By Ranjit Bhushan
There is growing unanimity among global scholars that the course of the two World Wars and indeed the world itself, would have been different if Indian soldiers had not fought the way they did, even as a colonial power.
Indian military history is a subject of recent and rising interest. The role of the Indian armed forces – or more specifically the British Indian army – in Europe and France in the two World Wars, currently occupies the top-of -the-mind space.
Leading the charge in re-igniting a theme that set the pace for India at international forums more than a century ago, when independence was yet nowhere in sight, is the country’s oldest military think-tank, the United Service Institution of India (USI).
The contribution of Indian soldiers fighting the World Wars as part of the victorious Allied armies has been the focus of a joint project between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and the USI since 2014. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has taken personal interest in speaking about this contribution during his official visits to Australia, France and Israel.
During the World Wars, Indian soldiers served with honour in France, Belgium, Aden, the Arabian Peninsula, East and West Africa, Somalia, Gallipoli, Egypt, Iraq, Palestine, Iran, Greece, Russia and even China.
At a recent joint international conference organized by the USI and Indian Council of World Affairs (ICWA), the country’s oldest think-tank on International Relations, entitled The Diplomatic Dimensions of Military History, speakers and military historians were unanimous in their view that but for the participation of the Indian soldiers, the course of the two World Wars, would have been vastly different.
Setting the agenda for the conference, the Director General of the UPI, Maj Gen BK Sharma, correctly pointed out that “war and diplomacy go hand in hand.’’
Dominiek Dendooven, Researcher and Curator at the Flanders Fields Museum, Ypres, Belgium, quoting from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, said that 138,000 soldiers from India were sent to Europe during the First World War. Most of them were deployed in the Ypres Salient and at nearby Neuve Chapelle in France during the period 1914-15. A very large number lost their lives in the campaign to halt the German advance, he said.
The Indian Army’s involvement on the Western front started on 6 August 1914. That day, the War Council in London requested two infantry divisions and a cavalry brigade from the Viceroy’s government to be sent to Egypt. On 27th August, these troops were ordered to Europe.
The supreme sacrifices of the Indian soldiers in Europe are recorded in the major World War One memorial in continental Europe, Menin Gate, in Ypres, Belgium, and at the memorial for Indian soldiers in near-by Neuve Chappelle in France, Dendooven said.
In 2002, at the request of the Indian government, an Indian Memorial was erected on the lawn south of the Menin Gate.
According to Dendooven, the contribution of the Indian troops on the western front, though largely underplayed by their British commanders – no doubt inspired by a racist, white supremacist streak – was hugely crucial. “They filled the gaps – gaps that could have potentially allowed a German breakthrough. Deployed as storm troops in counter offensives where all circumstances were to their disadvantage, they explored and prepared the field so it could be expanded into a new allied line of defence by others after them,” he said.
Dendooven’s extensively researched project proves that for the Indian military, the deployment in Ypres in 1914 and 1915 was very important. “It had its baptism with fire during the First World War while simultaneously fighting for the first time on European soil. Probably even more important was the fact that the Indian Army faced brutal confrontation with war on an industrial scale in which heavy artillery played a decisive part and in which aeroplanes were used. In late April 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, the Indian military were among the first to be exposed to chemical warfare,” the researcher explained.
During the Second World War, the Indian army contributed almost 2.5 million men by August 1945. It was the largest volunteer army in human history. Indian soldiers were deployed in the east against the Japanese and in the Middle East, East Africa, North Africa, Greece and Italy against the Germans and Italians; yet the first Indian contingent, called k-6 force, was dispatched in 1940 to support the Expeditionary Force in France.
Ghee Bowman, a PhD from the University of Exeter, UK, who has pursued his interest in the little-known Indian presence at the pivotal Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War, reflected on selective writing of history. “Dunkirk had no mention either of Indian soldiers or French,” he noted.
Bowman revealed for the first time the astonishing story of the Indian contingent – the Muslim soldiers who fought at Dunkirk – from their arrival in France on 26 December 1939 to their return to an India on the verge of Partition. This historian’s forensic journey of research into the role of Indian soldiers, which has spanned five countries, culminated in the publication of a book in 2020, The Indian Contingent: The Forgotten Muslim Soldiers of Dunkirk.
