New Delhi: A portion of the service records of more than 3.2 lakh troops from undivided Punjab who fought for the British Army in the First World War have been digitised by UK historians, giving descendants and relatives the chance to gain access to written proof of the contribution of Indian soldiers.
The ‘Punjab Registers’, compiled by the Punjab government after the war ended, were lying unread in the basement of the Lahore Museum in Pakistan, according to the Guardian. Amandeep Madra, the chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, heard about these records from military historians and approached the museum. He was sent samples by a curator and found that they were organised by village and provided extensive details.
Subsequently, Madra and the University of Greenwich were able to digitise the files. Madra told the Guardian, “Punjab was the main recruiting ground for the Indian army during world war one. And yet the contribution of the individuals has largely been unrecognised. In most cases we didn’t even know their names.”
The pilot project has been uploaded in time for Armistice Day, on November 11, which marks the end of the war. The pilot project contains 45,000 records from three districts – Jalandhar and Ludhiana in India and Sialkot in Pakistan. According to the Guardian, the successful completion of the pilot project is hoped to lead to the release of the registers for the remaining 25 districts of Punjab that were administered by the British government, comprising the records of an estimated 275,000 soldiers.
Punjab sent more than 5 lakh soldiers to World War 1, comprising a third of all Indian troops and more than other commonwealth territories such as Australia. According to the Indian Express, the records show that Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims – the three major faiths in the region – sent soldiers to fight the war in far-flung theatres like France, the Middle East, Gallipoli, Aden and East Africa.
It is yet unknown if similar records exist for men from princely states such as Patiala, Jind, Nabha, Kapurthala who had volunteered for World War I.
The Punjab Registers show that in some villages, as many as 40% of the men who were eligible had volunteered.
According to the Guardian, opposition leader Tanmanjeet Dhesi has uncovered proof among the files that his great-grandfather had served in Iraq and had been wounded in action, losing a leg. “These records give people written proof that our ancestors were there, fighting for Britain. This is about recognising both the contribution my family made, but also the contribution and sacrifice that people from across the Commonwealth made for the war effort,” he told the newspaper.
Gavin Rand of the University of Greenwich said: “The personal and family histories of Punjab’s first world war volunteers are largely unknown, even to many descendants. Few Indian veterans left written records of their service, and many Punjabi family histories are dominated by the upheavals and migrations which followed Punjab’s partition in 1947.”
He added, “Whereas the ancestors of British and Irish soldiers can easily search public databases of service records, no such facility exists for the descendants of colonial soldiers. By making some of the unique data recorded in the registers widely available for the first time, Punjabis can access records of their ancestors’ wartime service.”
Also Read: The Colossal Indian Contribution to A War That Wasn’t Its Own
Indian contribution to the war
European historians had long ignored the contribution of soldiers from Indian and other British colonies to the war. Historical records show that in many cases, these soldiers were used as cannon fodder, shipped off the frontlines in Europe’s harsh winter while still wearing cotton khakis.
As C. Uday Bhaskar noted in his review of Shrabani Basu’s book For King and Another Country for The Wire, almost 15 lakh Indians (combatants and non-combatants) crossed the ocean and went to the frontline in Europe and other theatres. The imperial records also noted that a total of 172,815 animals that included horses, mules and camels were part of India’s contribution to the war. “By the time the war ended in November 1918, nearly 10% of the Indians were either killed, missing or grievously wounded. The numbers are staggering – 72,000 killed and a little under 80,000 wounded,” he wrote.
The British government in April this year apologised after a report found that entrenched prejudices, preconceptions and pervasive racism of contemporary imperial attitudes meant that nearly 50,000 Indian soldiers who died fighting for the Empire during World War I were not commemorated the same way as other martyrs.
These findings were part of a special report commissioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) to investigate potential gaps in the commemoration of those who died during and after World War I. The CWCG commemorates the 1.7 million Commonwealth servicemen and women who died during the two World Wars.
The report 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.
UK defence secretary Ben Wallace made a formal apology on behalf of the government in the House of Commons in relation to the findings. “There can be no doubt prejudice played a part in some of the Commission’s decisions,” the minister told the members of parliament.