Europe remembers wars like no other continent can. On Sunday, it was a day of rememberance, the Armistice Day, marking 100 years since the end of the World War 1 on November 11, 1918. Events have been taking place in France ahead of a gathering of around 70 world leaders in Paris on Sunday. Rightfully, memorials will also be held around the world to commemorate a conflict that claimed lives of millions. In the fitness of things, German chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron, together signed a guestbook inside a replica of a train where the Armistice was signed back in 1918 and held hands, a testimony that two nations that had been at war for centuries, had finally buried the hatchet. 

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“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is its betrayal,” Macron said, stressing the poignancy of the moment, as US President Donald Trump, Merkel and Russian President Vladimir Putin among others, listened in a glass canopy at the foot of the Arc de Triomphe, build by Napolean Bonaparte in 1806. Continuing in the same vein, Macron said in the course of his 20-minute speech that it was their “deeply-rooted obligation to think of the future, and to consider what is essential.” The French President added for good measure that the lessons of the Great War cannot be that of resentment between peoples’, nor should the past be forgotten. The ongoing commemorations is the centrepiece of global tributes to honour those who died during the 1914-18 War and to remember the Armistice between France and Germany that brought the fighting to a close. 

In India too, there is belated recognition of the role played by soldiers of the British Indian Army in the First Great War, serving the cause of Pax-Britannica, which has come in for remembrance for its many feats across Europe, most notably at the great battlefields of Neuve Chapelle in France. Over one million Indian soldiers fought for the Empire. Of them, 70,000 were martyred. Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the Indian tributes on this special day. “This was a war in which India was not directly involved, yet our soldiers fought world over, just for the cause of peace,” he tweeted. That India has decided to show its hand in remembering the War, needs to be welcomed. 

Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu, currently in France to represent India at the Armistice centenary commemoration, also paid his tributes, saying that the soldiers’ valour and sense of duty only reaffirmed India’s commitment to righteousness. He had earlier in the week unveiled an Indian War Memorial at Villers Guislain, 200 km from Paris, to highlight the contribution of Indian soldiers who helped France achieve her wartime goals. In a country where warriors have led down their lives without so much as a murmur, it is a good idea for the Indian establishment to take note of sacrifices made, even 100 years ago. Maybe, it would be a good idea to identify such families as available in military records and honour them.