Bowman, who is working on a second book that will examine Indian prisoners of war in Europe, said he has noticed increased interest in this subject in this country, which had gathered momentum in the last few years.
Jérôme Janczukiewicz is currently working as a teacher in Lycée Arthur Varoquaux, Tomblaine, France, who attended the conference virtually – has worked on a project that explored the role of the Indian Labour Corps in France in the winter of 1917-1918. There were a total of 40,000 Indian Labour Corps present, whose role is now coming in for admiration, as new facts and fresh archival evidence emerges.
Revealing increasing curiosity in Europe about the role of Indians, the French scholar admitted that their presence was largely unknown to the locals; the students of his high school had designed three plaques to commemorate the role played by the Indian Labour Corps and installed these in the cemetery where the soldiers are buried.
The second scholar, Louis Teyssedou, a teacher at Edouard Gand High School at Amiens, France, said that this year, in partnership with the French Ministry of Armed Forces, his school has organized an exhibition, which documents the part played by Indian soldiers during World War I.
Teyssedou attended the absorbing conference with 12 of his students. The occasion offered the two French scholars the opportunity to speak about their efforts to highlight the valour and sacrifice of the Indian soldiers in France during the First World War.
Speakers at the conference also underscored the military and diplomatic significance of the troop’s participation in the World Wars that had contributed to the strengthening of India’s relations with the countries concerned, particularly ‘reformed multilateralism’, which has more significance in today’s world than ever before.
Vineet Thakur, a University Lecturer at Leiden University Netherlands, pointed out that in 1918 India was recognized as a dominion-like status, outlining the inevitability of self-government in the future. Such a position became possible after the Indian troops’ outstanding role in World War 1, which not just changed perceptions, but also the course of the War.
After the First World War, India participated in the peace conference held in Versailles and was represented by Edwin Montague, the Secretary of State for India, Lord Satyendra Nath Sinha and His Highness Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner.
The Peace Treaty of Versailles was signed by Montague and Maharaja Ganga Singh and India became an original member of the League of Nations.
Broad basing the focus of the conference, former Permanent Representative of India to the UN, Asoke Mukerji, highlighted not just the battles that Indian soldiers fought in Europe but also Asia where they gave a sterling account of their abilities.
This had led to India becoming a signatory to global multilateral institutions even before she had become a full-fledged sovereign nation. In 1944, India was one of the 44 original signatories to the agreements reached at Bretton Woods that established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). India became a founding member of the United Nations in June 1945, when she was among 50 countries to sign the UN charter. “India not just on the high table but inside the room,” Mukerji told the conference.
Belgium’s Ambassador to India, Didier Vanderhasselt, said that many Indian soldiers had died on Belgian soil during the course of World War 1, which also witnessed the use of chemical weapons.
The UK deputy high commissioner to India, Christina Scott, acknowledged her country’s gratitude to the fallen Indian soldiers during the War and said that a memorial at Hyde Park stood as testimony to the sacrifices made by overseas soldiers during the two Wars.
“The history of the World Wars and the world would be very different without the participation of Indian soldiers. Their contributions changed the world,” she said.
Emmanuel Lenain, French ambassador to India, recalled that 2.5 million Indian troops were posted in France during the period.
Ambassador Vijay Thakur Singh, Director General of the ICWA, said that the role of Indian troops in the World Wars became the defining features of the country’s multicultural structures. “India has been a strong advocate of multiculturalism and has proved to be reliable peacekeepers for the UN over the years,’’ she said.
The Director General of ICWA also said that no reform was possible in the UN unless its membership was expanded.
The moving spirit behind the conference, Sqn Ldr Rana TS Chhina, said that “Indian military participation in the two World Wars is a part of our modern Indian history.’’ He is MBE (Retd), Secretary and Editor of the United Service Institution of India – Centre for Military History and Conflict Studies.
Chhina pointed out that this reality “can neither be ignored nor marginalized in our history and shared memories.”
A specialist in colonial Indian military history, this former Indian Air Force (IAF) officer is the author of several books and a member of the joint USI-MEA steering committee responsible for coordinating national commemoration of India’s participation in the First World War in connection with the centenary of the conflict and the Government of India’s Archival Advisory Board.
He is a senior independent journalist.
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