UK sorry about racism with Indian WWI vets

Entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes meant that nearly 50,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the British Empire during the World War I were not commemorated the same way as other martyrs, finds a new review.

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars, had created a Special Committee in late2019 to investigate potential gaps in the commemoration of those who died during and after the World War I. It found that an estimated 45,000-54,000 casualties, predominantly Indian, East African, West African, Egyptian and Somali personnel, were commemorated unequally. A further 116,000 casualties, potentially as many as 350,000, were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all.

Underpinning all these decisions were the entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes, notes the Review of Historical Inequalities in Commemoration. — PTI