Reviews for The Story of the Malakand Field Force

The average rating for The Story of the Malakand Field Force based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2020-02-19 00:00:00 Joe Able Some years back,I had read Churchill's My Early Life,and found it fairly interesting.It included an account of his time with the military campaign of the Malakand Field Force.He was then working as a war reporter. This area is now in Pakistan,and I had visited "Churchill's Picket" on a hilltop in Malakand,years ago.He had remained holed up there for several days.It was a long,exhausting climb and fairly memorable.So,I was interested in this book. But,I didn't like it. The account of the military campaign,is pretty lively,and at times even thrilling. But what spoiled the whole thing for me,was the contemptuous and offensive manner,in which Churchill wrote this book. While British soldiers are brave and civilized,the Pathans are "ignorant,degraded,savages". He even calls them "mad dogs,fired by fanaticism". The book has many such statements of racial stereotyping,and contemptuous references to the "natives". In his conclusion,he states that "military rule is desirable for the tribesmen,as after a while,they will recognize the futility of resistance". Well,that never happened ! Infact,I was reminded of totally opposite remarks by Field Marshal Ayub Khan,Pakistan's first military ruler.After serving in the tribal areas,he rued the futility of military operations in the tribal areas. No real surprise,I've never been a fan of Churchill's racist and colonialist views,but thought there may be some interesting stories here. The book,however,left a rather bad taste in the mouth.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-01-16 00:00:00 Jhone Lmom The story of a minor frontier war at the boundary of British India in the 1890s. Highly recommended, for two reasons. First, it's by the young Winston Churchill, who is a fine stylist and a writer of substantial interest. Second, because we're today again engaged in a colonial war, in exactly the same place, with very similar people, in a similar strategic context. Neither we or the British care much about the Swat valley per se -- both governments had a strong interest in the locals there not raiding and terrorizing civilians away from the Northwest Frontier. Not only the strategy, but much of the tactical comment seems highly applicable. Churchill is really interested in when and why punitive raids make sense, and in how fanaticism both strengthens and weakens the natives, as compared to professionals. He's really interested in the tradeoffs between a ponderous logistical apparatus vs being under-equipped locals. I read the free Gutenberg edition. There were minor formatting glitches, which bothered me very little. The lack of maps was a moderate minus, but tolerable.