PEOPLE
Hemant Singh Katoch speaks at the inaugural ceremony of the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal in March 2014.
Hemant Singh Katoch, Founder
Hemant started working on battlefields in India in 2012. He was based in Imphal, Manipur, from the middle of that year to the end of 2014 to promote the 70th anniversary of the Second World War's Battle of Imphal. He conceived of the original idea to commemorate this anniversary and, as a then-member of the Manipur Tourism Forum, helped organise a series of remembrance events in 2014.
He researched the battles of Imphal and Kohima and conceptualized, designed, and launched a series of battlefield tours around them through a tour company he founded called Battle of Imphal Tours (www.battleofimphal.com), for which he now serves as an Adviser. These were the first such WWII-themed battlefield tours in India. Some 80 tours of Imphal and Kohima were personally conducted to mark the 70th anniversary. Eventually these tours were expanded to include Second World War sites in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh and, in 2018, to Burma/Myanmar.
Hemant made the first public call for the establishment of a proper museum dedicated to Imphal battle and Manipur's experience of the war. He further prepared a proposal for the development of Second World War tourism for the Manipur Tourism Forum in 2013 for follow up and discussion with the authorities in Manipur. This included suggestions such as the creation of a war museum in Imphal and protecting and preserving the existing battlefields. He also launched a website on the Imphal battle (www.battleofimphal.com) and produced a comprehensive map of the battle (see below).
He has since written two books: The Battlefields of Imphal: The Second World War and North East India (Routledge, 2016) and Imphal 1944 - The Japanese Invasion of India (Bloomsbury/Osprey, 2018).
Besides his work on battlefields in India, Hemant has over 13 years of international experience in the peace and conflict and humanitarian fields. This includes stints with the Centre for Humanitarian Dialogue (HD Centre) in Geneva and Myanmar, with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and with the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Timor Leste / East Timor.
Contact
Hemant can be contacted here: thebattlefieldsproject@gmail.com