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Rare images of Sikh soldiers who fought in World War I

anant_s

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On eve of Armistice Day (its been 100 years since that day in 1918), let us look back at Indian Contribution to the Great War, especially that of brave men of Sikh Regiment, which fought with valor and great courage against Germans and brought glory and Laurels to their Regiment.

Rare images of Sikh soldiers who fought in World War I
One soldier in every six in the British Army was Indian, with Sikhs comprising one-fifth of the Indian contingent when the war began.
1.jpg

As we approach the centenary of the beginning of World War I, on July 28, revisionist histories are beginning to examine the role of non-white and non-European people in the war effort. From the Indian sub-continent, around 1.5 million soldiers volunteered to fight in places from Belgium to West Asia. Many of them were Sikhs.

Empire, Faith & War: The Sikhs and World War One, an exhibition at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London organised by the United Kingdom Punjab Heritage Association, showcases the rich history of Sikhs who served in the British Army.

While largely unremembered in textbooks in the years after the war, contemporary documents and photographs do record their effort. The exhibition began on July 9 and will close on September 28.

“By telling the Sikh story, we want to remind the world of this wider undervalued contribution of the non-white British Empire,” said UKPHA chairman Amandeep Madra. “This is British history and a story that helps explain much about modern Britain as well as filling in a tragically missing piece of World War I history.”

The exhibition brings together unprinted photographs, postcards, comics, drawings and other artefacts to trace the narrative of Sikhs in the British army. But it also goes beyond just the soldiers’ lives by looking at the families they left behind and collecting their oral histories.

Photographs show Sikhs cheerfully interacting with other soldiers and civilians.

Sikhs also became objects of interest when held in camps for prisoners of war. Axis forces took advantage of their capture and conducted controversial ethnographic studies of them.

The following images are a selection from the UKPHA collection.
2.png

Stalwarts from the East: A French lady pins a flower on the Sikh saviours of France, Paris, 1916. (Toor Collection)
3.png

Men of the 15th Sikh Regiment spend time with locals in a Flanders village after weeks in the trenches of the Western Front, c. 1915. (UKPHA Archive)
4.png

A Sikh soldier in a German prisoner-of-war camp, c. 1915. (Toor Collection)
5.png

Belgium street kids taunt a German soldier by dressing up as Sikh soldiers, c.1915. (Toor Collection)
6.png

A listing of captive Sikh soldiers who underwent a study into their racial origins by German scientists, c. 1918. (UKPHA Archive)
7.png

Sikh and British wounded recovering from injuries sustained in the front line to their left hand or arm, Southampton, c. November 1914. (UKPHA Archive).

@AUSTERLITZ @Vergennes @Levina @Joe Shearer @Robinhood Pandey @gslv mk3 @Nilgiri @waz @WAJsal @third eye @Storm Force @Irfan Baloch @AndrewJin @Chinese-Dragon
 
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continued from above post...

9.png

Front cover of The Great War magazine showing men of the 45th Sikhs serving with British troops on the banks of the Tigris River, marching with their sacred scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, in Mesopotamia, 1918. (Courtesy of Nanaki and Sahib Collected Works)

10.png

A propaganda postcard praising the contribution of Indian soldiers to the Allied cause, c. 1915. (UKPHA Archive)

11.png

For the glory of the Raj: Indian troops charging the German trenches at Neuve Chapelle, March, 1915. An engraving of a painting by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. (Courtesy of Nanaki and Sahib Collected Works)


12.png

A profile sketch of Sohan Singh, the son of a Sikh farmer from Harpoke, a village in Punjab (now in Pakistan). He was born around 1894, and joined the 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force), a regiment in Britain's Indian Army, probably just before war broke out. During the World War I, the regiment served on the Western Front in 1914-15, fighting in the Battles of La Bassee, Givenchy, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos.

Sohan Singh was captured by the Germans and held prisoner in the Wünsdorf Camp near Berlin. It was here that the likeness of the 22-year-old Sikh soldier was captured by Hermann Struck, a German Jewish artist who published a book containing 100 of his portraits of prisoners of war. (UKPHA Archive)

https://scroll.in/article/671238/rare-images-of-sikh-soldiers-who-fought-in-world-war-i

 
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Interesting. Don't know whether to support them or not. I guess they fought on the better side in both Wars and deserve our respect. A part of me always remembers the Kipling poem Gunga Din.
 
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Interesting. Don't know whether to support them or not. I guess they fought on the better side in both Wars and deserve our respect. A part of me always remembers the Kipling poem Gunga Din.
better? not a big difference
 
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On eve of Armistice Day (its been 100 years since that day in 1918), let us look back at Indian Contribution to the Great War, especially that of brave men of Sikh Regiment, which fought with valor and great courage against Germans and brought glory and Laurels to their Regiment.

Rare images of Sikh soldiers who fought in World War I
One soldier in every six in the British Army was Indian, with Sikhs comprising one-fifth of the Indian contingent when the war began.
View attachment 517824
As we approach the centenary of the beginning of World War I, on July 28, revisionist histories are beginning to examine the role of non-white and non-European people in the war effort. From the Indian sub-continent, around 1.5 million soldiers volunteered to fight in places from Belgium to West Asia. Many of them were Sikhs.

