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Well! for last 2 days, I was bit busy so naturally you don't see any update. I am beginning to show sign that I am new to blog space, trying to slowly adapt to culture of updating blog daily. But, I guess it will take a while to get used to it (provided I have time and energy to do it ;)
So as a treat, I will show today another interesting piece of history: a war propaganda news sheet (or you can say newspaper). These were also called leaflets in a sense that they were part of propaganda, designed by psychological warfare division of SEAC (South East Asian Command) established by British and American forces in India which was later shifted to Sri Lanka for safety reason during WWII days.
The above shown news sheet is dated September 22, 1944 with marking of "HH 37" serial number of "Hamara Hindustan" (translated in English as "Our India").
"Hamara Hindustan" was the propaganda news sheet dropped over couple of years perhaps from 1943-1945 at various parts in Indian sub-continent, Burma, Malaya, Singapore and other asian countries where Indian forces were fighting under British command. It was a weekly news paper dropped by forward Air force bases on various places using US and British war planes.
The news sheet used to deliver some facts favoring advancing allies, gain made by allies, as well other fabricated news designed to enthuse energy in Indian soldiers, part of allies forces.
Like the one shown above, it shows food being prepared for soldiers, allies soldiers playing/providing food to children, Lord Mountbatten (who was allied commander of India) meeting soldiers, soldiers properly treated at hospitals etc.
The news sheet was mostly written in Urdu while sometimes English alphabets were used to form Hindi words. (Rather than using Hindi scripts same message was written using English letters but when you read it was Hindi words. The reason was perhaps that most of Soldiers fighting under British command in that region were Muslims. Either they could read Urdu or English. They could maximum recognize English letters but not very well conversant with English words. Thus Hindi/Indian language words were written using English letters.)
This was indeed a very deep thought by psychological warfare division how to convey the news by usage of different language and scripts.
As I am told, "HH" series news sheet are very scarce in market to find. One can get leaflets with some effort but these kinds of war news sheet (news papers) designed for war propaganda are really rare. I hope that's true ;)
I have been lucky to have some of such sheet of various dates.
"Hamara Hindustan" was the propaganda news sheet dropped over couple of years perhaps from 1943-1945 at various parts in Indian sub-continent, Burma, Malaya, Singapore and other asian countries where Indian forces were fighting under British command. It was a weekly news paper dropped by forward Air force bases on various places using US and British war planes.
The news sheet used to deliver some facts favoring advancing allies, gain made by allies, as well other fabricated news designed to enthuse energy in Indian soldiers, part of allies forces.
Like the one shown above, it shows food being prepared for soldiers, allies soldiers playing/providing food to children, Lord Mountbatten (who was allied commander of India) meeting soldiers, soldiers properly treated at hospitals etc.
The news sheet was mostly written in Urdu while sometimes English alphabets were used to form Hindi words. (Rather than using Hindi scripts same message was written using English letters but when you read it was Hindi words. The reason was perhaps that most of Soldiers fighting under British command in that region were Muslims. Either they could read Urdu or English. They could maximum recognize English letters but not very well conversant with English words. Thus Hindi/Indian language words were written using English letters.)
This was indeed a very deep thought by psychological warfare division how to convey the news by usage of different language and scripts.
As I am told, "HH" series news sheet are very scarce in market to find. One can get leaflets with some effort but these kinds of war news sheet (news papers) designed for war propaganda are really rare. I hope that's true ;)
I have been lucky to have some of such sheet of various dates.
1 comment:
how are you?
Awesome blog, great write up, thank you!
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