The Second Homeland: Polish Refugees in India

Front Cover
SAGE Publications, Nov 30, 2012 - History - 375 pages
The Second World War presents the backdrop for this riveting account of displacement, migration and resettlement. Once the Soviet forces marched into Poland, thousands of Polish citizens were deported to slave-labour camps in the USSR. As news of their inhuman condition and ordeal spread, Jam Saheb Digvijaysinghji of Nawanagar, a Princely State in British India, opened the doors of his state and welcomed the orphaned Polish children. The Second Homeland chronicles the passage and sojourn of these young refugees.

Readers will get an authentic account of their tribulations through the first-person narrative of a young Polish orphan′s hair-raising journey to India and his experiences during the stay. The book includes a historical perspective culled out from archival documents in India, the UK and Poland.

This is a unique mix of a diary, oral history and historical viewpoint placed adjacent to a compilation of archival personal photographs. The book beautifully brings out a little-known aspect of European exiles in India during Second World War.

About the author (2012)

Anuradha Bhattacharjee is Fellow, Centre for Culture, Media and Governance, Jamia Milia Islamia, New Delhi. Prior to this, she was Assistant Professor, Mudra Institute of Communication, Ahmedabad (MICA). A Fellow of the Charles Wallace India Trust (2004), she was a journalist with the Times of India (1991–94) and the Pioneer (2000–02). She was Research Fellow under the Kasturbhai Lalbhai Chair for Social Entrepreneurship at Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA) in 2006.

This work has been culled out from her doctoral thesis, ‘History of Polish Refugees in India 1942–48’, submitted to the University of Pune, which was awarded the Bendre Prize for Best Dissertation (2006).

Bibliographic information

TitleThe Second Homeland: Polish Refugees in India
AuthorAnuradha Bhattacharjee
PublisherSAGE Publications, 2012
ISBN8132117204, 9788132117209
Length375 pages
Subjects ›  › 

History / Asia / Southeast Asia
History / Europe / General
History / Historiography
  
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