Armistice day: UK remembers forgotten Asian heroes

It is not well documented in British schools that more than a million rallied to the ‘Mother country’s' call in the nation's hour of need, during the ‘bloody’ First World War. This contribution on the front included 60,000 Black South Africans, 120,000 other Africans, 15,204 black soldiers from the Caribbean, and 140, 000 Chinese labourers who worked on munitions and other war tasks.

But now in time for the remembrance events a new book, For King and Another Country: Indian Soldiers on the Western Front 1914-18 by Shrabani Basu, recounts for the first time some of the personal stories of the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims from modern-day India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who fought alongside the British and other allies in the conflict. For 12 months between 1914 and 1915, the British Indian Army fought on one of the bloodiest stretches of the Western Front.

Basu, a historian, recently said, “Few people are aware that 1.5 million Indians fought alongside the British – that there were men in turbans in the same trenches as the Tommies … They have been largely forgotten, both by Britain and India.

The soldiers who had fought for their colonial masters were no longer worthy of commemoration in post-independence India. There is no equivalent of Anzac Day."

The contribution of Indian and other Commonwealth soldiers should be part of the First World War curriculum in schools, and museums should highlight their stories. That is the only way to ensure that they do not become a footnote in history.”

A memorial in honour of the 130,000 Sikh soldiers who fought in the conflict was unveiled a week ago at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire, after a fundraising drive by British Sikhs.

These young brave men fought in a very foreign war for a ‘mother country’ which inherently deemed them both inferior in person, state and religion. And still they fought and died many winning honours for great their heroic acts, including 11 Victoria Crosses. There are many moving accounts but the first Indian to be awarded the Victoria Cross and his regiment deserves particular praise.

Khudadad Khan, was a machine gunner with the 129th Baluchi regiment. The Germans were taken aback by the ferocity with which the Indians fought. One enemy soldier, who had witnessed his regiment undertaking hand-to-hand combat at Neuve Chapelle in 1915, wrote: “At first we spoke of them with contempt. Today we look on them in a different light …. In no time they were in our trenches and truly these brown enemies are not to be despised. With butt ends, bayonets, swords and daggers we fought each other and we had bitter hard work.”

As Basu’s book makes clear, the men fighting in Flanders were under no illusions about the nature of the conflict into which they had been thrust. A poem by one Sikh soldier reads: “The cannon roar like thunder, the bullets fall like rain/ And only the hurt, the maimed and blind will ever see home again.”

Today on Armistice day we remember all those brave men across the then British Empire, and here in the UK who gave their lives to our nation.

Simon Woolley