Indian Soldiers in the First World War

Re-visiting a Global Conflict

Ashutosh Kumar, Claude Markovits

• Publisher: Routledge India
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000335286
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World War I
• Index: History

This book explores the lives and social histories of Indians soldiers who fought in the First World War. It focuses on their motivations, experiences, and lives after returning from service in Europe, Mesopotamia, East Africa, and Palestine, to present a more complete picture of Indian participation in the war.

The book looks at the Indian support to the war for political concessions from the British government and its repercussions through the perspective of the role played by more than one million Indian soldiers and labourers. It examines the social and cultural aspects of the experience of fighting on foreign soil in a deadly battle and their contributions which remain largely unrecognised. From micro-histories of fighting soldiers, aspects of recruitment and deployment, to macro-histories connecting different aspects of the War, the volume explores a variety of themes including: the material incentives, coercion and training which converted peasants into combatants; encounters of travelling Indian soldiers with other societies; and the contributions of returned soldiers in Indian society.

The book will be useful to researchers and students of history, post-colonial studies, sociology, literature, and cultural studies as well as for those interested in military history, World War I, and colonial history.

1
Turbans in the trenches

Indian sepoys and sowars on the Western Front during the Great War

Shrabani Basu

On the night of 4 August 1914, as Big Ben struck 11.00 p.m., Britain’s Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, knew that the world was about to change. The deadline for Germany to withdraw from Belgium had passed. Britain would now enter the Great War.

Thousands of miles away, the Indian Empire was sleeping. Night would soon turn to day and India would wake up to the news that, they too, were at war.

This chapter is based largely on the research I did for the book on the subject published in 2015. The narrative follows the timeline and seeks to bring out some of the human stories of the war, the feelings of the soldiers as they crossed the seas and engaged in the deadliest war they had ever fought, along with accounts of how they were treated in the hospitals, billets and the front line. It looks at how the enthusiasm quickly disappeared within weeks of landing, and the aftermath of the war that the soldiers and their families had to face.

In 1914, the minister of war, Lord Kitchener, had called for 100,000 volunteers in Britain, but he knew that they would not be enough. He needed many more boots on the ground and Britain looked for this to troops from the colonies – from Australia, Canada, New Zealand, South Africa and India. Of all Britain’s colonial armies, the Indian Army was the largest.

The Viceroy of India, Lord Hardinge, immediately declared that the people of India were backing the war. He had received messages of support from the Maharajas who offered money and troops. The Times of India dramatically reported in August 1914: ‘The swords of the martial Princes leapt from their scabbards …’.

The first to volunteer was Maharaja Ganga Singh of Bikaner, who wrote directly to King George V.

Having just heard of the outbreak of hostilities between Russia, France and Germany, I beg leave most dutifully, should Great Britain also have resort to arms, to place my own sword and services at Your Imperial Majesty’s command, either as member of Your Imperial Majesty’s staff or at the head of my troops and Rajputs, all of whom are equally eager to fight for Your Imperial Majesty in Europe, India, or elsewhere for the safety, honour and welfare of your Imperial Majesty and your dominions.¹

The flamboyant six-foot-tall Maharaja, known for his sartorial elegance and carefully chosen turbans, had been an aide-de-camp to King George V longer than any other Indian chief. Being perfectly fluent in French and English, he was on first-name terms with the great and good in Paris and London.

The 33-year-old Maharaja declared that the personal military service was the ‘highest ambition of a Rathore Rajput chief’ and that he was prepared to go anywhere and in any capacity to serve the King. He even informed the King that he had made all the necessary arrangements for the administration of his state in his absence and was ‘ready to sail immediately’. It was signed simply ‘Gangasingh’.² The Maharaja also wrote to the Viceroy, Lord Hardinge.

Soon the Viceroy received a flood of telegrams – from several native princes – all offering their services and financial help. The Viceroy had to choose which Maharajas would go to the front line as there was quite a scramble. He shortlisted a few and had to personally write to the disappointed ones. The Viceroy’s list included Sir Pertab Singh, regent of Jodhpur, who was well acquainted with Queen Victoria, had attended both her jubilees and her funeral and was eager to fight despite being in his 70s. Travelling with him would be the 16-year-old Maharaja of Jodhpur, Summair Singh. Also included were the Maharajas of Patiala, Ratlam, Kishengarh, the Nawabs of Jaora, Sachin and Bhopal. The Maharaja of Nepal placed his formidable Gurkha troops at the disposal of the British. The Maharaja of Mysore was one of the first to offer financial help. He put ₹50 lakhs at the disposal of the Viceroy, who immediately said he would use it to pay for the transport of troops. The Maharaja of Gwalior sent a fleet of 40 motor ambulances, which was photographed making its way to Buckingham Palace. The Maharaja also gave 4,000 horses, thousands of pounds in donations and a contribution along with the Begum of Bhopal for a hospital ship.

