This article focuses on the little-known Indian Labour Corps (ILC) who hailed from the Northeast frontier of India during the Great War (WW1). It engages with the labour recruitment process, their collective experience during the long march to France, the nature of their work and life at the warzone camps, their heroic homecoming and subsequently, their life back into the heart of the hills. It argues that large numbers of hill people from the region joined the War as coolies with different perceptions, meanings and expectations closely connected to their warrior traditions. They enrolled into the ILC in large numbers for the coveted ‘ornaments’ of the hill ‘warrior’, which the War could offer to them upon their return home. Their war experiences engendered new ideas and practices, significantly reconfiguring their worldviews and their ‘homes’. Their experiences reflect the frontier dimensions of WW1.

本文着重介绍在一次大战（WW1）期间从印度东北边境招呼的鲜为人知的印度劳工军（ILC）。它参与了劳动力招聘过程，他们在法国长征中的集体经验，他们在战区营地中的工作和生活的性质，英勇的归乡以及随后的生活，回到了山丘的中心。它认为，来自该地区的大量山民加入了战争，成为了与他们的战士传统紧密相关的不同观念，意义和期望的苦力。他们大量参加了令人垂涎的“战士”山的“装饰品”国际劳工大会，战争可以在他们返回家园后提供给他们。他们的战争经历带来了新的思想和做法，极大地改变了他们的世界观和“家园”。