Contribution of Muslim Soliders of India in World War 1 || and Some Censorship stories.

It is a little known fact that 20% of British Empire recruits were actually Muslims. An unbelievable commitment and sacrifice was done.

“ If you don’t know history, then you don’t know anything. You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree."
Michael Crichton

The growth of the xenophobia and ‘religious’ extremism is at its peak, we can see all around us. A border line is being sketch by extremists between Islam and " the west" or a Muslim and a Hindu or Buddhist (as in India or Myanmar, Gujarat riots of 2002 or 2016 Rohingya persecution in Myanmar are recent examples), which is getting even deeper and broader. But history has something else to say, Thousands of unseen letters discovered by British Scholar Dr. Islam Issa, range from amusing to poignant.

After investigating personal letters, historic archives, diaries and census reports, scholar Islam Issa has determined that some 400,000 Muslim Soldiers from India fought for Britain in WW1, in addition to a further 280,000 Algerians, Moroccans and Tunisians who fought for the allies. At least 89,000 Muslims were recorded as having given their lives for war. (source: http://www.bmhc.org.uk/storiesofsacrificeexhibition)

Among the personal diaries are numerous heart-warming accounts of European soldiers benefiting from natural medicines and treatments learned from their Muslim comrades. There are accounts of Muslim, Christian and Jewish soldiers fighting united, side-by-side; sharing their experiences and accommodating each other’s cultures, music, gastronomy and religious practices, despite the difficult conditions in the trenches. Even in those times of wars people stood by each other. Sacrifices soldier of teaches even if in worst times everyone can have compassion and respect why not in good times?

(source: http://www.bmhc.org.uk

Furthermore, what will also be learnt is the honorable ways in which priests, rabbis and imams went out of their way to learn, Arabic, Hebrew, English and French, in order to accommodate religious burials of the dead on the battle front.

According to the scholar, millions of letters were exchanged every week and almost 3,75,000 of those letters went through a careful process of censorship. Detailed reports and translated extracts of letters would be compiled by the chief censor every month to be analysed. These reports were categorized by faith and ethnicity, like Punjabi Mausalman or Sikh, instead of by regiment.

We can find a variety of stories ranging in letters from personal to about their surroundings in war.

A soldier named SAS Abdul Said, about the cleanliness standards followed in England. “Every shop in this country is so arranged that one is delighted to look at them… Every shopkeeper tries especially to keep his shop spick and span and everything is in perfect order. Whether you buy much or little it is properly wrapped up, and if you tell the shopman to send it to your house you have only to give him your address and he delivers it.”
Source: http://www.storiesofsacrifice.org.uk/

Nottingham Evening Post, 14thAugust 1915(The Woking Muslim Mission)
Source: http://www.storiesofsacrifice.org.uk/

The exhibit by Issa, also focuses on the self-censorship practiced by some Indian soldiers, to avoid revealing details in letters that might cause their families to worry and gruesome details which would work adversely for the war at home.

The website tells the story of one such soldier:

“One Pathan soldier, named Shahab Khan, of the Meerut Division Signalling Coy, was serving in France when he wrote a long letter to his brother Abdulla Khan of the 112th Infantry. The letter was full of names – first he describes a village quarrel, and then the litigation that follows it. But it aroused the censor’s suspicion because Khan kept mentioning that he ‘cannot write about the war’, and was blocked with the comment: ‘This letter is really a clever piece of work’. The censor reveals that the code ‘lies in the first letters of the names given’, so ‘Jullal Khan’ meant ‘Germany’, ‘Ahmad Din’ was ‘Austria’, ‘Rahmat Khan’ was ‘Russia’, ‘Baraket Ali’ was ‘Belgium’, ‘Sarwar Khan’ was ‘Serbia’, and so on. The censor concludes: ‘If the story be re-read in the light of this interpretation it will be seen to be a very fair account of the war up to date’. ”
Source:https://scroll.in/magazine/824595/from-trenches-to-london-streets-what-indian-muslim-soldiers-wrote-home-about-during-world-war

The more we dig into Issa research more , the more he realized the different roles that the Indian Muslim soldiers had played in World War I – trench builders, camel riders, doctors.

More we think about war more we can understand, that much more than ideology, leader or resources, war is about sacrifice an individual did and for what motive? a better future, a more peaceful and healthy society. Original ground on which wars and battles are won, are scarifies of individual they always need to be paid respect. Such one was by Muslims from all over world in first world war.

Thanks
innocent abroad

Without these sources it would not be possible for me even get aware of such great sacrifice:
http://www.storiesofsacrifice.org.uk
http://www.bmhc.org.uk/storiesofsacrificeexhibition