Our exhibition 'Empire, Faith & War: the Sikhs and World War One' includes the contradictions of loyalty and betrayal.
This all became evident after the war when Sikhs agitated for more freedom. This picture of a policemen disarming peaceful Sikh protesters during the Guru-ka-bagh incident features in the exhibition but it belies the violent police action that preceded it.
A witness at the time, C F Andrews writes:
... The brutality and inhumanity of the whole scene was indescribably increased by the fact that the men who were hit were praying to God and had already taken a vow that they would remain silent and peaceful in word and deed.
The Akali Sikhs who had taken this vow, both at the Golden Temple before starting and also at the shrine of Guru-ka-Bagh, were as I have already stated, largely from the army. They had served in many campaigns in Flanders, in France, in Mesopotamia and in East Africa. Some of them at the risk of their own safety may have saved the lives of Englishmen who had been wounded.
Now they were felled to the ground at the hand of English officials serving in the same Government which they themselves had served ...'
Find out more about the exhibition here.
With your help 'We Will Remember Them'.
'Empire, Faith & War' is a project of the UK Punjab Heritage Association (UKPHA) and is supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund.