On Nov. 10, Steven Purewal, director of the Indus Media Foundation, will officially open Duty, Honour & Izzat: The Call to Flanders Fields at the Surrey Museum, an exhibit dedicated to the rarely taught and told stories of Indian Army soldiers who fought in the First
World War.

To commemorate these soldiers who fought shoulder-to-shoulder with Canadian soldiers under the

Steven Purewal shows Canadian Minister for Multiculturalism, Jason Kenney, and members of the Royal Canadian Legion period documents at Surrey Central Library. | Photo by Simon Yee

flag of the British Empire, Purewal and Simon Fraser University will host public gatherings, community lectures and guest speakers at SFU Surrey and the Heritage Hall in Vancouver on Nov. 10 and 11 respectively.

“With the centennial of World War I this year and, more specifically, the engagements made by the Indian Army in October and November 1914, 100 years ago, it was particularly important for me to raise awareness of the subject this Remembrance Day,” says Purewal.

Courage and honour while holding the line

Purewal considers the efforts of the Indian Expeditionary Force A soldiers at Flanders during the autumn of 1914 their most important contribution to the war effort, since they helped hold the line until Allied reinforcements could arrive in early 1915. Nearly 24,000 Indian and British troops were deployed, preventing the German Sixth Army from breaking through the Arras-La Bassée- Armentières frontline. For his bravery during that battle, Sepoy Khudadad Khan was the first South Asian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the British Empire’s highest decoration for valour.

“Winning the First Battle of Ypres was absolutely pivotal, for Canada’s war story as well, because if Calais’ ports and coastline had been taken, it would have been very difficult for the Canadian Expeditionary Force to land and we wouldn’t have John McCrae’s Flanders Fields,” Purewal says.

Over the decades, Purewal has collected primary sources such as government citations, medals, artwork, personal letters, newspaper clippings and other documents that make up the informational bulk of the exhibit. The exhibit’s centrepiece consists of a two-sided wall: one side recounts the origins, make-up, and early efforts of the Indian Army under the British Raj; the other side recounts the major battles and engagements of the First World War, detailing the Indian Army’s contributions alongside British, Canadian, French and other Allied troops. Each side includes artwork, both from that time period, and newly commissioned artwork illustrating some of the battles.

Restoring the Indian Army’s place in the annals of history

The exhibit hopes to rectify many popular accounts of the First World War that omit or downplay the contributions of the Indian Army. According to Surrey history teacher, Christopher Trevelyan, there are several reasons the stories are rarely told. Many of the soldiers who fought were not literary-minded, so it was hard to record their stories. In addition, the British government and media played down their contributions after the war. And perhaps most notably, the people of India also tended to ignore those contributions.

“Oftentimes, those soldiers who fought were considered to be part of the British Empire: ‘it’s not our heritage, it’s their heritage’. So there wasn’t really anyone in India to follow up those stories,” says Trevelyan.

With Trevelyan’s help, Purewal plans to convert this exhibit into educational material, develop lesson plans, create graphic novels and interactive websites to restore the Indian Army’s contributions into the First World War narrative and help future generations of Indo-Canadians remember their extraordinary military heritage.

“Our own community has lost its history because after [Indian independence in] 1947, India has not been interested in its imperial past. So who celebrates or remembers their history?” says Purewal.

According to Purewal, Punjabis living in the Lower Mainland have no allegiance to the nation-state of India – they’re Canadians.

“So it’s up to Canadians to take it upon themselves to remember because we don’t have a nation-state that does,” he adds.

Over one million Indian Army soldiers served during the war, including deployments in France, Mesopotamia and Egypt, and received over 2,000 citations for gallantry.

“It’s about remembering these soldiers, not for recognition,” Purewal says. “They didn’t do it for the medals; they did it because it was the right thing to do.”

The exhibit will be on display at the Surrey Museum from Nov. 4–15 and will officially launch on Nov. 10 with associated discussions hosted by SFU in Vancouver and Surrey on Nov. 10–11. For more information, please visit www.imfc.org.