For our tomorrows, they gave their todays
- First World War and the untold stories
of the Indian soldiers-
The Great War or the First World War ("The war to end all wars”) ended on 11 November 1918 and the day is popularly called Armistice Day. The global commemoration of the centenary of
the Great War Armistice was held in Paris on the 12th November 2018. It was
attended by world leaders including the US and Russian Presidents apparently at
a time when the diplomatic relations among various countries seem to be at a
low ebb.
A French lady pins a flower on the Sikh saviours of France, Paris, 1916. (Toor Collection)
In 1914, India had sent well over 1 million men overseas to fight
the war alongside the British and over 75000 had lost their lives.
The Indian Army fought against the Germans in German East Africa and on the Western Front. At the First Battle of Ypres (Belgium), on 31st October 1914, Sepoy Khudadad Khan of 129th Duke of Connaught's Own Baluchis became the first Indian to be awarded a Victoria Cross, equivalent to today’s Parama Vira Chakra. Till 1911, Indians were not eligible for the Victoria Cross. Naik Darwan Sing Negi, 1st Battalion, 39th Garhwal Rifles too was awarded the VC on the same day Khudadad Khan received his award for his gallant deeds during the Defence of Festubert on 23rd/24th November 1914. Indian troops also served with great distinction in Egypt, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia against the Ottoman Empire. Many Indian regiments had remained in India guarding the North West Frontier and on internal security and other duties.
When the war ended, Indians who bravely fought alongside the
British had high hopes about greater autonomy or even full freedom but these
were belied and many promises were swiftly forgotten.
In India, save for the brave hearts from the regiments of Sikhs, Gurkhas , Dogras and few others from the North , the Country seems blissfully unaware of those historic times when our soldiers fought against heavy odds in unknown lands and shed their lives for a cause.They were not even fighting “their” wars for
they were the subjects of the British Empire and were drawn to the vortex of
the Great War often against their own will. But, they fought with loyalty,
dedication and commitment and their families gave them great strength as they
fought in unknown territories in extreme climates holding hands of their fellow
soldiers of a different class, creed or race. History is replete with instances
of bravery, brotherhood and the supreme sacrifices made by many of them and these
still remain inspirational for our present day soldiers.
In the book, “Indian
Voices of the Great War”, the author and scholar David Omissi has brought
to light various facets of the soldiers’ lives, both professional and personal,
through letters written by them from the warfront and through letters received
from their closest family members.
While researching a rare group of WW1 medals in
my possession, awarded to Risaldar Prag
Singh of the 2nd Lancers, (Gardiners Horse) I got to know about the most difficult times he
had spent in France and Belgium and about the great legacy of his Rajput wife
who sent such inspirational letters to her husband in the warfront.
In the battle of Cambrai in France Prag
Singh’s regiment suffered hundred casualties including its Commanding Officer
Lieutenant Colonel HHF Turner. In the same battle Lance Dafadar Govind Singh
won the Victoria Cross for his exceptional bravery.
Following are the details of my study based on
the WWI pair of medals –the 1914-15 Star and Victory Medal-
awarded to Risaldar Prag Singh.
For the uninitiated, please note that in
the British Indian Army, till 1918, Indians were not open for the King’s
Commission for direct recruitment as an Officer. Instead, they were called In India, save for the brave hearts from the regiments of Sikhs, Gurkhas , Dogras and few others from the North , the Country seems blissfully unaware of those historic times when our soldiers fought against heavy odds in unknown lands and shed their lives for a cause.
The
commission issued by the Viceroy was to facilitate effective liaison between
the British officers and their native troops. The VCOs had long service and
good service records, spoke reasonably fluent English, and could act as a
common liaison point between officers and men and as advisers to the British
officers on Indian affairs.VCOs were
treated and addressed with respect. Even a British officer would address a VCO
as, for instance, "Subedar sahib" or "sahib”.
Risaldar
Prag Singh, 2nd Royal Lancers
WWI Group of Two
Medals (1914-15 Star and Victory Medal)
(No: 1870 Lance
Dafadar Prag Singh, 2/LCRS on 1914-15 Star and Jemdr Prag Singh 2 LCRS on VM)
Prag Singh, a young Rajput from Moradabad, joined
the British Indian Army in 2nd Lancers (Gardiners Horse) on 16th October 1904.
The regiment was then at Faizabad, present day Uttar Pradesh, having reached
there on 8th February 1903 from Nowshera in Jammu and Kashmir.
Original 1914-15 Star and Victory Medals awarded to Jemadar Prag Singh (Murali's Collections)
The illustrious regiment was started in 1809 by Lt Col W.L.Gardner that had a composition of 1 squadron each of Sikhs, Rajputs, Jats and Hindustani Musalmans. Major General Osborn Wilkinson CB was the Colonel of the regiment since 1904 that had the services of HH Sir Ganga Singh Bahadur KCSI, KCIE, the Maharajah of Bikaner. He was Honorary Major to the regiment and was Hon ADC to HRH the Prince of Wales.
