The Eyes of Asia

The touching stories in The Eyes of Asia are narrated through a series of imagined letters penned by four Indian Army soldiers in the blood-drenched battlefields of war-torn Europe and Africa, and makeshift hospitals on England's coastline, to their loved ones back home in the relative peace of rural British India and the North-West Frontier Province. Kipling brings the experiences of these uneducated Sikh, Hindu and Muslim military men to life, weaving the horrors of a foreign war like no other with acts of kindness arising from cultural encounters with French farmers and British military personnel. Through unofficial access to translations of scores of intercepted Indian Army letters, Kipling gained an intimate understanding of the plight and humanity of men neglected in Western literature after the War. To Kipling, they were unsung heroes whose sacrifices had made a decisive impact on the British war effort.