and the British Raj. The proceeds from lectures fund annual book prizes for excellence in non-fiction historical writing on British India.
In 2024 The British in India will present two live lectures on the Indian Mutiny on Monday 10 June and Monday 14 October at a venue in central London. See here for further details.
FEATURED LECTURE
TUESDAY 16 APRIL 2024 18.30 BST (ZOOM)
The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the Indian Army
Raymond A. Callahan and Daniel Marston
In 1945 the Indian British XIV Army inflicted on the Imperial Japanese Army in Burma the worst defeat in its history. That campaign, the most brilliant and original operational manoeuvre conducted by any British general in the twentieth century, is presented in this lecture by the two foremost historians in the field. After the retreat from Burma in 1942, Lieutenant General Sir William Slim, commander of the British XIV Army, played a crucial role in the remarkable military renaissance that transformed the Indian Army. Then, with that reborn army, Slim won two defensive battles in 1944 and in the 1945 campaign shredded his Japanese opponents.
Behind this dramatic story was another: the war marked the effective end of the Raj. As Slim’s great victory signposted the change from the army Kipling knew, the praetorian guard of the Raj evaporated. ‘Every Indian officer worth his salt is a nationalist’, the Indian Army’s commander-in-chief Claude Auchinleck said as the XIV Army took Rangoon.
Raymond A. Callahan is Professor Emeritus of History, University of Delaware, and author of Triumph at Imphal-Kohima: How the Indian Army Finally Stopped the Japanese Juggernaut.
Daniel Marston is Professor and Director of the Secretary of Defense Strategic Thinkers Program, School of Advanced International Studies, Johns Hopkins University, and author of The Indian Army and the End of the Raj.
Professor Callahan and Professor Marston are authors of The 1945 Burma Campaign and the Transformation of the British Indian Army, winner of the Templer Medal Book Prize.
How to book
See the Lectures page for all forthcoming lectures and booking links.
Proceeds of lectures fund prizes for non-fiction historical writing on British India.
BOOK PRIZES
Proceeds from lectures fund annual prizes for non-fiction historical writing on British India. Two prizes were awarded in 2023 for books published in 2022: The British in India Book Prize 2023 and The British in India Military History Book Prize 2023. The results are given here.
Two prizes will be awarded in 2024 for books published in 2023: The British in India Book Prize 2024 and The British in India Military History Book Prize 2024. The shortlist for The British in India Book Prize 2024 is available here.
A European, thought to be British Resident Sir David Ochterlony, in Indian dress, smoking a hookah and watching a nautch in his house at Delhi c.1820 (detail). British Library, CC0.