The Indian Army fought in every major theatre of operations during World War One. Letters home from Indian soldiers on the Western Front offer extraordinary insights into their feelings about the conflict and their impressions of European culture.
The Indian Corps in France
In August 1914, as the German Army advanced through France and Belgium, more Allied troops were desperately needed for the Western Front. The Indian Army, 161,000 strong, seemed an obvious source of trained men, and the Lahore and Meerut infantry divisions were selected for service in Europe. In October, shortly after they arrived, they were fed piecemeal into some of the fiercest fighting around Ypres. Losses were heavy. The average Indian battalion had 764 men when it landed; by early November the 47th Sikhs had only 385 men fit for duty. The fighting came as a shock to soldiers more used to colonial warfare. One man wrote home 'this is not war; it is the ending of the world'.
The troops were taken out of the line and rested in early 1915, but were soon back in the trenches and involved in the heaviest fighting. The Indian Corps provided half the attacking force at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March, and the Lahore Division was thrown into the counter-attack at the Second Battle of Ypres in April. Morale seemed to pick up in the spring of 1915, only to decline towards the end of the summer when it became clear that an end to the war was not in sight. The Indians again took heavy losses at the Battle of Loos in September.
The Indian Corps provided half the attacking force at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle...
The two Indian infantry divisions were withdrawn from France in December 1915, and sent to Mesopotamia. Arguably they were moved because their morale was fragile, and it was thought unwise to expose them to another winter on the Western Front. But it also made strategic sense to concentrate the Indian Army in the Middle East, where it was easier to send reinforcements and supplies from India. Two Indian cavalry divisions remained on the Western Front until March 1918, when they were transferred to Palestine to take part in the offensive against the Turks.
Military censorship
The reports of military censorship reveal much about Indian soldiers' experiences on the Western Front. From late 1914, a team of censors monitored the Indian soldiers' correspondence, with the chief censor producing a weekly report that commented on its contents. Appended to the reports were excerpts from about 100 letters, translated into English, each one giving the name, rank, and religion of the soldier concerned. The censorship reports, with their translated excerpts, have survived, although most of the letters themselves have now been lost.
The soldiers probably did not write all their letters themselves. Most Indian soldiers were illiterate, since the Indian Army recruited overwhelmingly in rural parts of the country. Instead, the troops might have asked scribes, such as the company clerk, to write their letters for them and to read out the letters they had received.
...people who were not themselves literate could still use writing in strategic ways.
The soldiers quickly worked out that their letters were being monitored, and in response they occasionally resorted to coded language. For example, one man wrote home that 'the black pepper is very pungent, but only a little remains' - meaning that the Indian troops ('the black pepper') were fighting very fiercely, but had suffered heavy losses, and implying that enlistment was therefore unwise. The censor deciphered most of these codes fairly easily, although some of the more subtle ones, including veiled incitements to murder, may have eluded him. These letters suggest that people who were not themselves literate could still use writing in strategic ways. As one might expect, the letters of these peasant-soldiers were rich in rural and agrarian imagery. For example, one wounded man, his courage failing, described himself as 'like a man who, once burnt, is afraid of a glow-worm'.
Motivations
What motivated men to fight in a war thousands of miles from home, in a cause that did not seem to be their own? The Indian Army has often been described as a mercenary force, and money may have been one motive for enlistment. The pay for an Indian infantryman was a modest 11 rupees a month, but the additional income would have been useful to a hard-pressed peasant family. Promotion could bring more substantial income, particularly to men who had served for many years.
Many men, however, also saw it as their duty to bring honour to their clan or caste, by fighting bravely on the battlefield. Some communities liked to imagine themselves as warriors. A Sikh soldier, Indar Singh, fighting on the Somme in September 1916, wrote home: 'It is quite impossible that I should return alive. [But] don't be grieved at my death, because I shall die arms in hand, wearing the warrior's clothes. This is the most happy death that anyone can die'.
Indian soldiers frequently expressed a strong sense of personal duty to the King-Emperor George V...
Indian soldiers frequently expressed a strong sense of personal duty to the King-Emperor George V, who is mentioned in their letters more often than anyone else. A postcard with a portrait of the King was given to all Indian troops as a New Year's present in January 1917, and the men seem to have appreciated this gesture. One Sikh soldier wrote 'may God grant long life to the generous-hearted sovereign who has deigned to think of his humblest soldiers!' By way of contrast, Indian soldiers were less likely to remark that they were fighting for 'India' than for the King, or for honour.