Prag Singh’s regiment was sent to France in World War I as part of the Mhow Cavalry Brigade, 2nd Indian Cavalry Division. Once in France its personnel were called upon to serve in the trenches as infantry. The high number of officer casualties suffered early on had an effect on performance. During their time on the Western Front the regiment was involved in the Battle of the Somme, Battle of Bazentin, Battle of Flers–Courcelette, the Advance to the Hindenburg Line and the Battle of Cambrai.
Because of his exemplary bravery in the fields, Lance Dafadar Prag Singh was promoted as Jemadar on 25th August 1917. His war service records show that he was in the Operations in France and Belgium from 18th November 1914 to 31st January 1919 and that he was wounded in the battle.
In the battle of Cambrai in France the regiment suffered hundred casualties including its Commanding Officer Lieutenant Colonel HHF Turner. In the same battle Lance Dafadar Govind Singh won the Victoria Cross for his exceptional bravery. For its gallant actions the Regiment was mentioned in the Cambrai Despatch by Field Marshall Lord Douglas Haig. Since, then Cambrai day i.e. 30 Nov is celebrated as a Battle Honour day.
Lance Dafadar later Jemadar Gobind Singh), VC, 28th Light Cavalry Attached to 2nd Lancers (Gardner’s Horse) was awarded VC in 1918 after the Battle of Cambrai
Indian Cavalry at Cambrai 1917
After Cambrai the regiment headed to Egypt, and
served in the Jordan Valley, leading the advance through the Musmus Pass on
19th September, 1918, capturing a Turkish battalion of 500 men for the loss of
one man and 12 horses wounded. After the Armistice, they served in pacifying
operations in Palestine and Syria, and Trumpeter Mangal Jain won an Albert
Medal (the first Indian to do so) for rescuing three drowning soldiers in the
surf at Beirut.
In the Middle East it led one of the greatest
cavalry charges at El Afuleh on 20th September 1918 during the “Drive to
Damascus”, which was also the last Cavalry charge in the world. In 1922, they
amalgamated with the 4th Cavalry to form the 2nd Royal Lancers (Gardner's
Horse).
Charge of the 2nd Lancers at El Afuli in the Valley of Armageddon, 5 am, Friday 20th September 1918
Prag Sing’s war service records him as part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force from 1st July 1920 to 12th December 1920 and his being wounded.
A couple of letters sent by his wife from Moradabad to the warfront of France are standing testimonies of an emotional partner who urged her husband to stand by his duty and responsibility. These letters are from the brilliant book, “Indian Voices of the Great War” by the military historian David Omissi that shows censored letters of the Indian soldiers (1914-1918). Many of these letters are historically very important because of its contents depicting the lives of the soldiers and their families, their emotional lives and their unstinting loyalty to the King Emperor.
Letter 1 (Page 206)
To Dafadar Prayag Singh (Rajput, 2nd Lancers, France) from his wife
Moradabad, UP
December 1915
My dear, when your letter comes, my heart is made happy. I write to you every week, but sometimes your letters to me are delayed. Why should I be annoyed with you? I am your servant, and you are my all ... Every morning when I wake, 1 do homage to your picture; and my picture, is it not imprisoned in your heart? Why then are you distressed in mind? Often do I see you in my dreams, but never in a state which would cause me anxiety. Question your heart. Does it not tell you that at all times I am with you in spirit? Who is there in this world, beside yourself, to whom I would give a thought? What does it matter how or where one lives, in a mansion or in a wilderness, so long as the heart is true. I am steadfast in my faith always. There are but two conditions in this life, peace and trouble. When you were with me all was peace; in your absence all is trouble. God alone knows when I shall see and do homage to you again and thus be freed from trouble ... Your letters reach me on Wednesday. When a letter comes, I am happy till the following Tuesday. When a letter does not come I am sunk in despondency for a week, asking myself what can it be that has deprived me of a letter from my Lord this week- And I never fail to write weekly to you. I could not forget you, for you are to me what the broad, deep sea is to the fish ... Why do you praise me so much? I am not worthy of praise. Nor could I become estranged from you, for then I should make a hell of this house. No, no; in no circumstances can I be separated from you. You are my lord and master, you alone can fathom the depths of my heart and understand its desires. For me there is not your equal in this world. Therefore, trust me and believe that no thought of mine is hidden from you. You ask me to write in more detail. The reason why I do not do so is because I do not wish to weary you. Occupy yourself with the duty the performance of which will give satisfaction to God; and now indeed is the time, above all others, when you can work so as to please God ... Today a letter has come from Kheri in which uncle has asked me to lend him all the money I have as Kalmawatti is to be married... I shall raise no objection because I do not wish anyone to say that I raised any obstacle in the family. Besides, I have no need for money - it is your presence that I desire. You are my joy. What is money to me...? Do not worry yourself about anything. Do your duty and your work with all your heart. [Letter passed]
