Battle for Recognition

Written and directed by London-based Jay Singh Sohal, the 13-minute film was shot in a studio in Birmingham. The film consists of a series of monologues by nine actors who read out excerpts from a collection of letters that were sent back to loved ones in India by Sikh soldiers who fought on the Western Front between 1914 to 1918. “The frankness and innocence of the letters is what caught my attention. They were written by soldiers with little education, who did not understand why the war had started and the various alliances that existed. But they had a strong belief and faith in what they were doing,” says Sohal. The letters are extracts from Indian Voices of the Great War, a book by military historian David Omissi, that will be published this month.

A third generation British-Indian, Sohal launched a website Sikhs@War four years ago to raise awareness about the contribution of the Sikh community in both the World Wars. Indians in the Trenches is the latest in a series of short films as part of the initiative.

Through the passionate monologues, the film gives an insight into the minds of the soldiers in the Sikh regiments  —  the confusion they felt at being in a foreign country, their descriptions of the fighting, their hardships and their belief in martyrdom as a righteous deed. “Despite being only two per cent of the population in a then-undivided India, Sikhs constituted 20 per cent of the British Indian army. But sometime after Independence, their significance was lost,” says the 31-year-old, a former journalist. Mostly written in Gurmukhi, Urdu and Hindi, many of the letters went through censors before being sent to their families. Sohal’s research for the film was extensive. He studied the soldiers, the places they fought in such as Jerusalem, East Africa, Egypt and Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq) apart from Europe — and how many gallantry awards they won. “Twenty-nine per cent of the Indian Order of Merit (IOM) medals awarded to Indians were given to the Sikhs. Twenty two Sikh soldiers
received the Military Cross,” he says.

He hopes that the film inspires young British-Indians to reflect on their history. To this end, he is working towards launching a campaign to build a lasting memorial for Sikh soldiers in Britain.

shikha.kumar@expressindia.com