Bevin trainees explained

Bevin trainees were Indian men in technical training brought to the UK during the Second World War via a scheme created by Ernest Bevin, to work in factories.^{[1] [2]} They were better recognised in India, and sometimes informally referred to as 'Bevin boys', causing confusion with the adolescent Bevin Boys sent to work in coal mines in the UK.^[3] Broadcaster Princess Indira Devi of Kapurthala introduced some of them on BBC Radio, so they could send messages back to India.^[1] Foreign office entrants after 1945 have also been referred to as Bevin boys.^[3]

Bevin trainees featured in a popular BBC Radio series, in which Salamu and Chandu, two fictional mice, travelled from India to England in the suitcase of a trainee, and witnessed life in Britain.^{[4] [5] [6]}

Further reading

• Web site: O'Brien . John . Essays by 'Bevan Boys': How Britain convinced Indians to join engineering training during WWII . Scroll.in . 23 July 2022.

External links

• Web site: Bevin Indian Trainees during the Second World War . blogs.bl.uk . 25 August 2022 . en.
• BBC documentary: 19 Metre Band ("Go behind the scenes of Indian programmes on the BBC General Overseas Service (later the World Service)")

Notes and References

1. Book: Webster . Wendy . Mixing it: Diversity in World War Two Britain . 2018 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-873576-2 . 114 . https://books.google.com/books?id=XPhJDwAAQBAJ&dq=Bevin&pg=PA114 . en . 3. The Empire comes to Britain.
2. Sinha . Jagdish N. . Technical Education in India During The Second World War . Proceedings of the Indian History Congress . 1988 . 49 . 498–504 . 44148437 . 2249-1937. subscription.
3. Book: Hickman . Tom . Called Up, Sent Down: The Bevin Boys' War . 2008 . The History Press . 978-0-7509-4547-9 . 230 . en . Notes. 254076105 .
4. Web site: Divided loyalties: the historical presence of South Asian men and women in Britain has been ignored for too long, says Shompa Lahiri, who has investigated their experiences during the Second World War. - Free Online Library . www.thefreelibrary.com . 23 July 2022.
5. Book: Fisher . Michael Herbert . Lahiri . Shompa . Thandi . Shinder S. . A South-Asian History of Britain: Four Centuries of Peoples from the Indian Sub-continent . 2007 . Greenwood World Pub. . 978-1-84645-008-2 . en. 156.
6. Book: Potter . Simon J. . This is the BBC: Entertaining the Nation, Speaking for Britain, 1922-2022 . 2022 . Oxford University Press . 978-0-19-289852-4 . 99 . https://books.google.com/books?id=ziFnEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA99 . en . 3. Propaganda and war 1939-1945.