Last Saturday, Vice President Venkaiah Naidu inaugurated an Indian War Memorial at Villers Guislain in France to pay tribute to Indian soldiers who died in World War I. The next day, a statue was unveiled in Laventie, about 250 km north of Paris, to mark Armistice Day when the war ended in 1918. The bronze statue is the first of 57 similar sculptures planned by the Interfaith Shaheedi Association, an NGO based in France.
The statues will be installed near cemeteries around France where Indian soldiers lie buried. With the opening of the memorial and the unveiling of the statue, Indian soldiers who died fighting with the British Army in the war have finally been given their due recognition. Over a million Indian soldiers took part in the war and were deployed in places as varied as western Europe, East Africa and even China, where 500 soldiers took part in the siege of a port. About 75,000 of these soldiers died while another 70,000 were wounded. Despite these sacrifices, their contribution to the war has rarely been recognised. The same is the case with the troops who participated in World War II.
The only memorial for Indian soldiers who died in WWI is the one at India Gate in New Delhi, where the eternal flame burns to this day. Although there is no official word on why their sacrifices have not been recognised, the military feels that governments deliberately “obliterated” their contribution because the Indian soldiers fought for the British in both the wars. But the military has argued that India at that time was under the British and the defence forces, being apolitical to the core, were only doing their job. This argument may have merit.
Even today, the military is regarded as a disciplined and apolitical force. Besides, by not recognising the contribution of the defence services just because they fought for the British while accepting the Indian Civil Service, the precursor of the Indian Administrative Service, governments were being patently unfair. The course correction is definitely welcome.