Announcements

The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, translated by Murali Ranganathan

HarperCollins

presents

The FIRST WORLD WAR Adventures of NARIMAN KARKARIA

Translated by
Murali Ranganathan

With a Foreword by Amitav Ghosh

The only known first-person account by an Indian serving in the First World War.
A swashbuckling page-turner. A book of historical importance.


Nariman Karkaria’s gripping war memoir is truly one of a kind, and in Murali Ranganathan’s brilliant translation, this astonishing story comes alive with rare immediacy and vigour.

‘Amazing! An astonishing find!’ says Amitav Ghosh in his foreword to the book.

For the first time in English translation, this book from a hundred years ago narrates the adventures and travels of an Indian serving in the Great War.

 HB | Non-fiction | 260 pp | Rs 599

Releasing 20 April 2022 | Available Wherever Books Are Sold

 Translator Murali Ranganathan says, “A hundred years ago, in 1922, Nariman Karkaria published his First World War memoir in Gujarati. It is fitting that its English translation, The First World War Adventures of Nariman Karkaria, is being published on the centenary anniversary. Never flinching from describing the horrors of war, Karkaria manages to retain both his sanity and his sense of humour during his five years in the British Army. The book sets a hectic pace as it takes us on a romp across China, Russia, and Europe with a detour in the Middle East. Written in the Parsi version of Gujarati and containing innumerable words that have never seen the inside of a dictionary, I had more fun than I bargained for during the translation. Besides, chasing the elusive Nariman Karkaria in the archives was exhilarating.”


Rahul Soni, Executive Editor, HarperCollins India, says,
“This work is truly an astonishing find. Imagine: more than a hundred years ago, a 16-year-old boy leaves his small-town Indian home to see the world, gets himself to China where he hears about an exciting war being fought on the other side of the world, decides he must be a part of it, travels over land across all of Asia and Europe to get there, enlists and becomes a soldier – and that is not even the most amazing part of the story! Not only does he then go on fight on three major fronts in three years, he also lives to tell the tale. A tale that eventually disappears in the mists of time, until it is unearthed almost a century later by Murali Ranganathan. This is the only known book-length first-person account from an Indian serving in the First World War – and Murali has pulled off two great feats here – first, as a researcher, having excavated this text, and then as a translator, turning out a brilliantly readable English version of it. I am immensely excited and proud to be publishing this important historical document here at HarperCollins.”


ABOUT THE BOOK

Amazing! An astonishing find! – AMITAV GHOSH

Nariman Karkaria, a young Parsi from Gujarat, had always wanted to see the world. So he left home as a teenager with fifty rupees in his pocket to do just that. After working in Hong Kong and Peking for a few years, in 1914, when war was in the air, he decided to volunteer for the British Army. Passing through China, Manchuria, Siberia, Russia and Scandinavia, he reached London early in 1915 and managed to register as a private with the 24th Middlesex Regiment. He was now a Tommy.

Incredibly, Karkaria saw action on three major fronts in the next three years. In 1916, he was in the trenches at the Battle of the Somme. After convalescing from an injury, he was sent off to the Middle Eastern Front where he fought in the Battle of Jerusalem in 1917. He was then transferred to the Balkan Front in 1918, where he served in Salonika. After being discharged, he returned to India and wrote a book in Gujarati about his years of travel and adventure, which was published in 1922.

Karkaria’s war memoir is truly one of a kind. And in Murali Ranganathan’s brilliant translation, this astonishing story comes alive with rare immediacy and vigour.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR AND THE TRANSLATOR

Nariman Karkaria (1894–1949) joined the British Army during the First World War and saw action on three different fronts. His Gujarati war memoir, Rangbhoomi par Rakhad—the only First World War account written by an Indian to have been discovered thus far—was published in 1922. His second book, Iranbhoomi par Rakhad (1925), is an account of his year-long rambles in Iran.

Murali Ranganathan is a Mumbai-based historian and translator. He researches the nineteenth century, with a special focus on Mumbai and western India. His translation, from Marathi, of the iconic Mumbaiche Varnan was published in 2008 as Govind Narayan’s Mumbai: An Urban Biography from 1863.

*

For reviews, excerpts, interviews and more information, please contact Shivendra Singh at
shivendra.singh@harpercollins.co.in

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