CHANDIGARH: One in six soldiers who fought for the British during the First World War came from pre-Partition India, with nearly half a million from Punjab, including Sikh, Muslim, Hindu and Christian servicemen. Yet many of these men have long been overlooked in mainstream histories, even though more than 1.4 million men from the Indian Army served on all major battlefronts.
Now, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has added 9,909 men previously omitted from its commemoration records, recognising them as war casualties who died of injuries away from the battlefield. The move corrects a historical omission that meant they were never formally commemorated.
Early work on the Punjab Registers showed that some soldiers listed as having died during the conflict were missing from CWGC records and commemorations. This milestone is the outcome of the Punjab Registers Project, a five-year partnership between the CWGC, the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) and the University of Greenwich. Together, the organisations digitised and analysed a rare and fragile collection of documents held at the Lahore Museum, containing the names and service details of approximately 320,000 Punjabi recruits.
The Commonwealth War Graves Commission announced the largest single addition to its casualty records since the Second World War, following a major international research project drawing on rare historical records.
Claire Horton CBE, Director General of the CWGC, said: "Over a century after the end of the First World War, our mission endures, ensuring all those who died in the service of the Commonwealth receive the commemoration they deserve. The Punjab Registers Project is a landmark moment in that mission. The recovery of every one of these 9,909 names helps restore missing chapters in family and world histories. It stands as a constant, timeless reminder that commemoration is not only about the past; it is about personal identity, family legacy and recognising the human cost of war.
"CWGC remains committed to meaningful physical commemoration and to working with governments and nations to seek their views on a memorial to honour these individual soldiers with the dignity and respect they so rightly deserve," she added.
A statement by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission said: "Research led by CWGC Official Historian Dr George Hay uncovered why. The majority of the missing casualties were men who had died in non-operational zones within India during the war. Due to rulings made by the British Indian government at the time, these men were not afforded war graves status, and so their names were never shared with the Commission. This project has overturned that decision."
"A major verification process was undertaken. A CWGC-funded PhD student at the University of Greenwich, George Williams, and 19 volunteers from around the world, many with personal ties to the Registers, examined 15,935 deaths and compared them with 74,000 existing CWGC Indian Army records. Their enormous effort was supported by computer-assisted analysis, and each stage was reviewed by the CWGC and Indian Army specialists. The process revealed that 9,909 casualties were missing from the records," the statement said.
It added: "The Punjab Registers Project forms part of the Commission's wider Non-Commemoration Programme, established in 2021 to address historical inequalities in commemoration. So far, the programme has identified more than 20,000 additional names for commemoration."
Amandeep Madra, British historian, author and chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, which is dedicated to preserving Sikh and Punjabi heritage, said: "Britain and Punjab share a long history, notably during the two World Wars, and for over a hundred years, part of it was missing. These men were never commemorated—not because they didn't serve, but because a decision made a century ago excluded their sacrifice from the record. Putting that right means giving families around the world their history back, and properly and equally commemorating the men who died.
"This has only been possible because the Lahore Museum kept these fragile records safe for a hundred years, because the University of Greenwich and the Commonwealth War Graves Commission took that archive seriously, and because volunteers gave their time to recover, name by name, this previously lost history," Madra said.
According to Dr George Hay, the Punjab Registers represent an extraordinary archival resource. They not only preserve the names of hundreds of thousands of men but also offer vital insight into how the Indian Army was recruited, administered and remembered at the local level. Restoring these names is about more than record-keeping; it is about completing the historical narrative of the First World War and ensuring that commemoration reflects the full global reality of that conflict.
Gavin Rand, Professor of History at the University of Greenwich, said: "This project has not only helped to redress a historical injustice, it has also enabled families and communities in Britain and across the world to connect with and better understand their shared history and heritage. The Punjab Registers Project shows why research matters."
Dr Inder Singh Palahey, a dentist in Leicester, UK, spent years searching for information about his great-grandfather, Kesar Singh, whom he knew had gone to war and never returned.
"From just hearsay to now discovering the facts about my great-grandfather's ultimate military sacrifice, in particular the regiment he served in, has been incredibly poignant. Upon his death, he left a widow and two young children in poverty. So, the fact that he will now be remembered in perpetuity within global history ensures the whole family's sacrifice is recognised, which simply means everything to us," he said.
Meanwhile, Manjinder Nagra, the first Sikh to represent England in rugby, discovered that her maternal great-grandfather, Jagat Singh, had not been properly commemorated.
She said: "When I attended the annual Chattri Memorial Service in Brighton, held in honour of the soldiers from undivided India who gave their lives during the First World War, I never expected to receive such momentous news.
"Learning from the UK Punjab Heritage Association that my maternal great-grandfather will now be officially recognised on the CWGC casualty database was incredibly moving and overwhelming. To know that his service and sacrifice are finally being properly acknowledged means so much to our family more than 100 years on. In the present difficult times, this recognition feels especially significant. After all these years, he is finally being given the honour, dignity and remembrance he always deserved."
