Exploring empire, identity and memory
What did the Second World War look, feel and sound like from Africa, South Asia, and the Caribbean? The Global Second World War is a project to highlight the war’s global scope and enduring legacies, by exploring documents from The National Archives in creative and compelling ways.
Though often understood in the UK as a European conflict fought against Nazism, the reality was more complex. Britain’s contribution from both combatants and non-combatants was multi-lingual and multi-ethnic, including more than a quarter of a million soldiers from East Africa and more than 3.35 million from South Asia. Their contributions to the Allied forces were absolutely essential to the outcome of the war. The British Empire had ‘home fronts’ around the world and the everyday lives of civilians from India to Bermuda, from Nigeria to Malaysia were dramatically changed. In its scale and its scope, the impact of the conflict was far reaching.
Connecting the histories of Empire and the Second World War brings up difficult questions around ideas of nation, identity and belonging. Starting from documents in our collections, this project asks, what does commemorating the conflict mean when seen through different communities’ perspectives? How are the impacts of the Second World War felt? Where are those histories unknown or ignored? How can engaging with these records in creative ways bring these experiences to light?
Browse the links below to explore this important and less understood aspect of our histories.
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Cover of Fauji Akhbar, 22 May 1943, featuring Subedar Major Saharman Rai. Magazines like this were published for South Asian troops in a number of languages (this example in Hindustani). Catalogue reference: INF 2/12.