Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: In the photograph in Figure 1, a white American soldier stationed in wartime India stands next to two large gramophones outside what appears to be a musical equipment store in Calcutta, possibly on Sudder Street. 1 The photographer, Glenn S. Hensley, was an American serviceman and a professional photographer.Like the unidentified man featured in the photograph, Hensley was among the nearly 200,000 American soldiers stationed in India during the final years of the Second World War.The uniformed man, clearly aware of the camera's presence, somewhat self-consciously points towards the gramophones and to the sound they were likely producing, as stores like this one often tried to draw in customers by playing gramophone records.This photograph is one of few to turn the lens on to the American soldiers themselves in Hensley's collection, which features photographs of Calcutta's street life, train stations, and landscapes.This photograph also gestures to one of the main themes in this special issue: the war's long-term effects on technologies and the arts in South Asia.After all, the image leaves us wondering what the gramophone could have been playing-perhaps a Hindustani classical music concert or one of the songs featured in the film Rattan released that year?Above all, however, the photograph seems like an apt place to begin our study because it can be read as an invitation to listen-to tune in-to the global war and its legacy in South Asia.During the Second World War, India was under British rule and functioned as a military, industrial, and logistical base for Allied operations.The British government mobilized India's resources to pay for the war effort, and the Indian Army expanded dramatically, becoming the largest volunteer army in human history.Nearly two-andhalf million Indian troops served and fought around the world, in all four theatres of the global conflict.Building on the pioneering work of historians Indivar Kamtekar, Yasmin Khan, and Srinath Raghavan, among others, this interdisciplinary special issue 1 We thank Esha Meher for providing this important detail about the possible name of the street.
Source: Modern Asian Studies
Authors: Isabel Huacuja Alonso, Andrew Amstutz
Institutions: Columbia University, University of Arkansas at Little Rock
Language: English
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,255
OpenAlex ID: W4386645558