Dying for an unknown land
HYDERABAD: The northern region of Belgium that borders Netherlands is called Flanders that has figured prominently in European history. During the late Middle Ages, cities such as Ghent, Bruges, Antwerp and Brussels made it one of the richest and most urbanised parts of Europe.Located about 120 km from Brussels (the capital), Ypres is today famous for the war graves of the First World War. Ypres occupied a strategic position during the war because it stood in the path of Germany’s planned sweep across the rest of Belgium and into France from the north.

The city remained in the thick of World War I for four years and was completely demolished. The Cloth Hall was largely destroyed but now reconstructed, today it is home to “In Flanders Fields Museum”, dedicated to Ypres’ role in the First World War.Ypres highlights another troubling legacy of the First World War – the forgotten role of soldiers who travelled from the British Raj to fight in the trenches of France and Belgium: stories of the Hindus, Sikhs and Muslims from modern-day India and Pakistan who fought alongside the British and other allies in the war. For 12 months between 1914 and 1915, the British Indian Army fought on one of the bloodiest stretches of the Western Front and they were fed piecemeal into some of the fiercest fighting around Ypres. The losses were devastating: entire units got wiped out, as men fell in battle.
More than one lakh of the dead and injured were from India. The trenches stretched all around Ypres, miles upon miles of dugouts and shallow canals where men lived, fought and died. Indian soldiers fought fiercely, bled and died there 100 years ago, fighting a war that they had nothing to do with. India provided Britain with not just men, but material and money as well. India bore the entire cost of these troops, being used for imperial rather than national purposes. In 1917, India also made an outright gift of £100 million towards the cost of the war!

Now Ypres is a pilgrimage destination for the British to imagine and share the sufferings of their men. While for Indians like me, it is equally sacred as many of my fellow Indians sacrificed their lives for a country not their own. They died on an alien land, far from their near and dear ones and for a cause that has not merited their sacrifice. It pained me immensely to see their tombs, lined up, like numbered deaths, some even nameless, as their details couldn’t be traced: many of those tombs just said ‘An Indian Soldier of the Great War’. Those Indians remain doubly forgotten, their names are lost in the haze of history and their memories stand erased in the eyes of their countrymen.
The Indian regiments were sent to Europe in their tropical cotton drill; winter kit, including greatcoats, did not arrive before dozens had perished from cold and frostbite. One injured “sepoy” felt sufficiently aggrieved to write a letter directly to King George V. “The Indians have given their lives for 11 rupees,” he wrote. “Any man who comes here wounded is returned thrice and four times to the trenches. Only that man goes to India who has lost an arm or a leg or an eye.” The historic martyrdom of Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims went unsung.
On the city walls near the Menin Gate are memorials to Allied soldiers who fought and died at Ypres, the most notable being those to the Gurkhas and Indian soldiers. As I climbed the southern steps to the Ramparts of Menin Gate, I saw the Ashoka Pillar standing proudly in the midst of “The Indian Forces Memorial”, a monument dedicated to the Indian soldiers. Unveiled in a ceremony in March 2011, it is dedicated to the 1,30,000 troops of the Indian Forces who served in Flanders during the Great War of 1914-1918. Thousands of Indian soldiers died as casualties in France and Flanders, not only due to the nature of their injuries in battle but also due to the severe winter weather conditions they were exposed to.

The city looked beautiful from there as the river Ieperlee flowed placidly while the lovely houses on the riverbank displayed the prettiest flowers.But despite contributing the largest volunteer army from Britain’s imperial dominions at the cost of precious lives, it is sad to note that the sacrifice of the fighters from pre-partition India has been allowed to slip between the cracks of the post-colonial history of both countries.
Today, every nationality and region that sent soldiers to fight in Flanders find mention on the grave stones that stand reminder to the horror that visited this land. Hundreds and thousands of deaths marked by the cemeteries dot the region. Tucked in corners of such cemeteries I saw the memorials of those Indians who never came back. My heart sank with a lump in my throat. My only solace was the rose bushes around, each dense with huge pink roses, bunches of them hanging heavy from the slender branches. As I stood there gazing into space, blown by the wind some petals landed on some tombs……..a silent homage to the unknown soldiers?
(The author is a documentary filmmaker and travel writer; she blogs at ijayaprataptravelandbeyond.com)