Families of Asian soldiers who died fighting for Britain welcome commemoration

The issue of “pervasive racism” was raised through a war graves inquiry which was set up following the Channel 4 documentary Unremembered in 2019, which was presented by Labour MP David Lammy.

Some troops were commemorated collectively or their names were recorded in registers, while their white counterparts had headstones.

The report found that at least 116,000 casualties from the First World War, most of whom were of African, Indian or Egyptian origin, “were not commemorated by name or possibly not commemorated at all”. But that figure could be as high as 350,000, it said.

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Surinder Singh, president of Glasgow Gurdwara Guru Granth Sahib, said: “One hundred per cent, this is to be welcomed and Sikhs’ sacrifice should be recognised.

“It’s not just Sikhs, anybody who has died should be recognised.

“Sikhs were a very important part of the British Army, and we all know of the Battle of Saragarhi in Afghanistan in 1897 when 21 Sikhs fought against 10,000 Afghans, and there have been films made on that.

“The Sikhs were very loyal and very important, as were the Gurkha regiment. A lot of Sikh soldiers died.

“I have no idea why they weren’t recognised at the time. I suppose it was the British government decision at the time, and they should have done that, they should have had them recognised.’’

One such brave Sikh was soldier Naik Gian Singh.

Naik Gian Singh won a Victoria Cross in the Second World War fighting for Britain, and his son Charanjit Singh Sangha, from Newton Mearns near Glasgow, keeps his story alive.

His father took on the Japanese single-handedly and managed to secure an anti-tank gun and position and kill 20 enemy troops. His father had matter-of-factly said: “I am going to die now, so I might as well do something.”

Sangha said that his father, who died in 1996, would have welcomed the recognition that has finally come the way of soldiers from the Empire.

He said: “If you will look at the numbers in the British Army who fought for the British Raj, about one and a half million people in Burma or in the western world, then this makes you sad and depressed.

“My dad used to talk about this and about what great soldiers they were. And in my dad’s regiment there were four Victoria Crosses.

“Omitting their names, then, anybody would feel let down by the people in charge.”

Sangha believes it is no excuse to cite cultural differences and the reported difficulty in the chronicling of names as an excuse.

He said: “That could be the reason but that should not have happened. Nobody will accept that in today’s society that I cannot pronounce your name so your name should not be on the list.

“That’s not acceptable. If I can’t pronounce your name I will ask will you please tell me how to do it?”

Hindus, too, took a heavy brunt of the casualties fighting for Britain.

Umesh Sharma, of the Hindu Council of UK, also welcomed the acknowledgement of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) that a wrong had been done and that they would now address it.

He said: “It was quite overdue. We are happy that even after such a long time they have come to the right decision.

“This will give more inspiration for a younger generation to join the army here.

“They will feel comfortable that the efforts of their ancestors have been recognised.

“There are still families who have memories of their grandparents and family members who have given their lives in the various wars and I think this is a step in the right direction.”

Sharma was at pains, too, to emphasise the importance Hindus placed on the “Mother Country” of Britain.

He added: “They made a major contribution because at that time they felt they were fighting for their own country at that time. They were not thinking that Britain was a separate country.

“As far as soldiers were concerned, they happily fought for the king at that time.”

Sharma believes that this is an important admission on the part of the CWGC and added: “This is a step in the right direction.

“It will restore confidence of a fairer society where, regardless of your origin, your contribution is recognised regardless of from where you are.”

British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said the Commonwealth War Graves Commission would now:

l Search in the historical record for inequalities in commemoration and act on what is found;

l Renew its commitment to equality in commemoration by building physical or digital commemorative structures;

l Use its online presence and wider education activities to reach out to all the communities of the former British Empire touched by the two world wars to make sure their hidden history is brought to life;

l And, over the next six months, assemble a global and diverse community of experts to help make this happen.

Historian Professor David Olusoga, whose TV company produced Unremembered, believes this has been a sad episode of British history.

He added: “If the Commonwealth War Graves Commission had set up a committee and discovered that 100,000 white British soldiers lay in mass graves – unmarked, uncommemorated – and the documentation proved that that had been deliberate, what would they do?”

Six million soldiers from the British Empire served in the First World War.