We get a lot of questions and messages on Twitter via @SikhsAtWar
One such person is Marika Pirie from Canada, who shared with us this rare postcard showing a British and Indian soldier.
The individual on the right is a Sikh, the beard and turban certainly show this to be the case. But the chakkar on the turban seems more crescent shaped that circular - highly likely a mistake on the part of the artist.
If you have any images you'd like to share with us on this blog - please do so via dothyphen1 @gmail.com
We've had fantastic feedback from many of you on our new trailer (above) for our forthcoming film "Indians in the Trenches". The film depicts the real life experiences of those who fought during World War One - told by amateur actors narrating the real letters sent betweem 1914 - 18.
Telling the story through the actual words written by those who experienced the war was important for us, as it meant we could harness the truth of their emotions and sentiments. The letters tell us a lot about the state of mind of the soldiers - from those who missed their family and India, to those who were proud of doing their part in the war. There were also those who saw horrific things and wanted the madness to end. In depicting the film we wanted it to be as real as possible and the letters enabled us to achieve that in ways that any other type of script could not.
To ensure we did the story justice, the authenticity of the period uniforms was a crucial element of our depiction. We were pleased to have with us Edwin Field (above) from the Die Hards Re-enactment group who not only curated the look of the soldiers but was a font of knowledge for us to understand more about the kit the soldiers had.
Prior to the shoot, I'd spent quite a lot of time researching what Indians wore in the trenches, but seeing for myself the various items of clothing was important - and I want to share that with you with hopes that you'll be inspired to find out more or utilise this post as a resource.
Indians arrived in France in Khaki Drill. This is because the soldiers wore KD in India and commanders had thought the Indians would be deployed to Egypt. But Indian Expeditionary Force A which set out in August 1914 had a different purpose, to help reinforce the defence on the western front and stop the Germans reaching the Cinque ports.
And so Indians arrived wearing this cotton khaki in France, a light dress which was unsuitable for the cold conditions of a European winter. Their kit contained a great coat, which was the only warm item of clothing they had.
The Indians fought in this kit in cold conditions - but despite being badly equipped it did not stop them from some daring feats of bravery in the trenches and in fighting the Germans. In 1914-15 alone 53 Indian Order of Merit and 6 Military Cross medals were rewarded to Sikhs in particular (research courtesy of Narindar Dhesi's "Sikh Soldier").
By mid-1915, the shirts were replaced with thicker jackets, as seen on the left modeled by Joban Singh from the "Indians in the Trenches" film,as photographed by the Wedshot team. But this mattered to little to many of the soldiers as Indian infantry units were removed from the western front and redeployed in arena's including Mesopotamia.
By the end of 1915, the cavalry units which remained in France were issued woolen clothes for the harsh winters. Cavalrymen would stay and fight until the end of the conflict.
There is also a difference in the kit of Native Indian officers and other ranks, with the former being issued Sam Browne equipment and tending to have larger turbans. Harmeet Singh Bharaj, on the left, is depicting a Risaldar in July 1917 so is seen with a lighter khaki jacket with 1903 pattern leather belt pouches and a handgun.
Understanding the various uniform changes makes a difference when looking at images of Indians in general from the First World War for it enables researchers to see which year they are from - and understand how those fighting were equipped.
We certainly relied on such images in our filmmaking, but learnt a lot from Edwin about spotting the difference, such as the thinner shirts having 2 pockets and the thicker jackets 4. Knowing that the Indians deployed to the western front began the conflict ill-equipped is a well known fact, but as better kit was supplied to them so too was the realisation that they were there for longer than they might have expected.
The Sikhs were the most visible of the soldiers deployed in every arena of the war. While orders went out for helmets to be worn by Indian soldiers to protect from shrapnel, it was recognised at once that this would not work for the Sikhs whose turban remains a fundamental part of their identity. Sikhs wore their turbans in conflict, although images of the conflict show non-Sikh cavalrymen wearing turbans in apparent combat, for the Sikhs it was a strict adherence and a sign of the pride in their faith.
Despite some images of the era showing otherwise, regimental cap badges too were worn on the turban in the trenches too. This came as a surprise to us, as in combat having a metallic item which reflects light and shines would give away the position of a soldier. I can only think that the while Sikhs maintained the dress code and chakkar on the turban with pride and in defiance of the enemy, it would be sensible to assume these were removed for night time or more covert operations.
Finally, many Indian soldiers who were injured in France and Flanders were brought over to England to recover at Brighton Pavillion. The black and white photos of the time hide it well, but the period dress of a hospital patient is very surprising too: a white shirt, red tie and blue jacket and trousers was worn by them. Azadbir Singh Atwal on the left demonstrates this, with a rather worn out turban in this scene.
