Dark Truths

An Engaging Account of the Journey of Coal, and Its Significance in India’s History, Economy and Politics.

- Prosenjit Datta

IN JULY 1943, if Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj and the Japanese divisions had launched a combined attack on India’s Northeastern states, the British would have been hard-pressed to defend them. Reason: a massive flood in the Damodar River had disrupted coal supplies, apart from washing away the rail lines.

The British pressed into action tens of thousands of labourers – men, women and children – to get the coal mines working again so that supply lines could be resumed. Luckily for the British, the attack did not come when they were most vulnerable. And thus, disaster was averted.

That’s the story Subhomoy Bhattacharjee starts with in India’s Coal Story: From Damodar to Zambezi. The book could have easily ended up as an exhaustive but dull story of a crucial energy resource had the author not been determined to make it a lively tale.