PM Modi visits war cemetery in France: What role did Indian soldiers play in World Wars? (original) (raw)

The cemetery commemorates 1,487 soldiers who fell during World War I (1914-18), and 267 from World War II (1939-45), a majority of whom — 998 — were Indians fighting for the British. The Mazargues Indian Memorial was unveiled by British Field Marshal Sir William Birdwood in July 1925.

More than four million Indian troops fought in the British Army during the two World Wars. Their contributions were pivotal, even though they are seldom remembered, whether in Europe or in India. Here’s their story.

Au cimetière militaire de Mazargues, le Président @EmmanuelMacron et moi avons rendu hommage aux soldats qui ont combattu lors des Guerres mondiales. Parmi eux, plusieurs soldats indiens qui se sont battus vaillamment et ont fait preuve d’une détermination sans faille.

Tous… pic.twitter.com/IuQGJPaOP2

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 12, 2025

World War I: fighting in faraway lands

World War I pitted the Allied Powers (including Britain, France, and Russia) against the Central Powers (including Germany, Austro-Hungary, and the Ottoman Empire). The bulk of the fighting took place in Europe and West Asia, and European powers fighting each other, their colonies too became involved, supplying men, material, and money.

More than 4 million colonial troops fought in the War, mostly for France and Britain. This included some 1.3 million Indian soldiers, of whom more than 74,000 lost their lives and a comparable number were seriously wounded.

Often ill-equipped and under-prepared against an enemy they did not necessarily understand, Indian soldiers bore the brunt of Germany’s initial offensives along the Western Front in 1914, at a time when British conscription was still in its early stages and the professional British Expeditionary Force was in tatters.

Indian soldiers defended the Ypres Salient in Belgium from the advancing Germans, suffering major casualties in the process. In the Battle of Neuve-Chapelle, Indians suffered more than 4,000 casualties for next to no strategic gains.

By 1915, however, Britain had removed most Indian troops from Europe. Historian Richard Fogarty wrote in Race and war in France (2008), this was because “British authorities were concerned about the effect of pitting non-Whites against white Europeans in battle. Indians with such experience might be more difficult to rule after the war.”

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This meant that roughly a million Indian troops eventually ended up in the West Asian theatre, fighting the Ottomans. In Gallipoli, more than a 1,000 Indian lives were lost in Winston Churchill’s doomed campaign to take control of the Turkish straits. Of note during the campaign was the role of Indian mule drivers, who kept intact supply lines despite suffering major losses.

World War II: a truly global fight

Although World War I was supposed to be “the War to end all wars” a bigger conflict broke out only a couple of decades later. This time, the Allies (including Britain, the US, and the USSR) were up against the Axis Powers (including Germany, Japan, and Italy).

Unlike the Great War, WWII was truly global — from the Pacific islands to much of East and Southeast Asia to North Africa and much of Europe, fighting even more geographically spread out. This meant that even more troops and resources were needed, compared to the previous war, and once again, Europe turned to its colonies for help.

The War broke out at a time when fervent national movements were raging across Asia and Africa. Like during the Great War, the British promised self-governance once the War ended in return for Indian support. Nearly 3 million Indian troops went on to serve during the war, with approximately 87,000 dying in combat.

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However, unlike in the Great War, the majority of Indian soldiers in combat roles were deployed in Asia, to defend against the Japanese advance towards the Indian subcontinent. Japanese forces had conquered Burma by 1943, and reached as far as Kohima and Imphal from where they were driven back in 1944 by the British Indian Army consisting largely of Indian and Nepali Gurkha troops.

There are many stories of immense bravery displayed by Indian soldiers during the campaigns in Northeast and Burma. For instance, Gurkha rifleman Lachhiman Gurung received the Victoria Cross for single-handedly repelling an attack of more than 200 Japanese infantrymen in Burma, despite suffering multiple life-threatening injuries and losing an arm.

British Indian soldiers also played a crucial role in Europe, at times in the frontlines but more often in support and logistics roles. Mechanised transport was still not extremely reliable during WWII, and War-driven shortages in material meant that mules became a cost-effective means to lug heavy loads. Indian soldiers excelled in the handling of animals, and formed the backbone of logistics operations in Europe.

Forgotten heroes

Despite their pivotal contributions, Indian soldiers are not nearly as important a part of the public memory of the two World Wars as they should be. There are multiple reasons for this.

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First is the racism that was pervasive at the time of the wars, and has continued to shape how history has been written ever since. Put simply, most narratives of the World Wars are extremely Eurocentric, and even when the colonies contributions are remembered, White soldiers — like the Australian and New Zealander Anzacs in Gallipoli — get far more attention than Black and Brown troops.

Second, as Ghee Bowman, author of The Indian Contingent: The Forgotten Muslim Soldiers of the Battle of Dunkirk, told the BBC: “The story of these soldiers and their comrades is one of the great untold stories of the war” perhaps because “they were involved in the business of supply, not front-line fighting.”

Third, and perhaps the most important, Indian troops fighting in the World Wars have never received much attention at home. This is because they do not easily fit into the nationalist narrative that has been central to how India remembers its colonial past — unlike say Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Fauj which was fighting British Indian troops in the Northeast.

As Shashi Tharoor wrote about Indian participation in WWI in an article for the BBC: “Losing your life or limb in a foreign war fought at the behest of your colonial rulers was an occupational hazard — it did not qualify to be hailed as a form of national service.”

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This is an updated version of an article originally published in 2022.