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    Forgotten Blood: Indian Soldiers in Europe during World War I
    Forgotten Blood: Indian Soldiers in Europe during World War I
    Forgotten Blood: Indian Soldiers in Europe during World War I
    Ebook106 pages59 minutes

    Forgotten Blood: Indian Soldiers in Europe during World War I

    By Kamaljit S. Sood

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    The social conditions in Punjab at the outbreak of World War I in 1914 were rapidly improving and the locals were happy about the economic benefits that their farmers were reaping. When the British government sought manpower to fight their war against Germany in France Indians made themselves readily available. Within six weeks of the war breaking out, two divisions from Punjab were sent to France under the command of the British. There they fought bravely and stopped the German advance in France. After serving about 18 months in France, most of the forces were deployed in other spheres of war in the Eastern Mediterranean. Kamaljit Sood’s play ‘Forgotten Blood’ recounts the story of the war and the subsequent treatment of the Indians in India leading to the Jallianwala Bagh massacre.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherUnion Bridge Books
    Release dateFeb 7, 2019
    ISBN9781785270659
    Forgotten Blood: Indian Soldiers in Europe during World War I

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      Book preview

      Forgotten Blood - Kamaljit S. Sood

      FORGOTTEN

      BLOOD

      FORGOTTEN

      BLOOD

      INDIAN SOLDIERS IN EUROPE DURING WORLD WAR I

      KAMALJIT S. SOOD

      UNION BRIDGE BOOKS

      An imprint of Wimbledon Publishing Company Limited (WPC)

      UNION BRIDGE BOOKS

      75–76 Blackfriars Road

      London SE1 8HA

      www.unionbridgebooks.com

      Copyright © Kamaljit S. Sood 2019

      The author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.

      All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission of the publisher.

      The moral rights of the author have been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

      All the characters and events described in this novel are imaginary and any similarity with real people or events is purely coincidental.

      A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.

      ISBN-13: 978-1-78527-065-9 (Epub)

      ISBN-10: 1-78527-065-6 (Epub)

      PRELUDE TO THE PLAY

      LAHORE – capital of the Pakistani province of Punjab. Country’s second most populous city after Karachi.

      The play is based on the author’s convictions on the social and, to some extent, the sociopolitical situation in India with respect to the Raj at the outbreak of the war. The author has studied extensively the period through readings and by talking to people with family connections of one generation to the 1914 period. I believe that the premise concluded is largely accurate – that at the beginning of 1914, Punjab was strongly in the grip of Britain as a colonial power, and that the inhabitants of Punjab were largely satisfied with the growing wealth that they were producing every year and that this satisfaction was as a result of the policies of infrastructure development pursued by the British administration. The British administration had instilled an era of social peace and this had benefited the local population. Further, by providing the benefits of military recruitment, it ensured further economic benefits to the various classes that the rulers chose to promote – all with the aim of securing the Raj.

      Despite these social benefits, politically, it offended some sections of the population, mainly the intelligentsia, some of whom took up the cause of self-rule, although not independence, and some of whom called for the overthrow of colonial rule through revolutionary and other means. The authorities responded to these activities with a repressive and iron-fist approach, an approach that was perhaps the traditional way of controlling the ruled people of almost every country at the time. But the level of repression was quite alien to the approach taken against their own citizens in England who held similar views both in regard to the conditions in England and in India.

      When the war broke out in 1914, India was called upon to provide the manpower. India and Indians rose to the occasion selflessly and provided the needed manpower for use in Europe, the Middle East and East Africa. This manpower provided the strong backbone needed to defend the crown possessions and indeed to stall the advance of the Germans in France and defeat the Germans in East Africa and the Middle East. The Indian forces provided both fighting manpower and auxiliary manpower – the latter was many times more than the former.

      This play is written about the evolution of the sociopolitical scene from 1914 until 1919, until just after the event of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The author believes firmly that the enthusiasm and willingness with which India responded at the time to the need of the hour in Britain, needs to be appreciated much more in a militarily comradely way, by the main benefactors of these sacrifices, that is the French and the British people and the British establishment, which encompasses the Crown and the government, the than just in forgotten histories, or even in histories that are not fully forgotten. The appreciation needs to remain alive for ages.

      The evolution of the sentiments, lifestyles, and values is highlighted through the experiences of two very close Indian friends from school onwards into the battle space in Europe and the death of one and the return of the other to India. It explores with some glimpses of the lifestyle and the family and social values and links it to the values of duty. This gives some insight into the driving force behind the unquestioned way the Indian went to the battlefields in Europe wholeheartedly. These two are imagined characters. But it depicts the psyche of an Indian family life that governed the youth and families in general at the time, the psyche that was common in India in 1914 – almost favourable acceptance of British rule.

      1. Great grandson of Guddu and Lucy return to Lahore in 2017. Guddu travels with his girlfriend. They visit the village of his great grandfather’s best friend, Jassi. He promised his great grandfather that one day he would return to India on his behalf and finally say goodbye to his

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