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As soon as the war broke out in early August 1914, both British and the French were mobilizing their respective empires. Soldiers and labourers from all over the world were brought to the Western Front. More than 30 different nationalities were engaged in the Ypres Salient. A British Indian infantry division composed of three brigades with four battalions and five battalions after the battle of Neuve-Chapelle in April 1915.
The British forces were, however, undoubtedly composed of the world’s greatest ever empire in 1914. Firstly, there were the Dominions; Canada, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa in addition to the crown colonies of Newfoundland and, of course, our main subject today - Sikhs from British India. It is quite obvious that even here a uniform sense of nation remained blatantly absent.
The then troops of the British Indian army or British Indian Labour Corps would, in our present day and age, be hailing from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Burma or Nepal. Even some smaller constituent parts of the British Empire sent their sons to Flanders’ fields, Egypt (Egyptian Labour Corps), BWI (the Caribbean and mainly Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago and Barbados) and Bermuda, the Fiji Islands (Fijian Labour Corps). Then again, the British army itself counted amongst their ranks white Rhodesians. .....More
