Men the world easily forgot

‘History is written by the Victor’, is a quote often attributed to Winston Churchill, who was serving as the First Lord of the Admiralty during the First World War. 

But Churchill, also a war historian, a prolific writer, who had served in the British Indian Army with the Sikh regiments, was not quite as forthcoming in recognising the contribution of Indians in First World War (or the Second World War for that matter.)   

When we think of the First World War, we tend to think of white men battling it out in the trenches, but more than 4 million colonial non-white soldiers fought in the conflict. 

The Indian Corps went into action at the beginning of 1915 and took part in the battle of Neuve Chapelle, in March 1915, which is historically documented. The Indians fought in the second battle of Ypres in April 1915, Auberss ridge (May 9) and Festubert (May 15-25). Its last intervention was in the battle of Loos, September 25-October 15. 

By the end of December, the two infantry divisions left France for Mesopotomia, where they were thrown into the battle of Kut el Amara.

Of these 4 million, 1.5 million soldiers were Indians, who were sent overseas between 1914 to 1918, to fight in Europe, Africa, the Middle East and parts of China. Nearly, 74,000 of these brave men never returned home. The contribution of  India in WWI remains largely whitewashed and forgotten. 

When news of the war reached India, there was a rallying cry of support for the British Empire in their hour of need. 

The political leaders saw this as an opportunity to support the War cause in exchange for greater autonomy and self-governance once it was over.  The Empire played along.

On November 11, 1918, the guns fell silent as the peace treaty was signed. Britain emerged as the victor and soon after reneged on their promises of granting India a dominion status. 

India’s contribution in the First World War, as a result, was carefully edited out by both countries, as it was a reminder of the British guile and Indian’s gullibility. 

During peacetime in 1914, the Indian Army comprised 155,000 officers and men. Most of the ranks were filled with illiterate peasants selected on the basis of the ‘ martial race’ theory propagated by the British, post the events of 1857. 

In addition, the Indian Army was ‘Indian’ only in a nominal sense since the soldiers were drawn from a narrow geographical and ethnic pool - provinces of Punjab, N-W Frontier, UP and the Kingdom of Nepal. 

As a result, the war did not impact the bulk of the population (around 258 million) as it was a war fought on a distant land by a small percentage of men.  Hence, the war stories that travelled back remained localised and did not spread to other parts of India. The soldiers who returned home, went back to their farm lives, grew old and died taking the stories with them. 

Years of colonial rule, had inadvertently trained the British officers to believe that the soldiers lacked the physical and mental prowess of a British soldier.  They believed that in the hardest of fighting situations, Anglo Saxon genes would give them superior moral and physical capabilities, as opposed to the Indians. 

British Generals suspecting Indiantroops of being  ‘two-faced’, who were ‘wounding’ themselves in order to be relieved of military duty, commissioned a special enquiry in the Kitchener’s hospital, Brighton, where Indian soldiers were being treated. The chief doctor after examining 1,000 patients, concluded in his report that there were was no evidence of self infliction by the soldiers. 

India’s contribution and valour in the War has also been questioned in the past, the oft repeated story being that the troops did not fare well in the harsh winter climate of France. On October 31, 1915, the Indian Corps, excluding the cavalry, were ordered to leave the western front for the Middle East. The reason is often inaccurately attributed to the low morale of the troops caused by the harsh Flemish winter, disease, high number of casualties and inability to cope with modern day warfare. 

This is far from the truth, as the Indian Corps headquarter in the winter of 1914-15 reported that “the Indians have stood the climate better than the British”.

The Indian troops also fared better than their British counterparts when it came to trench warfare, trained as they were in the Indian way of fighting insurgencies, as opposed to the European way of war. 

These facts are coming to the fore only now, 100 years after they transpired. New diaries and accounts are telling us stories that have been long forgotten.

(The writer is a graphic novelist)