What's new

Heros of 'India's Battle of the Somme' honoured by royal visit

.
Could you please justify it?

the composition of the British Indian Army. It will be noticed that the percentage of Muslims decreased after 1 January 1942 not because of paucity of volunteer recruits but because of Government of India policy, as the demand for Pakistan built up 1940 onwards. But these figures do not represent Muslim races of present day Pakistan only. On the eve of World War II almost 34,000 Punjabi Muslims were in the army (29 per cent) and during World War-II over 380,000 joined (about 14% of the total). No other class came close to these figures: Sikhs: 116,000, Gurkhas: 109,000, Muslims of other classes from UP, Deccan, Madras, Bengal, NWFP, etc 274,000, were recruited during 1939-1945. Muslims as a whole constituted a quarter of the Indian Army as of 1947 9....

Almost 70 per cent of the wartime recruitment was from what became Pakistan had been from the undivided Punjab, 19.5 per cent from NWFP, 2.2 per cent from Sindh, and 0.06 per cent from Baluchistan.10 The three semi-arid districts of Punjab-Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock (Campbellpur) and two districts of NWFP-Kohat and Mardan pre-dominated in supplying recruit volunteers in World War II. Today the recruitment base has enlarged. Now ethnic Baluchis, and Bruhis, who were recruited till the middle of the 19th century, and Sindhis are coming into the Pakistan army in large numbers for Baluch and Sind Regiments. Recruitment of Muslim personnel from Jammu and Kashmir were considered under Punjabi Muslims in World War II. Today they have their own Azad Kashmir Regiment.

Some sixty thousand or so Bengali Muslims (former East Pakistan) also served in World War II in pioneer construction roles.
 
.
You should ask the Indians of Singapore how much they were appreciated by the Japanese regime. The Japanese were unbelievably cruel towards civillians, not to mention starting an aggressive war allied with a genocidal maniac. You fought for a good cause and were granted independence almost immediately after the war. Any Axis India would be a Japanese puppet state.
 
. .
But why no where in history, Participation of Pakistani soldiers in IInd ww mentioned?

Probably because the subcontinent was a part of the BRITISH empire, so they would still have been classified as British combatants. Anyone feel free to correct me, as this is just an opinion.
 
.
the composition of the British Indian Army. It will be noticed that the percentage of Muslims decreased after 1 January 1942 not because of paucity of volunteer recruits but because of Government of India policy, as the demand for Pakistan built up 1940 onwards. But these figures do not represent Muslim races of present day Pakistan only. On the eve of World War II almost 34,000 Punjabi Muslims were in the army (29 per cent) and during World War-II over 380,000 joined (about 14% of the total). No other class came close to these figures: Sikhs: 116,000, Gurkhas: 109,000, Muslims of other classes from UP, Deccan, Madras, Bengal, NWFP, etc 274,000, were recruited during 1939-1945. Muslims as a whole constituted a quarter of the Indian Army as of 1947 9....

Almost 70 per cent of the wartime recruitment was from what became Pakistan had been from the undivided Punjab, 19.5 per cent from NWFP, 2.2 per cent from Sindh, and 0.06 per cent from Baluchistan.10 The three semi-arid districts of Punjab-Rawalpindi, Jhelum, Attock (Campbellpur) and two districts of NWFP-Kohat and Mardan pre-dominated in supplying recruit volunteers in World War II. Today the recruitment base has enlarged. Now ethnic Baluchis, and Bruhis, who were recruited till the middle of the 19th century, and Sindhis are coming into the Pakistan army in large numbers for Baluch and Sind Regiments. Recruitment of Muslim personnel from Jammu and Kashmir were considered under Punjabi Muslims in World War II. Today they have their own Azad Kashmir Regiment.

Some sixty thousand or so Bengali Muslims (former East Pakistan) also served in World War II in pioneer construction roles.

The right figure is 50% and out of that most were neither Hindus nor Muslims but Sikhs. There is beautiful documentary about British Indian Army made by BBC for genuine information. BTW, what are the sources of these statistics you have given?

 
Last edited by a moderator:
. .
I'm not sure I'd be comfortable having my forefathers associated with the Third Reich or italy, as for japan, no opinion.

Mine was in the INA and he did get along well with the Japanese officials and the Kempeitai based in Singapore at that time. I believe he fought in that battle as well. At that point their objective was to gain independence for India. As for the association with Nazi Germany, many of those freedom fighters then did not know of the extent to which atrocities and the Holocaust were being carried out over there. I believe alot of those information surfaced after the war. They did know the Nazis were oppressive, but they also had the same opinion of the British whom they were trying to kick out of the country. My respect also goes out to the Indian soldiers as well, who fought and died in the war, as they fought valiantly for our motherland nevertheless.
 
.

Pakistan Affairs Latest Posts

Back
Top Bottom