| dc.description.abstract | Military history is seen as an under-researched area, though military had been remained important to every country for security and other vested interests from time immemorial. Countries and kingdoms had always been maintained military for protection and security as well as for satisfying their imperialistic designs. It is well known that military played a key role in the making of the British Empire in the Indian subcontinent in which Punjab had played a strategic and pivotal role. Empire to restructure and reArmy and on the other hand, valour and loyalty along with the martial character and good physique shown by the Punjabi people brought new trends in the recruitment of the British Indian Army. Since the recorded history, Punjab had been known for Sword of Arms for India. Later on, it had become the guardians of the British Empire. In this background, the British Raj ended the Bengalisation and started the Punjabization of the British Indian Army. Consequently, Punjab made spectacular progress in network of military cantonment allied with other supporting infrastructure (railways, canals, railway workshops, hospitals, schools), apart from converting it as one of the most important and fertile army recruitment grounds. On the other side, British had started to recruit the Punjabis in the British Indian Army. On the other side, Punjabis had played very pivotal role in sustaining, maintaining and expanding the British Empire in India as well as on the other distant of the world. More importantly, Punjabi Army played very significant role in the World War I & II. monumental and because of this, Punjabi soldiers have been felicitated every year over there. With the opening of World War I, Punjab had supplied approximately 50 percent of the British Indian Army. On the other side, Punjab had contributed substantially in the World War II. In this work, the neglected stories of Punjabi army has been discussed widely. In spite of this, the comparison between Punjab versus other provinces of India has been done for more clearing the picture of . However, the study has some limitations due to the time and space constraints. It, particularly, focuses on the role of Punjab in the British Indian Army. Thus, the proposed research has explored the role of colonial Punjab in the World Wars. Additionally, it also examine the socio-economic impact of the British rule in general and World Wars in particular on the respective region. Hence, the work has brought out the silence stories of Punjabi soldiers on the pages of history. | en_US |
