Rite of passage in the Great War: The long march of Northeast Indian labourers to France, 1917–1918

Abstract

This article focuses on the little-known Indian Labour Corps (ILC) who hailed from the Northeast frontier of India during the Great War (WW1). It engages with the labour recruitment process, their collective experience during the long march to France, the nature of their work and life at the warzone camps, their heroic homecoming and subsequently, their life back into the heart of the hills. It argues that large numbers of hill people from the region joined the War as coolies with different perceptions, meanings and expectations closely connected to their warrior traditions. They enrolled into the ILC in large numbers for the coveted ‘ornaments’ of the hill ‘warrior’, which the War could offer to them upon their return home. Their war experiences engendered new ideas and practices, significantly reconfiguring their worldviews and their ‘homes’. Their experiences reflect the frontier dimensions of WW1.