India in "Ad Astra" (Location)

The subadar is from India, as are the troops serving with the English forces in the story he tells. The story he tells - especially the way the troops compare the "rifles" they are issued to "spears" which are "too short and too heavy" to "slay a swift enemy" (424) - makes "India" seem like a very primitive place. (Over one million Indian troops served in the various theaters of World War I.)