British & their ‘Pervasive Racism’ - A Historical Omissions of WW I, by the British. 

Images - Courtesy Wiki Commons.

Just two days ago - Thursday, 22nd April, a Report of the ‘Special Committee to Review Historical Inequalities in Commonwealth’,  submitted by the  Common Wealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) has been made public. The report unambiguously provides an account of the admission of the British to their atrocious practice of ‘pervasive racism’, against Indian and other coloured soldiers, particularly, during the the First World War (WWI ). This report provides a clinching evidence of racial discrimination practised by the British against their subjects including Indians, who were fighting shoulder to shoulder on their side in the World War that was thrust on us. This disgusting act of the British is very well known to Indians as an absolute truth, which unfortunately has not been very well documented. It is perhaps this pervasive racism coupled with the Britishers disdain for coloured Indians that led to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre which was perpetrated by the British Brigadier General, Reginald Dyer, on that fateful day - 19th April, 1919. The report has brought to focus a hard reality, which the Indians were experiencing all through the colonial rule. The report has therefore compelled the British government  and CWGC to render their apology to the Indians, Africans and Egyptians, their subjects who were at the receiving end of their racism. The report says that the  Indians, Africans and Egyptians soldiers who died fighting for the British Empire during World War I ( WWI) were not appropriately honoured, due to ‘pervasive racism‘. 

This Report, produced by the CWGC ,has found that ‘1,16,000 and potentially as many as 3,50,000 of those who died while serving the forces,  of the then British Empire during World War I, have remained ‘unmemorialised’. The report further adds that nearly 45,000 to 54,000 individuals - including Indians, were deliberately ‘commemorated differently’ from their European combatants. This act of the discrimination of the soldiers who died in service of the British Empire,  based on their colour was in direct contravention of the core principle of equality of treatment in death. Therefore, the CWGC, on Thursday 22nd April 2021, ‘apologised unreservedly’ for treating Black and Indian war dead differently. UK Defence  Secretary,  Ben Wallace,  made a formal apology on behalf of the Government of UK  by stating ‘while we can’t change the past, we can make amends and take action’. The report also makes more shocking revelations that 38,696 Indian soldiers who died during the war and whose memorials have been prepared in UK do not even make a mention of the soldiers on their memorials. Instead, Indian soldiers who died  fighting the British war, thrust on them by the colonial rulers, have been commemorated without any of their names on the memorials, except a numerical number on memorials. The names of these soldiers  have been separately inserted in the registers. Such was the ill treatment that the Britishers perpetrated on Indians during their colonial rule. This report is symptomatic of the ‘pervasive racism’ behaviour, which the British rulers practiced against Indians all through their rule, which unfortunately as been brushed under the carpet by most historians. Yet, there were an estimated over 1.2 million Indian soldiers who took part in World War I with a hope that their support to the British during their hour crisis will be rewarded by the British post the war with some kind of an independence, which was not to be. There were even more soldiers who took part in the Second World War (WWII) to fight for the British cause. 

Speaking of the Indian soldiers participation in the WWI and how they have been racially discriminated, I am reminded of one of deadliest War that was fought during the WWI by the Indian soldiers under the banner of ANZAC in the famous battle of Gallipoli. It was on the 25th April, 1915,  that the ANZACs landed at the Gallipoli peninsula battle site to commence one of the most heralded battles of the WWI at the deadliest of trenches and the worst of conditions at Gallipoli. The Indians fought shoulder to shoulder with their brothers in arm the white Australians and New Zealanders under the banner of the ANZACs directly under the command of the British soldiers. April 25, 2021, marks the 106th  anniversary of the historic landing of the allied troops - the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand), on the Gallipoli Peninsula, for one of the most treacherous military campaign in the worst of battle conditions in the trenches of death, during WW1. This battle is now legendary and several heroic stories, books, documentaries and films have been told about the Gallipoli battle. Most unfortunately the role of the Indian soldiers in this war was again conspicuously missing from the military records of British. Thus battle lasted for nearly eight months and claimed at least 125,000 lives. 

As stated above, unfortunately for nearly 100 years since this battle, not much was known about the participation of Indian soldiers in the Gallipoli battle, let alone heralding their heroic contributions to the battle. The Indian soldiers participation in the battle was mostly swept under the carpet or at best found some foot note references in most military history books and articles. Fortunately, when the world was preparing to commemorate the centennial of the Gallipoli battle, the vital contributions of Indian soldiers in this battle caught the attention of a well known Australian historian and researcher - Prof Peter Stanley, University of New South Wales, Australia. Prof Stanley, through his intensive research, has written and documented, with extraordinary details, the contributions of Indian soldiers in the Battle of Gallipoli in his book “Die in Battle, Do not Despair, The Indians on Gallipoli 1915”.  While curating an exhibition ‘Cricket Connects : India - Australia Cricket Relations’, as a part of the  ‘Confluence : Festival of India in Australia’, which was presented at the historic Sydney Cricket Grounds, in October 2016, I had an opportunity to read this book, which I used to connect this historicity of relation between the two countries - India and Australia, in one of the sections in the exhibition. It was  heartening to note that of all the ten sections of the exhibition, the ANZAC connect part of the exhibition evoked an extraordinary emotional feeling for most Australian visitors to the exhibition.