Empire, Faith & War: The Sikhs and World War One, an exhibition at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London organised by the United Kingdom Punjab Heritage Association, showcases the rich history of Sikhs who served in the British Army.

While largely unremembered in textbooks in the years after the war, contemporary documents and photographs do record their effort. The exhibition began on July 9 and will close on September 28.

“By telling the Sikh story, we want to remind the world of this wider undervalued contribution of the non-white British Empire,” said UKPHA chairman Amandeep Madra. “This is British history and a story that helps explain much about modern Britain as well as filling in a tragically missing piece of World War I history.”

The exhibition brings together unprinted photographs, postcards, comics, drawings and other artefacts to trace the narrative of Sikhs in the British army. But it also goes beyond just the soldiers’ lives by looking at the families they left behind and collecting their oral histories.

Photographs show Sikhs cheerfully interacting with other soldiers and civilians.

Sikhs also became objects of interest when held in camps for prisoners of war. Axis forces took advantage of their capture and conducted controversial ethnographic studies of them.

The following images are a selection from the UKPHA collection.
View attachment 517825
Stalwarts from the East: A French lady pins a flower on the Sikh saviours of France, Paris, 1916. (Toor Collection)
View attachment 517826
Men of the 15th Sikh Regiment spend time with locals in a Flanders village after weeks in the trenches of the Western Front, c. 1915. (UKPHA Archive)
View attachment 517827
A Sikh soldier in a German prisoner-of-war camp, c. 1915. (Toor Collection)
View attachment 517828
Belgium street kids taunt a German soldier by dressing up as Sikh soldiers, c.1915. (Toor Collection)
View attachment 517830
A listing of captive Sikh soldiers who underwent a study into their racial origins by German scientists, c. 1918. (UKPHA Archive)
View attachment 517829
Sikh and British wounded recovering from injuries sustained in the front line to their left hand or arm, Southampton, c. November 1914. (UKPHA Archive).

@AUSTERLITZ @Vergennes @Levina @Joe Shearer @Robinhood Pandey @gslv mk3 @Nilgiri @waz @WAJsal @third eye @Storm Force @Irfan Baloch @AndrewJin @Chinese-Dragon
thanks for sharing buddy
 
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Anyone who wheres a turban is a Sikh? Turbans are an Indian headgear adapted by sikhs and everyone wheres them. The real elite were the Indian Muslim soldiers in the first and second world wars.
 
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Anyone who wheres a turban is a Sikh? Turbans are an Indian headgear adapted by sikhs and everyone wheres them. The real elite were the Indian Muslim soldiers in the first and second world wars.
They were all elite cannon fodder for Empire's defence.
 
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please no racist slurs
not all Muslims are decedents of raiders of Arabia
most of us like me have forefathers who were Sikhs or Hindus so I don't find myself any better than my cousins in India.
I understand that those that have their lineage directly with the Arab princes can look down on us but please keep it to your self. its not polite to look down at rest of us.

thank you

What in your opinion qualifies a religious community of soldiers as being ' elite" ?
I like your qualified question

you conditioned your question with the word "opinion"

Discipline, bravery , toughness and results.
I will add the word Indian as well.
why?

because Arab Israel conflict shows a very humbling picture
 
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continued from above post...

View attachment 517832
Front cover of The Great War magazine showing men of the 45th Sikhs serving with British troops on the banks of the Tigris River, marching with their sacred scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, in Mesopotamia, 1918. (Courtesy of Nanaki and Sahib Collected Works)

View attachment 517831
A propaganda postcard praising the contribution of Indian soldiers to the Allied cause, c. 1915. (UKPHA Archive)

View attachment 517833
For the glory of the Raj: Indian troops charging the German trenches at Neuve Chapelle, March, 1915. An engraving of a painting by Richard Caton Woodville, Jr. (Courtesy of Nanaki and Sahib Collected Works)


View attachment 517834
A profile sketch of Sohan Singh, the son of a Sikh farmer from Harpoke, a village in Punjab (now in Pakistan). He was born around 1894, and joined the 58th Vaughan's Rifles (Frontier Force), a regiment in Britain's Indian Army, probably just before war broke out. During the World War I, the regiment served on the Western Front in 1914-15, fighting in the Battles of La Bassee, Givenchy, Neuve Chapelle, Aubers Ridge and Loos.

Sohan Singh was captured by the Germans and held prisoner in the Wünsdorf Camp near Berlin. It was here that the likeness of the 22-year-old Sikh soldier was captured by Hermann Struck, a German Jewish artist who published a book containing 100 of his portraits of prisoners of war. (UKPHA Archive)

https://scroll.in/article/671238/rare-images-of-sikh-soldiers-who-fought-in-world-war-i







sikhs: capable of protecting the British during WW1, incapable of defending themselves in 1984... :lol:.......:devil:

Sikhh are very brave and they deeserve a lot more



Not too brave in 1984.......... :devil:
 
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