India’s soldiers were the unsung heroes of WW1
“THE eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” is etched in history as the moment marking the triumph of collective wisdom of humankind over its collective folly. It marks the cessation of hostilities between warring armies, officially the end of World War I in 1918.
Remembrance Day, a time to remember the fallen and reflect upon the collective efforts of men and women around the world to deal with the scourge of the biggest conflict the world had ever seen is observed to pay tribute to those who were sacrificed at the altar of the war.
This year, more than 50 world leaders gathered in Paris to attend commemorative activities marking the centenary of the end of WWI.
The ceremony was attended, among others, by the vice-president of India, who also inaugurated the Indian War Memorial at the village of Villers-Guislain the day before.
It was here 100 years ago when the Indian cavalry comprising the Deccan Horse, Hodson’s Horse, Poona Horse, Central India Horse and 18th Cavalry charged at German positions during the Battle of Cambrai (November 20-December 4, 1917), which led to the loss of over 40 000 soldiers, many of them Indians.
The contribution of Indian soldiers in WWI had been largely undocumented and uncelebrated, much like the stellar role played by black servicemen. Tales of the guts and glory of these unsung heroes had largely been confined to a mere footnote in the annals of war, and to this day remains an unknown fact among the uninitiated.
India was one of largest contributors of soldiers during WWI. It was a war in which India was not directly involved, yet the soldiers from the Indian subcontinent fought in all major theatres the world over. More than 1.5 million Indian soldiers fought in WWI, and over 74 000 made the supreme sacrifice.
The Battle of Neuve Chapelle, in March 1915 in the Artois region of France, saw shoulder-to-shoulder participation by soldiers of the Indian Corps’ Garhwal Brigade and Meerut Division.
The Neuve Chapelle Memorial marks the location where the Indian Corps fought its first major battle as a single unit in WWI. As designated Indian Expeditionary Force “A”, the Indian Corps that served in France and Belgium from September 1914 consisted of two infantry and two cavalry divisions.
Nearly 140 000 Indian soldiers took part in the war in France and Belgium, and 9 300 of them made the supreme sacrifice and are buried in 168 cemeteries there. Eleven Indian soldiers were awarded the Victoria Cross, five the Military Cross and many others were awarded other military decorations for bravery.
Virtually all military cemeteries in Europe are studded with such stories of bravery by Indian soldiers. Zehrensdorf Indian Cemetery in Germany is home to the graves of Indian soldiers who died in conflict there. On September 20, 2016, during excavation work near Laventie Military Cemetery, 230km from Paris, the remains of two soldiers of the 39th Royal Garhwal Rifles were found. Their mortal remains were laid to rest, with full military honours, alongside their comrades at the cemetery.
The Garhwal Brigade showed unparalleled bravery in the treacherous trenches of France and Flanders. After fighting shoulder-toshoulder with British soldiers, two members of the Garhwal Brigade were awarded the Victoria Cross, and six received other honours.
The Haifa Indian Cemetery, near the Haifa War Cemetery in Israel, commemorates the capture of Haifa by the Mysore, Hyderabad and Jodhpur lancers on September 23, 1918. Every year on September 23, the Indian Army celebrates “Haifa Day” to commemorate the sacrifice made during the Battle of Haifa, said to be one of the most hotly contested battles in WWI.
By the time the war ended, the Royal Indian Marine had transported or escorted more than one million men, 172 000 animals and 3.6 million tons of war stores. It suffered 330 causalities and 80 of its personnel were decorated with gallantry awards. It is not widely known that the expeditionary forces of the Indian Army that travelled to France, Africa and then Mesopotamia to participate in the war were transported largely on ships of the erstwhile Royal Indian Marine, the forerunner to the Indian Navy.
The gallantry of the Sikhs and Gurkhas at Gallipoli is well known. So is the bravery of the Garhwali, Dogra, Punjabi and Maratha soldiers, who fought in Flanders and in the Somme Offensive.
One of the upanishads, the ancient Indian collection of scriptures, considered as the fountainhead of philosophy, spirituality and wisdom in India, contains a phrase – “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” – meaning “the world is one family”. Indian soldiers in World War I exemplified the dictum through their sacrifice for collective peace of the family called the world.