Religion
Religion was central to the way in which Indian soldiers tried to make sense of the war. Several Hindu soldiers remarked that being killed in battle, in the service of the King, would end the cycle of death and reincarnation, and would send the soldier directly to paradise. Sikh soldiers occasionally referred to coreligionists
who had 'suffered martyrdom' on the battlefield.
Religious artefacts, such as Korans and Brahminical threads, were of particular importance to Indian soldiers. A charity, the Indian Soldiers' Fund, was set up in Britain to supply such items, and to offer medical assistance and comforts to the troops. Religious artefacts and ritual occasions, such as the Guru's birthday (for Sikhs) or the end of the fast of Ramadan (for Muslims), perhaps took on greater significance because the men were so far from home.
...the British Empire was now at war with a Muslim power.
Religion became a potential problem after Turkey entered the conflict, because it meant that the British Empire was now at war with a Muslim power. Most Muslim soldiers concluded that the war was still lawful; but there were some desertions from Muslim units on the Western Front, as elsewhere. There were also at least three mutinies of Muslim troops in other theatres of war, usually when the troops in question suspected that they were going to be sent to fight against the Turks. Soldiers serving in France heard about the mutinies, and commented upon them, usually unfavourably.
Discovering Europe
When behind the lines, on leave, or recovering in hospital, the soldiers had plenty of opportunity to see France and England. Did they embrace European culture or were they alienated by it? The wealth and beauty of European cities astonished the soldiers; and they admired Europeans for their honesty, generosity, education and stoicism in the face of bereavement. Some men wondered why India seemed so poor in comparison. The soldiers' attitudes to Europe were not, however, uniformly admiring or uncritical. Several men commented that Europeans lacked spirituality; while one man suggested that India was more beautiful than Europe, because India's beauty was 'clothed in modesty'.
Some soldiers had love affairs with British or French women...
European gender relations elicited much comment. Several men praised the education of European women, and gave instructions for their own daughters to be taught to read. Others considered that European women were 'shameless', because they mingled so freely with men. Some soldiers had love affairs with British or French women, although the censors tried to suppress evidence of this. In 1917, one Muslim trooper even married a French woman (the news dismayed his family, so he told them that he had married the woman only because the King had personally ordered him to do so).
Impact and commemoration
The war's most immediate impact in India was its demand for manpower. The British authorities considered introducing conscription, but instead adopted a 'quota' system. From 1916, Indian officials were told to produce a given number of men from a particular district, or face losing their jobs. The officials used bribery and even coercion to find the necessary recruits, leading to some discontent in the main recruiting grounds. It has been suggested that ex-soldiers, perhaps men who had been forcibly enlisted, were prominent in the disturbances that affected the Punjab in 1919.
Official figures suggest that 64,449 Indian soldiers died...
By November 1918, some 827,000 Indians had enlisted as combatants, in addition to those already serving in August 1914. Official figures suggest that 64,449 Indian soldiers died in the war. One Indian soldier, doubting that he would survive, consoled himself with the thought that his name would be 'written in letters of gold and inscribed in the list of the brave'. The names of all of India's known war dead were indeed carved on the main memorial to the Indian Army, the massive arch of India Gate in New Delhi. The Indians were also commemorated on the Western Front itself. There are many Indian names on the Menin Gate at Ypres, but the main memorial to the Indian Army on the Western Front was that designed by Sir Herbert Baker, and opened in 1927 at Neuve Chapelle - the site of the Indian Corps' most famous, and costliest, action in 1915.
Find out more
Books and articles
Sepoys in the Trenches: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15 by Gordon Corrigan (Spellmount, 1999)
Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldiers' Letters, 1914-1918 edited by David Omissi (Macmillan, 1999)
The Sepoy and the Raj: The Indian Army, 1860-1940 by David Omissi (Macmillan, 1994)
Battle Colors: Race, Sex and Colonial Soldiery in World War I by Philippa Levine (Journal of Women's History 9, no 4, 1998)
The Imperial Reserve: The Indian Corps on the Western Front, 1914-15 by Jeffrey Greenhut (Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 12, 1983)
Places to visit
Both the Imperial War Museum and the National Army Museum have exhibitions devoted to World War One.
About the author
Dr David Omissi is Senior Lecturer in History at the University of Hull. He has recently contributed to The Impact of the South African War (Palgrave, 2002) which he edited with Andrew Thompson.
First published by the BBC.