The Indian troops were part of the ANZAC - an armed core unit under the command of the British, which consisted of soldiers from Australia, Great Britain, Ireland, France, India, and Newfoundland. The Indian troupes comprised of Gurkha and Sikh battalions and other mule drivers, who literally transported most war materials of the British forces and their allies during this battle. The ANZACs landed on the Gallipoli peninsula on the 25th April 1915 and fought in the deadliest of trenches and on the frontline and that too positioned at a completely disadvantageous position with respect to their enemy - the Turks. Thousands perished in this battle and several thousand more were either wounded or scarred for life. The Australians, New Zealanders and Indian soldiers united fight during this epic battle is something that would not have been countenanced in a “White Australia” during that period. 

The Gallipoli Campaign, also known as the Dardanelles Campaign, the Battle of Gallipoli or the Battle of Çanakkale (Turkish: Çanakkale Savaşı), was a British campaign of World War I fought with the aim of capturing the Ottoman capital of Constantinople (modern day Istanbul). This battle may have been a defeat for the ANZAC, if one looks prismatically with the objectives with which this battle was fought - to push out the Ottoman Empire and to create a new front for the allied forces. However a look at the historical war records and casualty data from World War, reveals  and clearly demonstrates  the Gallipolis campaign value to the Allied cause. The New Zealand government’s historical record documents that the Allies (which included Australians, British, Canadians from Newfoundland, French, Irish, Indians and New Zealanders) sustained 1,41,547 casualties (dead, wounded and missing) at Gallipoli – among those numbers were 44,150 dead. The Ottoman Empire forces sustained a far higher casualties - 2,51,309 including an astonishing 86,692 dead. The casualties on the enemy side almost doubled the ANZACs numbers including the dead and what is more revealing is that the Ottoman forces were strategically at a more vantage position than the ANZAC forces. Looking at the ratio – dividing the impact on the Ottoman side by the input of Allied force casualties – one can notice that the Allied soldiers were relentless in their heroic gallantry and displayed incredible valour, courage and endurance in the most hostile environment in which this battle was fought. 

The  valour with which the Allied forces fought this dreaded Gallipoli battle has led to the ANZAC legend that continues to live on to be celebrated and revered both in Australia and New Zealand, every year.  The ANZAC legend is celebrated as the Anzac Day on April 25, marking the landing of Anzac at Gallipoli in 1915.  Every year, there are ceremonial marches and parades in most Australian and New Zealand cities to mark the sacrifice of those who lost their lives in the line of duty. The Sikh community, who fought alongside the Australians, has proudly joined in this tradition of paying homage to their forefathers  and since 2005, there has been a Sikh contingent in the Anzac Day march in Perth, Australia, comprised of direct descendants of those who fell in Gallipoli and other campaigns.

The Gallipoli battle records have revealed the respect that the Australian soldiers had for the Indian soldiers, which is evidenced in one of the statement; “The [Indians] batteries did so well and gallantly that the Australians have metaphorically taken them to their hearts. All are the greatest pals imaginable, and the political effect of this cordial friendship should be good for both India and Australia.”  Most unfortunately, Indians have forgotten to respect our battle warriors who perished in this epic battle. Through this post, on behalf of my countrymen ( women included) I wish to pay our respect and reverence to those British Indian soldiers who perished not only in this battle but also in both the WWI and WWII.

Incidentally the Battle of Gallipoli is also known for the death of one of the greatest of scientists who died in the battle of Gallipoli. One of those hundreds of thousands of soldiers who made the supreme sacrifice by laying down their life in service of their motherland, during the World War 1, was the genetically gifted genius scientist, Henry Moseley. In the words of Issac Asimov, ‘Moseley’s death is the single most costly death of the war’. Periodic Table is invariably associated with the Russian chemist - Mendeleev, who discovered it in 1869. However, it must be noted that the modern day Periodic Table, which is omnipresent in all schools and colleges and science labs, owes its genesis to the contributions of Henry Moseley, the British Scientist. His findings - rightly called the Moseley’s Law - was primarily responsible for the modern day periodic tables. Moseley was one of those millions of soldiers who volunteered to participate in the WWI and tragically died in the Gallipoli battle on the 10th of August 1915, at a very young age - 27 years. In his untimely death, the whole of humanity was robbed of Moseley’s genius scientific contributions. His death is all the more poignant for what he might have achieved, had it not been for the senseless battle of Gallipoli, which took away his life along with innumerable other Indian soldiers during WWI. 

The best tribute for Henry Moseley, Indian soldiers and other battle heroes, who were martyred during the WWI at Gallipoli, can be witnessed in the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk (1881-1938), an army officer who was part of this battle and who founded an independent Republic of Turkey out of the ruins of the Ottoman Empire. He served as Turkey's first president from 1923 until his death in 1938. Mustafa Ataturk Says ; 

 “Those heroes that shed their blood and lost their lives; you are now lying in the soil of a friendly country. Therefore rest in peace. There is no difference between the Johnnies and the Mehmets to us where they lie side by side here in this country of ours. You, the mothers, who sent their sons from far away countries, wipe away your tears; your sons are now lying in our bosom and are in peace. After having lost their lives on this land they have become our sons as well”  - Mustafa Kemal Atatürk

Today as we commemorate the 105th anniversary of the Battle of Gallipoli, it is heartening to note that the Britishers have finally owned up their ‘ pervasive racism ‘ behaviour and have rendered an apology for their inhuman behaviour. May the revered souls of valiant soldiers  rest in eternal peace and may they continue to remain in our hearts and minds.

Jai Hind.