Forgotten Stories of Indian Soldiers During World War One

I was delighted to read the news in The Hindu yesterday morning that an Indian origin film maker in Paris, Mr. Vijay Singh is making a film based on the Indian soldiers who participated in World War-1 (WW-1)

For details of the film see:  

http://www.thehindu.com/entertainment/forgotten-stories-of-indian-soldiers-during-world-war-i/article6192545.ece?homepage=true

Regular followers of my blog may recall that I had made an entry titled ‘Mahatma Gandhi in Defense of Violence’, in which I have noted excerpts from Mahadevbhai Desai’s diary regarding Gandhiji’s appeal to the people of Kheda, Gujarat in particular to join the army for  WW -1. The details in Mahadevbhai’s diary show that Gandhiji had not received much response to his appeal. The diary also notes that many followers of Gandhiji were not in agreement with his call for army recruitment. However further information is not available in the same diary (volume-4) as to what was the final outcome, what happened to the people (though few in number) who responded to Gandhiji’s call and enrolled in the military to fight in the WW-1, etc.  In fact, this issue has not been covered much in the fifteen volumes of Mahadevbhai’s diaries that I have already read so far.

Mahadevbhai’s diary (volume-4) also notes the following:

(Gandhiji) “…The Government needs five lakh people for the army. Government will get such kind of people anyhow. If we give this many people, we will get credit…it is heard that many times recruiting agents are taking people, that also can be avoided. It is not any less powerful if we get the entire work of recruitment…”

On reading this, one was naturally eager to know about the response to the British agents drive for military recruitment. I was also keen to know how the Indian soldiers fought in foreign lands, their fate, the fate of the soldiers who survived, something about the families of the large number of soldiers who died, etc, etc. However, I was surprised to see that not much information is available about the Indian soldiers and their contribution/role in WW-1 in either the diary or some of the other important History books that I referred to as follows:

  

         1.  The Discovery of India, by Jawaharlal Nehru.

         2.  Glimpses of World History, by Jawaharlal Nehru. 

         3.  India’s struggle for Independence, by Bipan Chandra.

It is all the more surprising because all these books otherwise cover most of the small and big events of India including other aspects of WW-1. In fact, it would not be wrong to say that important information regarding the large number of Indian troops who fought in WW-1, or that Gandhiji himself appealed to the people to join the army for WW-1, the political intention behind the same, and related details are almost absent in some of the popular books of Indian History that I referred to.  

Even in the book “Rashtra no swatantrata sangram ane Gujarat (India’s struggle for freedom and Gujarat),” by Dr. Shantilal M.Desai, published by University Granth Nirman Board, Gujarat State; the reference to Gandhiji’s call for military recruitment in  Gujarat is limited as follows:

“ … Gandhiji went from Mumbai to Delhi and there in the convention concerning recruitment for the Great War he supported the resolution passed to extend support to the Government in the work of military recruitment…Therefore on returning from Delhi he made the Gujarat Sabha pass a resolution to support the work of military recruitment…It is noteworthy that during such big, small and diverse satyagrahas, Gandhiji and his colleagues continued to cooperate and support Government's war efforts fully.  ”

I therefore do feel that History has not given the importance that the Indian soldiers in WW -1 deserve, the political implication of joining the war efforts on India's struggle for freedom, etc. I somewhat agree with the film maker Mr. Singh when he says, “Everybody remembers India’s freedom struggle, but very few …would remember the contribution made by Indian soldiers during the World War I, about the role played by Indian soldiers during the World War I.” 

I therefore look forward to the film by Mr. Singh which will throw some light on this crucial part of Indian History of which very less is known.