Among the Maharajas in the front line was the famous Test cricketer Ranjit Singhji, who scored 154 not out against Australia in his debut test for England in 1896. Widely regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time, the legendary Ranjit Singhji, the Jam Sahib of Nawanagar, immediately offered his support when the war broke out. He let his house in Staines to be used as a hospital and left for the front line in November 1914.

Top leaders from the Congress Party in India also backed the war effort.

The mood in India was euphoric. Many felt it was an honour to be invited to fight along with the British Expeditionary Force. Hindus, Muslims and Parsees offered prayers for the success of British arms, and there were demonstrations of loyalty throughout India.

Newspapers of the country carried wildly patriotic articles. The Bengalee newspaper edited by Congress leader Surendranath Banerjee, declared: Behind the series ranks of one of the finest armies in the world, there stand the multitudinous people of India, ready to co-operate with the government in the defence of Empire, which for them means, in its ultimate evolution, the complete recognition of their rights as citizens of the freest state in the world. We may have our differences with the Government – and what people have not? But in the presence of the common enemy, be it Germany or any other power, we sink our differences.³

Indian leaders addressed meetings all over the country, expressing their support for the King Emperor. Bhupendra Nath Bose, president of the Indian National Congress, said: ‘Whatever intrigues Germany may stir up in Turkey, Moslem and Hindu in India are alike united in their unswerving devotion and loyalty to the Empire in this crisis’.

In a large public rally held in Bombay, attended by the city’s wealthy merchants, a unanimous resolution was passed expressing unswerving devotion and loyalty to the British Crown. In the town hall at Calcutta, the mood was equally upbeat. Prominent Bengali Hindus, Bengali Muslims and Parsees addressed a public meeting and called for the show of loyalty ‘to the Empire and the Motherland’. Most Indian nationalist leaders at this stage were satisfied with British rule but wanted greater autonomy or dominion status as enjoyed by Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Consequently, the rhetoric was always about ‘putting aside the differences’ at this time of crisis and giving their full loyalty to the King Emperor.

The most resounding voice of support came from Dadabhai Naoroji, the first Indian to win a seat in the House of Commons. The 89-year old, a strong critic of the British government’s impact on the Indian economy, who had only the previous year described India’s unequal export ratio with Britain as ‘all loss, loss, loss’, rallied to Britain’s cause. In an open letter to the Indian public on 10 August 1914, Naoroji said that Britain had declared war on Germany not out of the desire to extend its dominions but to keep her word of honour and discharge her obligation to peace:

The War in Europe. What is our – India’s – place in it. … We are above all British citizens of the Great British Empire. … Fighting as the British people are, at present, in a righteous cause, to the good and glory of human dignity and civilisation, and moreover, being the beneficent instrument of our own progress and civilisation, our duty is clear – to do everyone our best to support the British fight with our life and property.⁴

The letter published in The Times of India drew an immediate response. The Governor of Bombay, Lord Willingdon, wrote to the elder statesman: ‘Truly, India by her loyalty and devotion to the King Emperor, which shall be proved during the war, will gain her rightful place in the future in the “sun” of the British Empire’.⁵

Indians in Britain too added their voice to the display of support for the King. At a meeting of prominent Indians in London, a resolution was passed for submission to the King Emperor. The signatories included among others Sir Mancherjee Bhownagree, who had served as a Member of Parliament between 1895 and1906, industrialist and philanthropist Sir Ratan Tata, Congress politicians like Lala Lajpat Rai and Mohammad Ali Jinnah. Pledging their loyalty to the British Empire against an ‘aggressive foreign power’, they declared:

we, the subjects of His Majesty’s Indian Empire, who are now residing in the metropolis, feel it our duty and privilege to express what we believe is the prevailing feeling throughout India – namely, a sincere desire for the success of British arms in the struggle.⁶

Writing in The Times newspaper from the Hotel Majestic in Harrogate, Abdur Rahim, Member of the Royal Commission on the Public Services in India, explained why educated Indians backed the British in the war. This, he said, was because the British government in India had a ‘higher purpose’ to serve than merely the maintenance of peace and order.

That purpose is to enlist by means of western education the sympathy and cooperation of the people in the ideals of Western civilisation, so that they may ultimately be fitted to administer the affairs of their own country as an integral part of the British Empire,

wrote Rahim, and added: ‘From the Germans we can have no similar guarantees’.⁷ Rahim believed ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title
• Series
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of figures
• List of contributors
• Introduction
• 1 Turbans in the trenches: Indian sepoys and sowars on the Western Front during the Great War
• 2 Combat motivation of the sepoys and sowars during the First World War
• 3 The Maharajas’ contribution to the First World War: An Overview
• 4 Indian soldiers’ experience in France: Perceptions and outcomes
• 5 From victory to defeat: The Indian Army in Mesopotamia, 1914–1916
• 6 The Indian Army in the East African campaign, 1914–1918
• 7 Modernization, social change and Indian soldiers: A case study of Haryana
• 8 Response of Northeast India to the First World War
• Glossary
• Index