Fighting the sahib's war

SARNATH BANERJEE

Strictly speaking, Indian soldiers were not conscripted, they enlisted because of regular pay, fixed ration and the promise of Home Rule. The Indians put together 8 billion pounds in todays value as a one-time war contribution and kept paying 2.4 billion pounds every year in cash. The amount did not include animals and supplies. This huge contribution to the war effort was a bargaining chip to gain Self Rule, as was practiced in Britain’s white dominions.

The Indian sepoy had an ambiguous relation with the empire. His loyalty could never be taken for granted. He always posed the threat of desertion or mutiny.

Silence is the sepoys most enduring trait. Indian soldiers did not belong to the class that would leave behind contemplative war memories. The European historians too didn’t bother much because the role of the Indian soldier did not conform to the western narrative of victory or defeat.

At the Boer War the British government did not want to engage Indian soldiers in battle. It was against racial etiquette of the time. A black soldier killing a white soldier was a flagrant breach of white solidarity. But In 1914, as the western front fell, racial hierarchy was thrown out of the window and the Indian soldiers were brought in.

A German newspaper, The Continental Times acknowledged Indians as victims of colonial rule. In 1915 it reminded its readers that the English, who refused to travel in the same railway car with a coloured person, would happily engage the same to fight against Germany. In doing so, the paper added, England is true to its tradition of utilising other races to do its hard fighting.

Kaiser Wilhelm expressed his outrage at England for employing ‘heathens’ to kill people of the white race, ‘a thing that should be condemned by all civilised nations.’ Later he wised up, put race purity on the back-seat and tried to turn the Indian POWs against their English masters. He particularly wanted to appeal to the Muslim soldiers to not fight against their Turkish brethren. His ally the Ottoman Sultan, still considered a khalifa by the muslim world, called for a jihad against the Empire, but only a small number of Muslim soldiers responded and deserted to the German side.

After the war, the Indian soldiers returned home. Along with being decommissioned by the British army, they were unacknowledged and unsung in their native India. The war they fought brought them no glory. Britain never gave India the promised Self-Rule. Instead, they instituted the Rowlatt’s act, allowing further repression of civil liberties and establishing special courts that made detention without trail possible. There were protests from all fronts, reaching its climax with the the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

Footnotes :

* Sarnath Banerjee is the author of five graphic novels, including Corridor, All Quiet in Vikaspuri and Doabdil.