In all, the uniforms of the period evolved somewhat as the needs of the Indian soldiers became apparent.
It was an amazing experience working with young volunteers who had hardly any acting experience - but who felt the power of the letters sent from the trenches. In coaching the actors and providing the motivation for their words it began clear to me what the overriding feelings and sentiments were of those who fought.
In our next post, I'll go into more details about the psyche of the Indians in the trenches - and why it was belief in their martial traditions that kept many Sikhs in high spirits at the hardest of times.
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Recent posts on popular social media groups such as "Great Sikh Battles" got me thinking that a blog about writing this post about the Turbans worn in the British Indian Army.
As the author of "Turbanology: Guide to Sikh Identity" it irks me that when talking about the Sikh contribution - researchers and writers often make the mistake of counting anyone who is a 'Singh' or has a turban as a Sikh, thus exaggerating the numbers of those who served. This doesn't help our understanding of the conflict nor the sacrifices of our ancestors.
The turban is fundamentally a part of Sikh identity - it encases uncut hair on the head, and for men is complimented by an unshorn beard. The hair is a sacred symbol, one of the 5 K's and which all Sikhs keep in accordance with the will of God.
But the turban is not a solely Sikh symbol - it is associated with the east and shared with many other faiths and cultures across Asia. This is best seen in India where the turban is worn by many non-Sikhs.
Turning to the period of Empire, Sikh soldiers were distinguishable by their turbans and uncut beards. But all British Indian regiments embraced the turban as the primary ceremonial form of regimental headdress worn by all ranks regardless of faith. Even British officers donned the turban.
During conflicts such as the Great War, many Indians would switch their turbans for helmets for combat - but the Sikhs were afforded the respect and dignity of always maintaining their dastaar and thus their faith and identity was represented even in battle.
But when we see images of these conflicts, many are confused by who the turban-wearing Indians are, so this blog is designed to shed light on this - and we can do so by looking at the style of turbans in question.
So what were there different turban styles. Here are some examples:
L - R: Sikh with 24th Punjabi / (Hindu) Jatt with 12th Pioneers / Punjabi Muslim
L - R: Rajputa Muslim with 128th Pioneers / Afridi with 24th Punjabis
British Indian regiments during the time of Empire were organised on a class-based system. While some were solely Sikh, Rajput or Brahmin regiments - others had a mix of squadrons or companies of different races.
For example - the 36th Sikhs, famed for it's defence of Samana and heroics at Saragahi, was a regiment based wholly of Sikhs. While the 27th Punjabis, who achieved battle honours in China, Afghanistan and Burma; was a mixture of Sikh, Hindu Dogra, Punjabi Muslim and Pathan companies.
The classes that made up British Indian regiments in 1914 were:
Sikh, (Hindu) Dogra, (Hindu) Jatt, Punjabi Hindu, Brahmin, Punjabi Muslim, Rajputana Muslim, Dekhani Muslim, Pathan, Hazaras, Afridi, Orakzais, Khattaks
Sikhs were further organised into: Jatt, non-Jatt, Lobana, Mazbi & Ramdasia squadrons or companies. This was not because the British embraced the caste system but rather because of the prowess in various arms of the classes. We will leave further discussion of this to a future post.
While turbans are not the same in how they are tied, we can certainly see similarities in how tthe various races tied their turbans which lends us to be able to analyse photos and say with some credibility who they belong to.
If you have any real images of British Indians in turbans please do share on this post thread, and let's see if we can spot which race the soldiers belong to.
We tasked our favourite artist Jag Lall to create a new logo for the "Sikhs At War" project.
We went through a long procedure to iron out the best motif - debating what we wanted to depict in order to show the shared British-Sikh history and inspire others to feel proud about their connection and service during the Great War.
Below are some of the design concepts Jag came up with, which we creatively discussed:
The common theme was the chakkar / silver circle. This denotes the oneness with God that Sikhs believe in - reflected within the kara or iron bracelet that forms one of the 5 K's which all Sikhs wear.
The Sikh soldier too is represented - in memory of the countless tens of thousands who fought for freedom and against tyranny in every arena of the Great War. The soldiers turban is large, this was the only defence Sikhs had in war and they'd often find bullets within them! The beard appears trimmed but isn't - Sikhs did not cut their hair even in combat; but the beard was kept tied up to stop it jamming in the rifle.
We debated about whether to keep the Union Jack flag and Nishaan Sahib - but in our final choice we were won over by simplicity as we didn't feel the need to make this extroversial gesture.
Our final choice for our logo is the final one above - image 6.
We feel this pays tribute to the memory of Sikhs during the Great War - please do comment and add your thoughts.
