Lionel Caplan
Himal Books, 2003
Rs 375

Instead of exoticising them, Caplan discovers that past military writers find in their subject the quintessential virtues of the European officers themselves: the Gurkhas appear as warriors and gentlemen. Utilising a wealth of literary, historical, ethnographic sources and results of his own fieldwork, the author investigates the socio-cultural contexts that nurtured the European chroniclers of the legendary soldiers.