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vivek
March 17th, 2003, 05:59 AM
Harvinder was asking for some information regarding Jat soldiers in WW1.

There's a fairly recent book, called Sepoys in the trenches that gives an insight. Its written by Gordon Corrigan. Below is an abstract.

"The author has spared no effort in providing an extremely interesting look at the Indian Army and its men up to the outbreak of WW1, before moving on to describe their combat history in France. I have not previously had such a clear understanding of the differences between Jat's, Sikhs, Baluchi's, Ghurkha's, Gharwali, etc. etc. until I read this book. I knew the provision of food was something that had to be done with care, but this book gives a very clear picture of how important all this was. Of how fastidious the Indian troops were about things being done correctly, yet how obediently they followed their Saheb's into battle.

The book also clearly establishes the place British officers held and those of the Indian Officers in the Indian Army. The expectations of promotion and the pecking order among the Indian troops. There can be no doubt, that to command these troops called for officers with a very good knowledge of the men as well as their religious and other requirements.

Highly recommended for anyone researching British/Indian troops in any era from 1856 onward. It also includes an excellent 'Genealogy' of the Regiments. I have found it extremely interesting and instructive"

Indian Voices of the Great War: Soldier' Letters, 1914-1916 by David
Omissi pub.Macmillan Press 1999. Prof. Omissi also wrote The Sepoy and the
Raj: The India Army. 1860-1940 . This book refers onlyto Indian Soldiers in Europe.


Also:'Disease, Discipline and
Dissent: The Indian Army in France and England 1914-1915' by Mark Harrison
in 'Medicine and Modern Warfare' ed Roger Cooter, Mark Harrison & Steve
Sturdy, published 1999 by Editions Rodopi B.V Amsterdam - Atlanta, GA 1999.

Somewhere there is a film called "The Dance of Shiva" (Kenneth Brannah Dir:-
Jamie Payne Cam:- Jack Cardiff). It's about 30 min's long .

Finally:

Total Soldiers under arms=1,400,000
Soldiers leaving India= 850,000
Indian Labour Corps=55,000
Indian Porter Corps=12,000
Indian Groom Company=1,200
soldiers serving as a precentage of the total population 1 out of 225
KIA 62,000

vivek
March 17th, 2003, 06:05 AM
Additional information below:

'Not since the days of Hannibal has any body of mercenaries suffered so much and complained so little'
- Chief Military Censor


Letters of honour
So, who is going to set the record straight? One of the most surprising answers to this comes from the Indian soldiers themselves. Letters to their families written whilst on the Western Front were translated by military censors and have survived in their thousands, giving us a chance to get a direct insight into their experiences.

Historian David Omissi of the University of Hull has published an edited collection of the letters (Indian Voices of the Great War, Macmillan 1999), creating a new opportunity for bringing the Indian soldiers into the mainstream of public awareness. The soldiers' letters shed new light on the perplexing question of why so many Indian men were prepared to risk their lives fighting someone else's war.

The pay, paltry as it was, represented a useful income to the rural communities from which they were drawn. However, the letters show that the Indian men were not simply mercenaries - they had a strong sense of loyalty, duty and professionalism as soldiers. They were primarily recruited from what the British believed were the martial races such as Sikhs, Rajputs and Gurkhas. All had a long tradition of fighting and saw it as a noble profession that could bring honour to their families and villages. Some even believed that fighting in Europe would be their opportunity to prove themselves the equal of Europeans and therefore demonstrate the Indians' fitness for self-government.

But the letters certainly do not reveal a great deal of emotional attachment to the Nationalist movement -which perhaps explains why Indians feel ambivalent about the Indian soldiers. Unlike the Australians who have made films such as Gallipoli and ensured that their contribution to World War I is part of their national mythology, India has appeared uncertain about how to treat its own men's involvement. Apart from a single novel (Across the Black Waters by Mulk Raj Anand) there has been little attempt to tell the stories of those men.

vivek
March 17th, 2003, 06:10 AM
Some more:

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)

vivek
March 17th, 2003, 06:18 AM
From a diary about Indian soldiers in France during WW1

"Several Indian soldiers are also staying at the parish closest to Vlamertinghe. Their skin is dark, their army dress typically British apart from a turban which they have artfully wound around their heads. They speak English, some even French. They are very curious and ask and talk a lot. They would walk for half an hour to get some milk, stand around watching your every move as you serve them,

They get their Indian money out, called the rupee (2.80) and get mad when people refuse to accept their currency. They do not (or not to) understand the value of our money. By and large they are friendly and polite, yet their curiosity often gets the upper hand as they take you in from head to toe. They especially like to take a peek through the windows of our homes. They bake some type of pancakes and eat a type of seed with a very strong taste."

vivek
March 17th, 2003, 06:29 AM
And perhaps the best source of information for a film

http://www.man-mela.dircon.co.uk/resources.html

pictures in the following link..Jat regiment at Flanders

http://www.man-mela.dircon.co.uk/literaturecontent.html

ravichaudhary
March 19th, 2003, 10:56 PM
excellent,

I will use your data and spread it around

Ravi

uday
March 20th, 2003, 01:44 PM
Good Show Man !!! Keep it up..