1. This apparently loyal and devoted woman was still writing in similar vein in February 1917. See No. 487.
Letter 2 (Page 487)
To Dafadar Prayag Singh (2nd Lancers, France) from his wife
Moradabad, UP
20th February 1917
My heart feels that it could not sustain separation from you for a single minute; but it is now three years since I was last blessed with your presence - what then my heart suffer! I am wandering alone in the wilderness of this world. I cannot realize when it was that I last looked on your face, and I would thankfully give my life as an offering to anyone who would bring me into your presence once more. What words of yours, my dear, need I recall to mind, when my very veins are full of love for you! And how can I enjoy any degree of happiness in separation from you! Therefore I make this one request that you should send for me, or write and tell me to come to you. But tell me precisely the place you are in, so that I may not fail to find it. You write to me about money, but what care I for money. I need you alone! I am in need of nothing else, and I do not hanker after riches. I am my lord’s handmaid, and would count it happiness even to starve in my lord s presence. May God speedily bring the day when I, the grief-laden one, gazing in the glory of your countenance, will renew my life.
Letter 3 (Page 576)
To Dafadar Prag Singh (Rajput, 2nd Lancers, France) from his wife
Moradabad, UP
4th September 1917
Send for me. I will go with you and fight against the enemy and will never give way a foot, but will meet the Hun and keep my faith. I will show them what Rajput women are. I will behave like the heroes of old, and on the field of battle you shall see my bravery. The enemy will taste the edge of my talwar. I am with you for weal or woe, which is my religion. Let me keep my vow and fight along with you and smite down the foe. I am a Rajput woman. My bravery is second to none. I am so strong that if I be cut in pieces I shall not give way, and the enemy will be obliged to praise me. What, am I but your wife? My heart is like yours. #
# Two others (not reproduced in this collection) are quoted in Omissi, The Sepoy and the Raj, p 76.
The following letter no: 394 dated 6 September 1916 –originally in Urdu- from Daya Ram (Jat) of 2nd Lancers, France to Kalu Ram (Ambala City, Punjab) is very revealing about the horrors of the war that a soldier of the regiment experienced.
I went into the trenches on 7th August and returned on 28th August. Some of our men were wounded. I am not permitted to give any fuller details. The battle is raging violently, and various new ways of fighting have been introduced. The ground is honeycombed, as a field with rat holes. No one can advance beyond the trenches. If he does so, he is blown away. Mines are ready charged with explosives. Shells and machine guns and bombs are mostly employed. No one considers rifles nowadays, and serviceable rifle ammunition is lying about as plentifully as pebbles. At the trenches, thousands of mounds of iron, representing exploded shells, lie on the ground. At some places corpses are found of men killed in 1914, with uniform and accoutrements still on. Large flies, which have become poisonous through feasting on dead bodies, infest the trenches, and huge fat rats run about there. By the blessing of God the climate of this country is cold, and for that reason corpses do not decompose quickly. It rains frequently and that causes much inconvenience. At the present time we are suffering, as the horses are tethered outside and the rain has converted the ground into slush. Sometimes we have to march in the rain and then the cold is intense. However after two years’ experience, we have grown used to all these troubles and think lightly of them. I have lots to write about, but I have no leisure, nor have I permission to do so. Even this I have had to write very prudently, otherwise it would be withheld. [Indian Voices of the Great War, p.231]
In January 1922, the regiment returned to India after some tumultuous years in the field. We could safely presume that Prag Singh eventually met his most devoted wife.
Jamadar Prag Singh was duly promoted Risaldar on 1st May 1924 and was posted as the Indian Staff Officer at the Equestrian School in Sagar in Jaipur, Rajasthan.
He had during his service qualified himself in English (Preliminary I Cl), Hotchkiss gun, Rifle and Equitation School.
He was selected as a Military instructor in Kitchener College, Nowgaon in Chattarpur, and Madhya Pradesh on 15th June 1929. This was a preparatory college for Military Academy for Officers. In 1936, Risaldar Prag Singh appears to have been retired after an eventful service of 32 years.
Certainly it was an eventful life of a Viceroy’s Commissioned Officer who witnessed some of the bloodiest battles in human history and who was indeed fortunate to return to the safety of his motherland and his family.
References:
1. Quarterly Indian Army lists over the years from 1904 to 1937
2. Indian Voices of the Great War by David Omissi
3. Various open sources from internet, Wikipedia etc.
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